Reentry Permits

Can someone remind me about Rentry Permits

My 1 year class O non imm retirement visa will expire late December. I think Reentry Permits will be the way to go this year.

Are these for me?

I will want multiple.

Will they be good for a year from the expiration date of my current visa?

Do I get these at Suan Phlu before departure in earl December?

Would you recommend I get them on arrival late January at Suwannaphoum airport?

Any advice, pitfalls to watch out for would bwe appreciated.

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or even probably the one you have got, remember if you leave the country and enter again around the last couple of days of expiration of the actual visa, then in effect you have an extra 3 months.

DELETED

ArNoID you are getting confused

Remember, it is Adenoids you're addressing - confusion is a permanent state of mind. Isn't he banned from Thaivisa or somewhere for making inane and inaccurate comments?

Arnold, the situation is different depending on exactly what visa you have:

(1) Non-Immigrant O-A visa obtained in your home country prior to entry into Thailand
(2) an extension of an existing visa for purpose of retirement in Thailand, obtained in Thailand

In the first case (O-A visa issued in home country), you are entitled to a one-year permission-to-stay stamp each time you enter Thailand. After the last entry into Thailand prior to the expiration of the O-A visa and you are granted a permission-to-stay for one-year from that date of entry (even though it may be way beyond the expiration date of the O-A visa), to "keep the permission-to-stay alive" and be able to exit/re-enter Thailand after the exipiration date of your O-A visa, you'd need a re-entry permit. Example:

• O-A visa issued in home country 01 November 2006, expires 31 October 2007.
  
  You leave Thailand and re-enter on 30 October 2007, and are stamped with a permission-to-stay until 29 October 2008.
  
  If you do NOT obtain a re-entry permit before your next trip out of Thailand, you need a new visa to re-enter Thailand.
  
  If you DO obtain a re-entry permit before your next trip out of Thailand, you can re-enter on current visa/re-entry permit and stay until 29 October 2008.

In the second case (retirement extension issued in Thailand) your re-entry permit expires concurrent with the expiration of the visa, so you need to get both (a new extension and new re-entry permit) each year.

So, if you get an O-A visa in your home country, you can actually stretch it to (almost) two years without getting a new visa. That's the bonus of it. The downside is you need to go home to get it, and need to submit to police and medical clearance.

Arnold, the situation is different depending on exactly what visa you have:

(1) Non-Immigrant O-A visa obtained in your home country prior to entry into Thailand
(2) an extension of an existing visa for purpose of retirement in Thailand, obtained in Thailand

In the first case (O-A visa issued in home country), you are entitled to a one-year permission-to-stay stamp each time you enter Thailand. After the last entry into Thailand prior to the expiration of the O-A visa and you are granted a permission-to-stay for one-year from that date of entry (even though it may be way beyond the expiration date of the O-A visa), to "keep the permission-to-stay alive" and be able to exit/re-enter Thailand after the exipiration date of your O-A visa, you'd need a re-entry permit. Example:

• O-A visa issued in home country 01 November 2006, expires 31 October 2007.
  
  You leave Thailand and re-enter on 30 October 2007, and are stamped with a permission-to-stay until 29 October 2008.
  
  If you do NOT obtain a re-entry permit before your next trip out of Thailand, you need a new visa to re-enter Thailand.
  
  If you DO obtain a re-entry permit before your next trip out of Thailand, you can re-enter on current visa/re-entry permit and stay until 29 October 2008.

In the second case (retirement extension issued in Thailand) your re-entry permit expires concurrent with the expiration of the visa, so you need to get both (a new extension and new re-entry permit) each year.

So, if you get an O-A visa in your home country, you can actually stretch it to (almost) two years without getting a new visa. That's the bonus of it. The downside is you need to go home to get it, and need to submit to police and medical clearance.

Yes, it's my first OA visa that expires in December. Sorry not to note that above.

so i should:
before departure get reentry permit in bkk
depart thailand
1st oa visa expires
return to thailand on reentry permit (stay ountil Dec '08?)
through Dec '08 get reentry permit eachtime i leave?

so i should:
before departure get reentry permit in bkk
depart thailand
1st oa visa expires
return to thailand on reentry permit (stay ountil Dec '08?)
through Dec '08 get reentry permit eachtime i leave?

If I understand your situation correctly:

• (a) you possess an O-A visa issued in a consulate/embassy in your home country,
  (b) you are departing Thailand early December,
  (c) your visa expires late December, and
  (d) you won't re-enter until after that.

If all the above is correct, yes, get the re-entry permit (B1000 for single, and B3800 for multiple re-entry) before you leave in early December. Then you will be able to reenter after the end of December without needing a new visa nor extension, even though the visa itself has expired.

With the re-entry permit, you will be able to re-enter Thailand anytime up to your last stamped permission-to-stay. That permission to stay will be one year from the last entry into Thailand that you made before obtaining the re-entry permit.

If you are not planning to exit/reenter Thailand between now and the early-December departure, then you can look at your current entry stamp to see when your permission-to-stay will expire (= one year from your current entry to Thailand.)

If you want to maximize your time on the current O-A visa, you can do a quick border run before your planned early-December trip. Say, if you did a border run on 30 November 2007, re-entering Thailand on that date, then you will be stamped with a permission-to-stay until 29 November 2008. Then when you went to Suan Phlu (if you are in BKK ... you can do it at any Thai Immigrations office) to get the re-entry permit, then you would be set up until 29 November next year.

To folks giving him well-intended and valid advice on extending/renewing an extension, please be aware that since he has an O-A visa obtained outside of Thailand in his home country, it is a totally different situation than if he were on an extension issued in Thailand, or on most other types of visas issued outside Thailand. Most of the advice given above is valid, but does not apply to him. Possessing a Non-Immigrant O-A visa is unique in being able to grant the holder almost two years' use on a single visa. [edited for clarity]

The Re Entry Permit is NOT a visa.

You must have a valid visa.

You need a reentry permit for your return from any trip away from Thailand (you can get single or multiple entries), BUT the reentry permit is only valid while you visa is valid, It does not give you any extension to your visa.

You need to
1) Renew your visa before it expires - officially know as "extending your permission to stay on a retirement visa".
2) After renewing, get a reentry permit

Fattman, you *can* use a re-entry permit to re-enter Thailand after the expiration date of the visa.

Feel free to verify that with the experts on ThaiVisa.com where I first learned of this, or with an Immigrations Officer.

I recently advised a friend of mine of the process to get the re-entry permit to "extend" his O-A visa for (almost) another full year. He went to Suan Phlu and "played it dumb" with the Immigraitons officer there, and she fully corroborated my advice: advising him NOT to apply for an extension, but to merely get a re-entry permit to keep the permission-to-stay alive. He proceeded to get the re-entry permit, and it is indeed stamped as valid until one-year after his last entry stamp to Thailand before the O-A visa expired.

Extensions issued in Thailand are a totally different animal. Any single-entry visa issued outside of Thailand is a different animal. Other multiple-entry visas issued outside of Thailand are similar to the O-A, but most (all?) of them only have a three-month permission-to-stay, whereas the O-A has a twelve-month permission-to-stay stamped upon each entry before the expiration date.

[Smiles]

. . . . and talking about re-entries and extensions and enhancements and botox injections etc etc etc: found this interesting snippet on Baht-Stop this morning:

New changes to Visa rules - Oct. 21, 2007

" ... Pattaya Immigration bureau has introduced the following rules regarding one year VisaтАЩs and extensions of VisaтАЩs On Arrival, and 60 day Tourist Visa's.

Applicants for one year retirement visas must now show and make copies of the back and front of any currently valid ATM or credit card issued in their name. The copies must be signed by the applicant. It does not matter whether the card was issued in Thailand or overseas.

This is intended as a further check on an applicant's financial health.

1. Applicants for extensions on short visas, for example a request for the maximum allowed 7 days on a тАЬVisa on ArrivalтАЭ or for the maximum 30 days on a тАЬ60 day Tourist VisaтАЭ issued abroad, must now show proof their onward travel plans after the extension has expired, by having in their possession an air or electronic airline ticket, or a bus ticket with clear dates printed on it. This requirement is to assure Immigration that the visa holder does indeed plan to leave Thailand at the expiration of his extension ... "

( http://www.pattayacityexpatsclub.com/mo ... e&sid=1039 )

Not sure whether the Expat Club of Pattaya is a 'Speaker of Record', but there you have it.


Cheers ...

Thanks GWM, Smiles. All that seems to explain what's confusing elsewhere like Thai Visa when I'm never sure where the writer is coming from (O, OA, etc.).

So I will reenter again for the last time this year on that visa about Nov. 16, 2007 giving me til Nov 15, 2008 to use reentry permits. If I reenter one last time Nov. 14, 2008 would I get 30 days, or have to extend my stay after 1 day? It could be two years plus 30 days?