Retirement Extension for Dummies 2017 – Buriram Immigration

[PhilJ]

Excellent! Hear anything about on-line 90-day reporting? thx

[urleft]

Excellent! Hear anything about on-line 90-day reporting? thx

No change that I have heard, check out this thread: 
http://www.buriramexpats.com/forum/index.php/topic,9394.0.html

[PhilJ]

Thanks again! Just thought there might be news-just wishful thinking!!!

[fishy]

Did my yearly extension last week. Only minor hiccup was having two Bank Books as one was full. Even though the transaction dates on my account showed a withdrawal the day the book was full and another withdrawal the very next day which showed in the new book. Balances added up?? I was told it would be better to do another transaction the same day I received the new Bank book which would for some reason show that the bank book was following on?? This is Thailand..   

[urleft]

The bank book issues are why I just use an embassy statement.  Three times I have tried to use bank books and 2 turned into the big problems and revisits to the bank.  The 3rd became unusable because I had a joint account which is unacceptable to Thailand Immigration.  So for me it's just easier to get at embassy in Bangkok.  Since the embassy income statement is good for 6 months I most likely will be in Bangkok for some reason anyway.  Note that I stated this last time my statement was dated August and I got the extension this January with no income issues.

[Freddy]

I have found Buriram Immigration far easier than KCI to deal with but have never had a problem with bank books at either. I'm fortunate I guess that I'm able to leave the required 8,000,000 untouched in a separate savings account and simply update the book at the same time I get the letter from the bank.
My latest extension (Dec) I also presented my current account book with copies to demonstrate living expenses In/out and they didn't even look, just handed it back to me. My savings book with the 800,000 was accepted with only the single update from the previous day and the addition of the years interest being the transaction they want to see. Simplest way if you are able to do it.

[DeputyDavid]

Well color me a dummy.

Went to Buriram immigration today for simple 90 day report and re entry permit which is really a visa but more on that in a bit.

Backstory:  I got a non-o A based on retirement two years ago. My last entry on that visa was May last year. Last December I traveled and the immigration officer gave me another year. I questioned it. He got a bit testy and said yes one year. Go.

So in March I went to do my 90 day at Buriram and again questioned the one year permission to stay and again how dare I question them. I gave you one year. Go!

Back to today. 90 day report and entry visa.

WAIT!  Your visa expired 2 days ago. I reminded him of our last conversation.

Big boss comes over. Everyone laughs. Not sure at what. Boss asked if I was married. I said yes. Why didn?t you bring wife?  No need to.

That didn?t sit well. He said go get wife proof of funds in bank or income letter. I don?t have affidavit just letter from retirement. Ok bring it. See you Monday. I said no see you in an hour!

Back to immigration with wife and documents in 45 minutes. They were shocked.

Without all of the details here is how it turned out:

Even though date in passport is wrong it is my responsibility. I was asked which visa number I put on my arrival card. I pointed to the number on the original visa. WRONG!  You must use the VISA number on the reentry VISA so it is definitely your fault!

So.....  overstay fine and stamp in passport. 1000 baht
60 day extension 1900 baht
Service fee 1000 baht no receipt for this one!

So I?ll do an extension in about 55 days.

Just beware and check the dates and be more persistent than I was if there is an error.

I was informed that a letter from the embassy is no longer sufficient proof. They want documents from the bank showing transfers of money into Thailand!

Ok time for a scotch and some ibuprofen!!!

Oh and they really take offense to taking photos of documents!  He shouldn?t have left the desk!!!!

[iammike]

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

I always write the Re-Entry permits number (which is very short for Buriram as it's something like xxx/61 (with 61 being the year))  on the TM.6 form, but I also write (Re-Entry) after that, fortunately never had a problem.

[DeputyDavid]

I?ve made a few trips and always used the big visa number and no one corrected me. Wish they had.

[DeputyDavid]

Actually the reason for posting this is so others don?t make the same mistakes I did. Immigration was actually very cordial and saw I was getting frustrated and did a good job of keeping things on a calm level. I have always been treated well there.  I think they gave me a little leeway this time. Thank goodness for my wife and her meticulous record keeping. She just grabbed the correct folder and off we went back to immigration.

[iammike]

I?ve made a few trips and always used the big visa number and no one corrected me. Wish they had.

Those IO's at the Border couldn't care less. If they see that your Visa is still valid then it's oke for them. You really have to point that out to them unfortunately. They also don't know that you are on a extension of stay (Retirement/Marriage or something else).

You only would have gotten "grief" from them when arriving and your Visa had expired.

Indeed lucky with your wife had the correct stuff, we usually need a couple of hours / days to sort everything out biggrin

[Starman]

Well color me a dummy.

Went to Buriram immigration today for simple 90 day report and re entry permit which is really a visa but more on that in a bit.

Backstory:  I got a non-o A based on retirement two years ago. My last entry on that visa was May last year. Last December I traveled and the immigration officer gave me another year. I questioned it. He got a bit testy and said yes one year. Go.

So in March I went to do my 90 day at Buriram and again questioned the one year permission to stay and again how dare I question them. I gave you one year. Go!

Back to today. 90 day report and entry visa.

WAIT!  Your visa expired 2 days ago. I reminded him of our last conversation.

Big boss comes over. Everyone laughs. Not sure at what. Boss asked if I was married. I said yes. Why didn?t you bring wife?  No need to.

That didn?t sit well. He said go get wife proof of funds in bank or income letter. I don?t have affidavit just letter from retirement. Ok bring it. See you Monday. I said no see you in an hour!

Back to immigration with wife and documents in 45 minutes. They were shocked.

Without all of the details here is how it turned out:

Even though date in passport is wrong it is my responsibility. I was asked which visa number I put on my arrival card. I pointed to the number on the original visa. WRONG!  You must use the VISA number on the reentry VISA so it is definitely your fault!

So.....  overstay fine and stamp in passport. 1000 baht
60 day extension 1900 baht
Service fee 1000 baht no receipt for this one!

So I?ll do an extension in about 55 days.

Just beware and check the dates and be more persistent than I was if there is an error.

I was informed that a letter from the embassy is no longer sufficient proof. They want documents from the bank showing transfers of money into Thailand!

Ok time for a scotch and some ibuprofen!!!

Oh and they really take offense to taking photos of documents!  He shouldn?t have left the desk!!!!

A bit confusing because of incorrect use of terminology.

So..... it appears that you were on a Non OA. That means that you get a 1 year entry. You then leave on the day before or on "enter before date" and get another year. That appears to be what you did. You got the visa in May and then traveled and returned in May, obviously before the final "enter before date". At this point your OA visa is invalid and it should have been stamped "used" by the IO upon your second entry. At this point you are on a permission to stay.

You then traveled in December. You needed to get a re entry permit, not a visa, as your OA was out of date and you could not use it to enter again. This is where mistakes were made.

You entered the OA number on your arrival card. The IO saw this but did not notice that your OA had expired, had it been stamped "Used" when you entered in May? Maybe you actually entered a in May but before the OA actually did expire so it wasn't stamped. You should have used the re entry permit number.

You were then on an incorrect stamp. A trip to Buriram Immigration at that point would have been a good idea. Showing the May stamp, the expiry of the OA date and the incorrect entry stamp.

As it turns out you did get a good response from Buriram Immigration and your wife's diligence in keeping all of the documents safe should be commended. Although not sure why you would not keep them safe yourself.

We all live and learn.

[DeputyDavid]

Yes Starman I agree. We really both have access to the files but she organizes them.  Kind of her contribution. I always thought there would eventually be an issue that?s why I asked immigration in March. But today they caught the mistake. I?m glad I went today instead of Monday as it would have cost me more.

Funny thing is they still didn’t stamp it as used.

[iammike]

<snip>
I was informed that a letter from the embassy is no longer sufficient proof. They want documents from the bank showing transfers of money into Thailand!

Question please, what documents would that be ?? I guess your Bank Book would be sufficient evidence as it shows when you have an Incoming Transfer from abroad or ........ ?

[DeputyDavid]

I was told providing bank book is not sufficient.  They want a statement from the bank indicating international transfers to the account of 65,000 per month. I said I transfer once a quarter and they said that was ok. Term he used was TTI OR something like that. I am going to the branch I opened the account with and ask them for a statement of deposits.