Popular Post ukrules Posted September 21, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted September 21, 2020 (edited) On 9/19/2020 at 5:08 PM, Jon1 said: The Elite staff told me that it is a recent change that those with expired membership can't renew the visa inside Thailand even when you have a valid permission to stay stamp. They said that this rule is from the immigration, but I have doubts about whether this is true. There were noises on this forum and other places about this 'recent change' as long ago as August to October 2019. At that time I was here and on the 6th year based on my first 5 year TE membership. When I renewed the TE membership I took a late evening flight to Cambodia and flew back the next morning, the new visa was inserted on arrival. I guess the timing (dumb luck) was really on my side as I could have waited until this year to do the renewal but I decided to get it out of the way before Christmas / New Year due to having visitors arriving between Jan/Feb. So, I knew about this issue well before November 2019 which is when I did the renewal and I only did the overnight trip to Cambodia in order to avoid going to Chaeng Wattana where I knew for sure based on what others have posted there is a rogue senior immigration officer who does everything within his power make problems for foreigners, presumably because he hates us. There was lots of talk about this immigration officer who stamped someone onto overstay at Chaeng Wattana in the same situation, they fined him and made him leave the country then return to get his new visa inserted. I remember thinking 'best to avoid Chaeng Wattana for the new visa - do it at the airport instead'. Something very noticeable is that when I did the renewal of the lapsed membership it took only 2 or 3 days to process which was much quicker than I had anticipated. I renewed my membership about 5 or 6 months into the 6th year. Edited September 21, 2020 by ukrules 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon1 Posted September 21, 2020 Author Share Posted September 21, 2020 Thanks ukrules, very helpful information! Seems like maybe it's best to avoid going for TE visa at this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinktoomuch Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 On 9/19/2020 at 7:13 PM, krey said: ah yes that did sound confusing it has been a while since I did it, I did a post about it in the past 1. I left Thailand in October of 2019 and came back at that point I got the 1 year stamp that brought me to Oct 2020, at that time I was happy with that as I was only planning on staying to the summer of 2020 2. My Thai Elite expired in February of 2020 3. I had one side saying that when the Thai Elite expires (the visa) then I would be on overstay even if I had a permission to stay stamp. Thai Elite said this, visa agencies said this, some members in forums said this and even some immigration officers said it at the local office in chiang mai. However, many people were doing it with no problems and some forum members said it was okay etc 4. So I left the day before my visa expired to basically test it out, I asked immigration in Chiang Mai airport if I leave now and return after my Thai Elite visa expires will my permission of stay to Oct 2020 still be vaild, they said it would and I would need a re entry permit because I was coming in on an expired Thai Elite, 5. So basically I was testing out if the permission of stay would work even with a Expired Visa and it turned out it did work, my back up plan was to get a on arrival tourist visa and extend it a couple of times, but did not have to do that. Then covid hit and cancelled my flights etc and decided it was safer to stay here longer, and it got to a point where I decided I would like to stay another year but Problem now is changing over to a new visa inside the country I am still considered Thai Elite since it was my last valid visa so I got to follow the rules of that particular visa, so it was either buying another one, or leaving the country and coming back and getting a different type, which was and I believe still not possible. Thanks for clarifying. I can understand them not wanting to renew an expired membership without the applicant going through the full process again but It's a shame that from some reports they now seem to be actively trying to stop people from receiving the full term of their final 1 year entry stamp if it exceeds the end date of the visa. If they succeed then, to the best of my knowledge, this would be the only Thai visa that operates this way (although the O-A visa is now only supposed to allow people to enter for the validity of their insurance, which in some cases has no end date). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robblok Posted September 22, 2020 Share Posted September 22, 2020 10 hours ago, Jon1 said: My membership expired on February. Yes I get it.. also i was going for the last extra year too however it did not happen because of covid. Normally you would have been ok but not now. I get their strict interpretation. Nobody said it was 6 years many thought we could get 6 years but was not a sure thing. Sorry to hear your in trouble like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redpill17 Posted September 22, 2020 Share Posted September 22, 2020 12 hours ago, Jon1 said: This is exactly what I'm thinking about. If I buy a new membership and the membership is active, shouldn't I be able to extend the permission to stay even though TE visa is expired? If someone has knowledge if there is some special law regulating TE visas and especially that the visa itself, not only the membership has to be valid for the period of extension, would be very interested to know. I think this is something I'll try to find out with the immigration and TE office if I'm still going to try to stay in Thailand with TE visa at this time. Jon, you can try emailing them that if you're forced to leave the country, you won't buy the membership again. Maybe the bosses will see this and come to senses ???? Did you communicate with sales team or someone else? That said, you'll probably have to clear some overstay after 26th. When I got my visa last month, they were already quite busy and setting appointments at CW two weeks in advance. This may be another reason for such answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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