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Foreigners can apply for visa extensions after July 31

Long queues of foreign nationals at the Immigration Bureau office at the Government Complex in Nonthaburi on March 23, seeking visa extensions after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted their travel plans. The bureau later declared a “visa amnesty” until July 31 to reduce the risk of crowding at its offices. (File photo by Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)

Foreign visitors still stranded in the kingdom by the Covid-19 pandemic will be allowed to apply for an extended short stay after their visas expire on July 31, the Immigration Bureau chief said on Friday.

Foreign tourists who are unable to leave Thailand would be given a grace period from Aug 1 to Sept 26 to apply to stay for a specified period, said Pol Lt Gen Sompong Chingduang, the bureau commissioner. However, if they do not obtain extensions and are still in the country after Sept 26, they would face legal action and be blacklisted.

He urged foreigners to contact the bureau as soon as possible to prepare for their next steps in order to avoid crowding as the Sept 26 deadline approached.

Foreign visitors must specify their reasons and submit necessary documents when seeking to renew short-term visas, which will be granted for 30 days, he said.

"If they are unable to return because there are no flights or due to lockdown measures in their countries, they must submit proof. The granting of a short-stay visa will be made on a case-by-case basis," Pol Lt Gen Sompong said during a visit to Phuket, a province with a high number of stranded foreigners. 

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He said the bureau had asked the Council of State about the proposed short stay and it had advised that the Interior Ministry could issue an announcement. 

He said the Interior Ministry's visa relief measures for foreign visitors would be submitted to the cabinet for approval next Tuesday. The bureau would later issue guidelines on how to apply for a visa extension.

He said those who planned to return to their home countries did not need to contact the bureau but also had to leave Thailand by Sept 26.

He estimated that between 300,000 and 400,000 foreigners were stranded in the kingdom due to the lockdown. 

The government earlier automatically extended their visas until July 31, but they must still inform authorities where they are staying.

Bangkok Post

2 hours ago, boydeste said:

You may want to edit that year mate!

2013 lol

Always in the past used QATAR for flying out of MAN to BKK and never had a problem but this year with having the little one in tow i feel it would be better to fly into Heathrow book a hotel for over tight the the next day fly with EVA direct to BKK

I hope the money goes into the beach and not the walk way in the same way its waisted in Pattaya.

The beach road was going to be world class, started around 2023  2013 and its still going on now fixing sections multiple times that was not even built good at all.

here we go another sand reclaim, how about reclaiming the land with will resolve the problem 

59 minutes ago, adel3bob said:

Hi , am new here . A Thailand lover . Been there for over than 6 or 7 times and am looking forward to visit it again .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome to the forum @adel3bob you only have 9 more post to go and your forum status will change to 10 and lots more will open up on the forum to you.

We hop you enjoy the forum.. 👍

10 hours ago, boydeste said:

Good luck mate.

10 hours ago, fygjam said:

Hope it goes well for you.

 

10 hours ago, Horizondave said:

Chat when you are out mate, good luck today.

35 minutes ago, Krapow said:

Hoping to see pics on Facebook of Lanza at home eating a fry up tomorrow morning!

 

Well i've been putting off what to say on the forum really with todays happenings at the hospital.

The procedure was a Coeliac nerve block which I was told after my last MRI scan that everything would be ok and they expected all good results, so on that information from the doctor I decided to sign away and get it done hoping it would cut down on the amount of medication I'm taking every day for pain relief which is hammering my organs and digestive system.

Well I was led to believe it would be a win win which out any problems but the only thing is on how its done without a anaesthetic into the upper spine and to burn the nerves with alcohol which would last around 4 to 6 months.

So I had to lay flat face down without any anaesthetic into the upper spine and i've never in my whole life been in so much pain.

They removed me off the bed in the theatre and give me oxygen and drugs on two IV lines..

I've never felt so sick and ill in my life and i'll never have this done again as it never even worked, intact im in more pain than before and with i didn't even bother with it.

I'm so glad to be home and in my bed with family...

It makes you think sometimes is it worth it are just leaving it....

Packing a bag, hopefully it will not be needed.

In hospital today for my nerves blocking in my spine, fingers crossed it goes to plan and I can get off the pain killers.

6 minutes ago, mikey said:

I like to add SriRacha sauce and heat them in the oven rather than microwave

That SriRacha sauce seams to be getting popular even the celeb chefs are now using it on tv.

Lamb shank again tonight but bloody lovely:-

1 hour ago, galenkia said:

Pork chop, truffeled cauliflower cheese and carrots. 

Yeah like your carrots mate ..👍

7 minutes ago, Yesitisdakid said:

Some Udon street food tonight

 

Had some nice pizza's from this little place in Udon:-

He's a nice guy and would often sit down and chat away to me..

1 minute ago, KhunDon said:

Every Thai I’ve seen in most restaurants take pics of their meals and more and more foreigners do it as well. 
Wonder what their problem is with free advertising? Of course, if their food is crap I’d understand it. 🤔

Had a few good meals there no problems at all and yes to my knowledge its farang owed too.. 

I would like to know why the signs are placed on the tables, is it over bad publicity...?

If it was my places i'd accept all kind of feed back..

Taken from Facebook:-

7 hours ago, KhunDon said:

I’ve seen every episode, 10 times. 🤗

Try “The Night Garden” that always sent my son to sleep. 👍

Yes Don, spent many an evening with him watching the night garden on youtube and Bing for breakfast too.. 👍

1 hour ago, dcfc2007 said:

If social media and the news is anything to go by, the situation on Koh Chang, Koh samui and Phuket is much worse than in Pattaya. 

Yes my friends son is married to a Thai wife and they run a little business just something to keep them going and will never make loads of money but they have a good return and quality of life and they are both back here now in the UK with the business in Koh Chang wrapped up for the foreseeable future.

He is back on his tools and she is working in a restaurant and they don't know what the future holds for there business on Koh Chang.

Just seen this on Pattaya one news but I guess we all know already...

Nearly one-third of tourism-related businesses ‘may shut down permanently’

About one-third of tourism business operators in Thailand will run out of liquidity to keep their businesses afloat in the second half of 2020, Tourism Council of Thailand president Chairat Trirattanajarasporn has warned.

“The impact of Covid-19 will become most serious in the third quarter this year after many operators had tried to cut costs by letting some of their employees go, but after more than a million positions cut the situation still hasn’t improved, as no foreign tourists are allowed into the country yet,” he said.

“The council estimates that in the next three months up to 30 per cent of tourism-related businesses in Thailand are at risk of shutting down permanently.”

Chairat added that some operators are starting to sell their establishments, such as hotels, resorts, restaurants and gift shops to investors who wish to turn them into other business. “However, since the real estate business is also affected by the economic crisis, the hope of selling their properties is still bleak for these owners,” he added.

“The council had a meeting with Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday (July 10) and proposed five measures to help tourism business operators,” said Chairat. “These measures are: providing soft loans to tourism entrepreneurs; considering moving the schedule up to open the country to foreign tourists under a practice similar to the travel bubble scheme; offering discount on electricity bills, one of the main costs of hotel operators; having the Social Security Office extend the compensation payment to temporarily unemployed staff from June to December, and reducing the employer’s contribution to Social Security Fund from 4 percent to 1 percent.”

Chairat also added that the Tourism Council of Thailand has predicted the income from foreign tourists in 2020 will drop significantly from Bt2.2 trillion last year to only around Bt600 billion.

Salmon en croute for dinner:-

4 hours ago, Thai Spice said:

Delicate subject.... 

Better I dont answer.

 

I personally think it's disgusting how the authorities have not even stepped in to help it's own people and farang companies are doing the hand outs and it's not just Pattaya it's all over Thailand and it's not even made it onto media tv...

4 hours ago, Sangsom said:

Good on you, given that Thais love ‘free stuff’ how do you separate those from the ones that genuinely need the help?

I guess the very needy once wait in line all morning and don't do nothing but wait for the food parcel from the like of Tommy Dee's business.

It's a real shame that the authorities have not even stepped in to help in any way what so ever and its been left up to the Farang companies to feed people without any income.

On 7/9/2020 at 5:19 PM, Krapow said:

The gyms opening on the 25th, so I can get stuck into stealing my daughter's home made chocolate cake 😋

Never mind the gym mate crack on with that cake... 😁

12 minutes ago, monkeyman said:

Okay, I can see it would be more trouble than it's worth.

Do you know if the old ones are still available anywhere? I've looked around but without success. 

I remember last time they took me ages to find on the net and i'm sure there's about 2 to 3 zip files and this is part of the problem with the names and the format.

I'll do some digging around to see if I can find then and if so i'll add the links here.

Never been to that part of Thailand, i think its not too far from Kanchanaburi

Some great shots and thanks for posting

15 minutes ago, monkeyman said:

Could we get rid of all the new ones then and put the old ones back? They were so much better. 

lol that's what created all the work last time and to get it working again I needed to do a fresh install of the software.

So I created a separate category and uploaded them and some of them didn't upload so I decided to leave it alone...

You could say Don't try to fix what is not broken...!