Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are comparing and contrasting if you will, Re-Entry permits as issued by the US Immigration service and comparing those with Re-Entry permits as issued by the Thai Immigration service. I actually did a video on this within the first few months of doing videos actually; I will try to dig out the link. I apologize for the audio in those original videos because we were just getting started but you can also see we were a little more amateur back then; of course I haven't changed that much we have still got the same background. I am not trying to not trying to gussy anything up around here, just getting the information out. But yeah that video is one of the first videos I was ever heavily roasted on actually in the comments because it was a little convoluted. For people that weren't sort of inside and understood the sort of details of Re-Entry Permits it made probably very little sense quite honestly. I had to hone my sort of style after that to kind of remember that people who are watching these videos, not only are they not experts in Immigration, Thai or American, but even where they have a basic understanding of either system, they are not in tune with the finer points of Re-Entry Permits. 

Long story short, Re-Entry Permits, I am going to take this purely from the context of K-1, K-3, CR-1 and IR-1 Visas, so the family based visas to take you or loved one to the United States. In the case of the K-1 we have discussed before what is called Advance Parole. Advance Parole is a travel document one can obtain that will allow someone to leave the United States while an adjustment of status is pending so basically it's a travel document, so in a sense it is a Re-Entry Permit. It preserves your status if you leave the country. It preserves your Immigration status to come back and continue processing your adjustment of status to Lawful Permanent Residence while you are abroad. This is very similar to how Re-Entry Permits are issued in Thailand. So each and every Non-Immigrant Visa and keep in mind the K-1 in an American context is also a Non-Immigrant Visa, that's worth noting but with regard to Non-Immigrant Visa extensions applied for here in Thailand, so like an O Retirement Visa extensions or a B Visa extension, the extension alone does not allow you to leave the country and simultaneously preserve your status. So in Thailand, in order to leave Thailand and return without the need if you will, or I should say without extinguishing your extension status, you need to obtain a Re-Entry permit in much the same way a K-1 Visa holder who has a pending Adjustment of Status needs to obtain Advance Parole before leaving the United States and thereby preserving their status in the system. 

The thing to further take away from this video is that Immigrant spouses, so that is the IR-1 or CR-1, they enter the United States and are stamped at entry with their I-51 stamp. Now their actual Green Card, the I-51 card, is issued shortly thereafter, usually within 6 weeks it is mailed out but they are actually stamped in with Lawful Permanent Residence. Lawful permanent residents do not need re-entry permits to the United States per se. Now that said as we have discussed in many other videos, it may be a good idea to obtain a re-entry permit which is a little passport looking book kind of thing, it may be a good idea to obtain a re-entry permit so as to forestall the possibility that if one is abroad for a prolonged period of time upon re-entry a customs of Border Protection Officer for example raises the issue of whether or not one has abandoned their Permanent Residence and I have discussed that issue in other videos directly. 

Long story short, yes there are Re-Entry Permits in the American System, yes there are Re-Entry Permits in the Thai Immigration system. They are slightly different and they differ in their scope and in their operationality if you will, depending on the type of underlying Visa you have in either the United States or the Kingdom of Thailand.