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Thai Visa Extension Denial During COVID-19 Amnesty

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai visa extension denial specifically in the context of this COVID-19 Amnesty. 

For those who are unaware, The Thai Government pursuant to the Emergency Decree, the Immigration Department promulgated an announcement that allows basically a Thai Visa Amnesty; so an Amnesty from overstaying in Thailand is basically what it amounts to.  At first it seemed to only  apply to tourists and then it was later amended and  not it is pretty clear that it applies to Non-immigrant visas as well.

The thing to take away from this video is we are talking specifically about Non-immigrant visas where there has been denial of an Extension of Stay. Now understand notwithstanding this Amnesty, those folks who have a Non-immigrant visa, for example a Non-immigrant O Visa based on marriage, or a Thai Business Visa Extension or a Thai Retirement Visa extension, all of those folks should still be continuing to extend their visas notwithstanding the Amnesty. If they chose not to they can fall into the Amnesty and it will be “no harm, no foul” if they decide to leave at the end of the Amnesty which is currently presupposed to be July 31st 2020.

But what happens if you are trying to extend your visa and I think this is probably an issue more in Thai Business Visa categories compared to O Visa or Retirement Visa, but I can see either happening. Actually retirees, this could prove to be to be a real issue with respect to depleted funds in a Thai Bank Account due to dealing with COVID-19 issues. It may not be possible to extend their retiree status. And let me be clear before I proceed. Those folks who are having issues with denial of an extension during this period, if you have concerns about this it is probably not a terrible to contact a legal professional to get some insight because this can have tremendous ramifications notwithstanding the immediate circumstances will not result in overstay, the immediate legal posture of things is there is an Amnesty.

For example, let’s say a Thai Business Visa extension application is denied. First of all there is an appeal process; one of these denials could be appealed. The second thing to keep in mind is that the Amnesty will allow you not to fall out of status and thereby end up in overstay, but understand that the  Amnesty only goes, at least at the time of this video, until July 31st so it will require you to leave.

Those who are having issues extending their stay, be it Retiree status, Marriage Visa status, B Visa status which are going to be the most commonly sought types of visas at least under current circumstances, if an extension looks like it is going to be denied, it is probably not a terrible idea to contact a legal professional. Yes, the Amnesty will provide temporary relief because when the visa status comes to an end, the Amnesty kicks in and folks are at that point relieved of any burden with respect to overstay or fine but it can have long range ramifications and for those who want to live in Thailand out past the end of the Amnesty, rectifying a visa extension denial or forestalling one is probably a good idea before it becomes an issue.