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Non-O retirement extension at Jomtien this week

Toy Boy

By Toy Boy
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No drama, but I thought people might like to know that nothing much has changed, at least wrt getting an annual extension to a Non-O visa based on retirement. I did it on Thursday.

This is my twelfth one so I know what paperwork is needed, and it hasn’t changed in years. I use the 800K Baht in the bank route which is the simplest method. The only new wrinkle is, as has been reported elsewhere, you now have to return after 3 months with copies of your passport and latest visa, plus a copy of the updated passbook showing that the money is still there. I put it in an SCB account 12 years ago and haven’t touched it since, so that requirement doesn’t worry me at all.

There’s a sign saying that you need proof of medical insurance for extensions based on a Non-OA, but it doesn’t apply – not yet, anyway – to extensions of a Non-O.

For proof of address I simply gave them a copy of my TOT internet/landline bill, as I have for the last eight years and they were happy with it.

They have the same system as this time last year of doing 50 extensions in the morning and 50 in the afternoon. At least this gives you a rough idea of when your number will come up. I was there at 9:00 AM and got number 49, so knew it would be roughly lunchtime. I went home, had breakfast, faffed around on the PC, then went back in plenty of time and was eventually called at 12:10 PM. In the three hours between getting the ticket and being called  I was only in Immigration for around 30 minutes.

I went back on Friday afternoon and picked the passport up after 2:00, also as usual. 

So, no panic and no complaints, apart from the extra visit after three months nothing has changed, at least for Non-O extensions.

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The other positive thing I forgot to mention was that there was no mention of TM30. I travel back to the UK twice a year and have never completed a TM30. The impression I get is that once you start filling in the TM30 form then you're stuck with doing it, but if you've never bothered then - at the moment, at least - they're not insisting on it.

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16 hours ago, Bazle said:

Thanks, Toy Boy.

When I went in May, I think I got there at about 10:15am, and was out at about 11am (including time to go and do a photocopy I had overlooked), so I'm a bit shocked about your processing time.

For the first 10 years of getting the retirement extensions that was my experience too. Around 1:30 I'd go to the SCB branch on Beach Road by Soi 5, get the letter and photocopies of the bankbook, then wander up to Immigration, get a number, and usually within 30 minutes I'd be seen to. Easy peasy.

Then last year they started with this 50-morning/50-afternoon quota. I don't know if there's just an exceptionally large number of expats wanting to get renewals these days in December, or if the quota system is to try and keep overall numbers down in the Immigration office as it's very busy at this time of the year. It's OK as long as you know about it, but I have to admit that last year I was a bit discombobulated (really!) when I turned up at 2:00 and the girl at the reception desk laughed and basically told me to bog off and come back at 8:00 the next morning to get a number in the queue.

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On 12/14/2019 at 4:18 PM, Toy Boy said:

No drama, but I thought people might like to know that nothing much has changed, at least wrt getting an annual extension to a Non-O visa based on retirement. I did it on Thursday.

 

I was going to ask about which office you used... but that's in the title.

 

odd about the 50 limit in the morning.. when I did it last year they collected the paperwork in the morning and you came back the next day for the extension.

it was a rapid process no matter what your queue number.

 

 

 

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15 hours ago, tommy dee said:

the limits are st, but only slow down ion days after national hols usually.  this past 2 weeks the place  has rammed the gills, staff eating at their desks not taking a break even/

Yeah, that's right, and the busiest desk of the lot is desk 8, retirement extensions. Before noon, all the other desks had finished their workload (the reception stops issuing tickets at 11:30) and the only "customers" left were the ones milling around desk 8. All morning they'd just had one guy, who dresses like a civilian rather than a cop, processing all the paperwork. He was doing his best, but most people seem to be unable to put together the required paperwork (something a well-organised 8 year old could do, to be honest) , or even to glue a photo onto their TM7, so this poor chap was having to make extra photocopies (they don't send you outside any more to do that, it takes too long), discard excess copies, glue on photos, and answer a million questions from people who kept on interrupting him. He was doing his best but was totally swamped.

One elderly farang had been waiting his turn in the queue, but the paperwork guy took one look at his documents and turned him away, I've no idea what that was about, but he didn't look very happy. Then there was another big English guy who'd been hanging around desk 8 quite a while, he lost his temper a bit and butted in quite aggressively, something about this being his third day at Immigration trying to get sorted out, but he was soon shown the door too.

One hopeless farang optimist who'd been sitting there when I returned around 11:40 had number 876, so I guess he'd be seen to between 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon. He was told to leave and come back but insisted on staying. Daft. As I was the penultimate person in the morning quota and left there between 12:15 and 12:20, I guess they must have finished by 12:30, which would have given the guy doing all the work enough time to eat something before the afternoon madness began.

I much preferred it when, even in December, you could just waltz in, get a number, hang around 20 or 30 minutes, then waltz back out again with your number to come back the next day to collect the passport, but there's no easy way to change the renewal date which is linked to your original Non-O visa. I thought about doing it on Christmas Day as the office is MUCH quieter then, but my extension expires on 1st January and I just feel that it would be leaving things a bit late in case there were complications that needed to be sorted out. No matter, I know the new system now and can work around it.

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59 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

Thanks @Toy Boy for the detailed report on the extension process now. Makes me a bit happier that I used an agent for the first time in ten years for my extension in November. I live near Klang and Sukhumvit and would be a bit put off having to make two trips to immigration in one day.

Yeah, I understand, and including going back the following day to pick up the passport it was actually three trips in two days. I only live around 1500 m away and drink in the Rompho bar beers every afternoon so it's no problem for me to zip there and back, but if you live out at Mabprachan it would be a different matter.

I don't know how long they keep the quota system running as I don't go to Immigration that often, but I guess it's used during the busiest periods of December and January, so if you're renewing outside that time frame then it's hopefully a case of all done in 30 minutes or so, as it used to be in December.

I posted this mainly because there have been so many contradictory posts on Thai Visa about things like the health insurance and TM30 that I thought it might reassure fellow BM's who are a bit worried at what they will be asked for when they renew. There's no need to worry as nothing important has changed, at least not at the moment, but who knows what the silly sausages will do in the coming years.

As one poster on Thai Visa eloquently put it, "It seems that most long-term visas in Thailand are built on sand."

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On 12/15/2019 at 10:04 AM, Toy Boy said:

The other positive thing I forgot to mention was that there was no mention of TM30. I travel back to the UK twice a year and have never completed a TM30. The impression I get is that once you start filling in the TM30 form then you're stuck with doing it, but if you've never bothered then - at the moment, at least - they're not insisting on it.

thanks for this happy to hear no TM30 needed

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23 hours ago, Toy Boy said:

 I thought about doing it on Christmas Day as the office is MUCH quieter then, but my extension expires on 1st January and I just feel that it would be leaving things a bit late in case there were complications that needed to be sorted out. No matter, I know the new system now and can work around it.

When I renew next year I am going to give myself two weeks before the extension expires to make my application.

On the face of it I have nothing to worry about with 800K on deposit ( albeit at a crap rate of interest) and all (currently) known supporting documentation available. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I thought this year and ended up having to resubmit through a trusted Thai Accountant contact.

How can anyone feel 100% confident everything will be okay when making the application ourselves?

Catch 22.

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37 minutes ago, Jambo said:

When I renew next year I am going to give myself two weeks before the extension expires to make my application.

On the face of it I have nothing to worry about with 800K on deposit ( albeit at a crap rate of interest) and all (currently) known supporting documentation available. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I thought this year and ended up having to resubmit through a trusted Thai Accountant contact.

How can anyone feel 100% confident everything will be okay when making the application ourselves?

Catch 22.

Yep, as I said in my post above:

As one poster on Thai Visa eloquently put it, "It seems that most long-term visas in Thailand are built on sand."

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