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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawThe TM8 Thai Re-Entry Permit Application Form in 2021

The TM8 Thai Re-Entry Permit Application Form in 2021

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thai Immigration Form, TM8 and this is officially titled Application for Re-Entry Permit into the Kingdom.

For those who are unaware, once you come into Thailand, if you go ahead and obtain an extension of status that is in a Non-Immigrant Visa context, so it is presumably a temporary extension; it happens in one year increments, if you obtain one of these and you wish to leave the Kingdom and preserve that status, you need to obtain a Re-entry Permit in order to preserve that status. Now to be clear this is different from a Certificate of Entry. I will get to that at the end of this video. 

Long story short, the TM8 form is the form that is used to go ahead and apply for a Re-Entry Permit in order to maintain one's status in extension status to maintain it while they are gone so that status does not expire. Now COVID-19 led to a lot of consternation with respect to this whole situation. Let's break that down a minute. If you were stuck abroad even if you had a re-entry permit and your underlying visa extension expired while you were abroad, it really did place those folks in a really bad situation. Namely they had to go ahead and just get a new visa to come back into Thailand and that could require further cost; it could be a real problem. As time went on, they started allowing those folks to come in if their Re-Entry Permit was still valid and the underlying Visa was still valid but some people just got caught out and it was just an unfortunate state of affairs arising from the facts associated with the response to COVID-19. But understand that there is a Re-entry Permit. It preserves your extension status in Thailand. 

Currently as of the time of this video, Certificates of Entry are also required for anyone looking to come into Thailand so those who are looking to come into Thailand even if you have a valid Re-Entry Permit you still need a Certificate of Entry and you have to deal with the Thai Embassy or Consulate in your jurisdiction in order to get one of those in order to enter Thailand. They are not the same thing. The TM8 form is the form associated with Thai Immigration here in the Kingdom; that is for Re-Entry Permits here in for those who are going to leave in order to maintain their status. On top of that, due to the COVID response, we have this presumably temporary regime where you also need a Certificate of Entry in order to get back into the Kingdom. We have done other videos on this channel including ones where we actually show that form. Again I will go ahead and put up this Re-Entry Permit form on this video so you can see it but understand Re-Entry Permit and Certificate of Entry are two different things.