Getting A 'REAL' ONE-YEAR 'VISA'

In love with Thailand? Want to stay here forever? Bored with visa runs?

Obtaining permission to stay in Thailand beyond the duration of your visa can be a fairly lengthy and complicated procedure; there are no shortcuts. The government has begun (quite rightly) to crack down on (a) people working in Thailand without permission - a criminal offence - and (b) people staying for long periods on an indefinite succession of 30 day 'visa-on-arrival' stamps. However, there are legal ways to extend your stay in Thailand. Not surprisingly, they involve more scrutiny of who you are and why you want to be here.

There are all kinds of esoteric and practical reasons that are accepted by the authorities as a reason to stay on longer-anything from being a film star to a missionary and much in between. For the purpose of this brief guide, we will confine ourselves to the circumstances which most commonly arise i.e. you come to Thailand, fall in love with the place and decide to settle here and get a job, start a business or retire. The first step to fulfillment of your dream is to get a visa.

Some definitions
A VISA is permission to enter Thailand for a stated number of days, granted by a Thai embassy or consulate outside the Kingdom. You cannot obtain a visa while in Thailand. Your visa may be single entry or multiple entry, the latter meaning you may leave and re-enter the country a stated number of times without applying for a new visa. This is often referred to, incorrectly, as a one-year visa; in fact, the maximum continuous stay in Thailand most kinds of visa is 90 days (Non-IM 'O-A' Long Stay is an exception).

A TEMPORARY EXTENSION OF STAY is granted by the Immigration Bureau under Section 35 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 and allows you to remain in Thailand for one year without leaving; in fact, with yearly renewals (subject to acceptance of your application) the holder of a Temporary Extension need never leave Thailand! Note however that, even if you fulfill all the criteria embodied in the Act and the current rules applicable, granting of permission is at the discretion of the relevant Immigration Officer. So, as always, it pays to be nice. There is no automatic right for a foreign national to be granted 'temporary stay'.

The right visa – get yourself a Non-IM
The most common kinds of visa are (a) Tourist, (b) Non-Immigrant (Non-IM – several classes) and (c) visa-on-arrival; the latter is not really a visa but a permission to enter the Kingdom for 30 days without a visa.

Neither a tourist visa, nor a 30-day 'no-visa' stamp in your passport, will enable you to apply for an extension of stay. You must have a Non-IM visa of some sort. This cannot be obtained within Thailand. Ideally, you should apply in your country of origin, but you can obtain one from most Thai Embassies or Consulates. The nearest to Thailand are: [embassies] Singapore, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Vientiane (Laos), [consulates] Savannakhet (Laos), Penang & Kota Bahru (Malaysia).

If you are making a special journey to one of these places to apply for your visa, check that (a) the consular office where you are headed is currently issuing Non-IM visas and (b) you have all the correct documents. If your application is incomplete in any way, you will be turned away and obliged to re-enter Thailand on a 30-day stamp – or go home!

Which Non-IM is the right one?
There are currently 10 different categories of Non-IM visa, the most-commonly held being 'B' (working) and 'O' (loosely referred to as a retirement visa), the most peculiarly named the Non-IM'IM' (government-type investment) and the one least people know about is the Non-IM'IB' (regular investment); this one means you can apply for a Non-IM visa (and therefore the rolling one-year temporary stay) if you buy a condominium worth 3m Baht or more.

However, note that voluntary (unpaid) work also requires a Non-IM visa, as does missionary work, study, journalism, film producing etc. Even superstars need a Non-IM, unless they’re simply here on vacation, although I doubt they find the process as arduous as most of us.

The documents required to get a Non-IM visa vary depending on the visa type, the most onerous being the 'working' visa. These include: [the obvious-applicable to all Non-IM applications] the visa fee, a passport with at least six months validity, 2 photos (hair is allowed but hats are not), adequate finance (around 20,000 Baht per body usually does the trick-but not for the 'retirement' visa ), a perfectly filled-out application form and [the more obscure] a massive stack of documents relating to the company that plans to employ you. The company will do this bit for you, but beware that nobody's perfect and many a 'straightforward' Non-IM visa run to Penang or similar has come to grief because of one missing bit of paper. It pays to make sure (politely) that your prospective employer's harassed clerical officer has double-and triple-checked everything before you head for the airport.

We don't have space here to list all the requirements for each category, but an excellent source of concise information is the Thai Embassy in UK's website: www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk Another source of information is www.thaivisa.com, although take note that the ‘information’ tends to be forum-based and anecdotal; a useful top-up on current practices, but no replacement for sound knowledge of the rules and procedures.

The next step
So, you've got your Non-IM visa and that’s it, right? Not quite. You've completed step one. You now need to start getting ready to apply for your Temporary Extension of Stay, which should be applied for about at least one week before your Non-IM visa expires. The documentation provided by the Immigration Bureau identifies the "Basis for Consideration" for each and every case. The first ‘basis’ in each case is: "The alien has obtained a temporary visa (Non-IM) and…"

More next month…
Check out the next (May) issue of Shop WINDOW on Lifestyle for exhaustive details of who is eligible to apply for a Temporary Extension of Stay, what other bases of consideration are applicable and the documentary support you will need for a successful application.

We have taken every pain to research this article and ensure its accuracy. However, the rules change frequently and different sources do sometimes give different answers. You should verify details independently before making any earth-shattering decisions.

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