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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawCan a 5 Year Thailand Elite Visa Be Used for 6 Years?

Can a 5 Year Thailand Elite Visa Be Used for 6 Years?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thailand Elite Visas and a question came up to me the other day which asked, "Can you use the Thailand Elite Visa status for 6 years?" and the answer is to the best of my knowledge, "Yes you could in theory gain maybe not six years exactly but nearly six years status by utilizing a Thailand Elite Visa." 

So let us be clear real quick. Thailand Elite, the program, there are various programs one can join but the minimal program if you will, the sort of foundational program is five years' Elite status and one can get a Visa. They can get a Thailand Elite Visa and that sticker will be issued with a 5-year validity. Now that visa is very similar in many ways to a Visa which was once rather frequently issued and is now issued with a great deal less frequency which is the multiple entry visa; either the O from marriage, or the B Visa. B Visas multiple-entry were once issued a great deal more frequently than they are now; in fact they are becoming almost rare. Those types of Visas were issued for a year and each time one travelled into the Kingdom they were granted 90 days of status. In the old days, with multiple entry visas, if you came in right before the Visa expired you would get an extra 90 days because Immigration would provide a 90-day status stamp and that 90 days would operate out past the expiration of the underlying visa itself; the expiration date on the sticker. Similarly with the Elite Card or the Elite Visa, the sticker is issued for 5 years but if one was to leave the country and come in a week prior to the expiration of the Visa, that individual would be granted a one-year stamp at entry and that would provide another year of lawful status from the time of that particular entry notwithstanding the fact that the underlying expiration date on the sticker had come up. The sticker is no longer relevant. It is the actual stamp that Immigration stamped that individual in with. So yes, in theory and I think as a practical matter, it is possible to get six years or nearly six years of lawful status from a single five-year Thailand Elite Visa.