Visa Extension over 50 to Support Thai Child (April 2007)
This is a true story of an expatriates experience to obtain a one year visa with no money in the bank.
Extension of Non Imm “O” based on Age Over 50 and Support of Thai Child

After an enjoyable visa run to Savannakhet, my wife suggested I go back and do an update and come back for another 3 months of wedded bliss. Being the detailed Bad Banking kind of person I am, I decided it was time to test the waters and try to get an extension of my Non Imm ”O” visa based on the new support of a Thai child clause. I have a British passport and have been a resident of Thailand since early 1988. Over the years I have had work permits and non imm “o” visas but always seemed to be overseas and lost out on the consecutive visas! At the moment I am a consultant and spend time in Europe working there, but not in Thailand.

As I am a masochist, and thanks to Sunbelt’s translation of the new act, it is very clearly spelled out in National Police Office Order 606/2006 that I was eligible to apply for, as the act says under :

“7.17 In case of the foreign national is the member of the Thai national’s family (Only for Father, Mother, Husband or Wife, ordinary child, adopted child or the child of the marriage couple.) Each time of permission shall be granted for the period not exceeding 1 year.”

7.17 (5) In the case of a parent, the said person must be 50 years of age or over;

It was very clear my situation fit the bill! I was turning the big 50 in the first week of April and my non imm “O” visa was expiring one the 17th of April!

Over the nearly 20 years of living in this country I have been to Soi Suan Plu many many times and have developed a friendship with 3 of the people who are the ones that actually sit at the desk and do the interview before recommending your extension.

In my present situation I thought of my old friend Officer Somchai* and went down on a Friday, 2 weeks before my 50th birthday, to make sure I was on track about the new extension law. Somchai is a very nice person who is always happy to see me! After the obligatory greetings, in Thai I said what is this new law about me using my son as a sponsor for 1 year visa extensions? His first reaction was is you wife dead or are you divorced. I said no it is this new law that lets me support my son, you know Order 606/2006 7.17 (5) that was issued last year says this can be done.

Big mistake! Khun Somchai like most of the people at immigration, it now seems are not fully conversant (read ignorant) with the new laws and do not understand how you fit in to them. So off we went to talk to another one of the front line officers that screen everyone visiting the dreaded room 101. Somchai gives his buddy the wrong info who says no you have to show the monthly income and that is the only option now open to you!!!!!

I realized by this time that I had done a no no and that was to ask someone who did not know the answer who had the wrong info, who then gave the wrong info to his buddy, who gave the wrong answer to me. Beware! At this point in time I could see myself sitting in Savannakhet drinking more large bottles of very good Lao Beer at 25 baht per bottle.

Wait a minute I don’t drink …. it interferes with my ability to calculate compound interest and thus diddle some poor widow of her due compound interest.

Let’s get out of here and look at the illustrious thaivisa.com website again!

After much study, it is not a figment of my compound interest banking imagination, it has been and can be done. Back I go again on the next Monday morning and this time I am all primed and prepared! I have the following documents:

1. Copy of the National Police Office Order 606/2006 in English and Thai
2. Passport and photocopies of main page, entry stamp page and visa page
3. Original Thai Birth Certificate of son and photocopies
4. Original Thai Marriage Certificate and photocopies
5,. Original Letter from doctor on Hospital Letter Head confirming he delivered my son
6. Copies of House Registration certificate of wife and son
7. Copy of wife’s Thai ID card

All photocopied documents need to be signed by the people they pertain to, thus legally verifying that they are true copies of genuine documents.

So the next Monday I go back again to Suan Plu and ignore dear fiend Somchai! I wander up to the counter and ask for an extension form for a non imm “O” visa. They give me a form and a queue number and I wait for about 30 mins for my turn.

Finally the waiting is over and by chance one of the very nice ladies I that has worked with me before is the one fielding my inquiry! I state to her I am going to be 50 in a short while and wish to apply for extension of my visa based on support of a Thai child. She kindly immediately confirms that yes this is possible can I see your passport and documentation.

I hand over the documents and wait with baited breath for her comment. She reads them and gets up and walks back to the next level of desk behind her and consults a senior for what seems about 5 hours and then returns after 2 minutes smiling. Yes she says all of your documents are in order can you please return the day after your birthday with your wife and son to do the extension.

I am shocked and taken aback and wonder how to thank God for his mercy in allowing such a simple process. I wai her and stumble out of immigration calling my wife at work to tell the good news.

This is the most painless extension preparation I have ever had to undergo!

The fateful day arrives and the whole family does the yellow shirt thing down to immigration. Get a queue number and sit for about 45 minutes while 15 other people get seen to.

Finally they call the number and we sally forth and sit down in front of the desk. One unanimous wai and a smile and a half joke about my son being too big. I explain in Thai with my wife’s support that I am applying for a visa under the retirement at 50 and support of Thai child condition of 606/2549 section 7.17 (5). She looks at us very blankly and says I can give you 60 days now or you will have to show 45,000 baht combined taxed monthly taxed income between you and then I can help you with a one year visa. My wife said it was obvious from what she said in Thai, that she was not at all aware of the conditions of the new law pertaining to support of a Thai child.

We say again there is a new law that was issued last year that allows a foreigner over 50 who is the parent of a Thai child to get a one year visa based on support of a Thai child. She seems amused at the thought and at that moment one of her colleagues walks by behind her desk. She offhandedly in a joking sort of way asks her if this is true? The officer says yes, if the child can be proven to be a Thai national, yes that is correct! Oh, our friendly officers say yes, of course the child is Thai; it is on his birth certificate in front of me;) Good face saving way of saying I am not a fool after all.

It is obvious that most of the front line officers in charge of dealing with you and I, in the day to day extension of visas STILL have no idea of the new laws pertaining to article 7.17 (5) and how they apply to your and my case!

When the penny dropped and she realized that it was possible, we were asked to pay the 1,900 baht fee and asked to have a seat while her senior did the final checking of our application documents. When I next saw the extension application form, it had “support of Thai Child” in Thai written in as the reason for extension on this section of the form.

About this time my wife was asked to sign a consent to sponsor form, the same form that she signed the last time she was my sponsor and we had to show 400,000 baht in the bank for a visa extension. All of these documents were given to a more senior officer and after 10 minutes I was personally summoned by her and asked several questions about the consent form. Things like what is your home phone number and what is the precise address of your residence, as my wife’s house registration like many Thais is at a different place to where we actually live. My son was than summoned and it seemed they wanted to see how he reacted to me as a father. Of course my 8 year old son just clung to dad and acted like any usual son when he has been in a tough situation for an hour or more, when can we go home? He wai’d the lady and we took our seats.

After I explained this, and the boss signed off on things, we were all summoned back to the initial officer and given a one month extension while the application was under consideration. As I was due to report for 90 days at this time the same officer also did this for me and gave me a nice shiny new reporting card.

During the time of my extension I noticed another gentleman with a child in tow and after introducing myself he also said he was changing over from a Non “B” to a Non “O” and would be applying under the support of Child 7.17 (5)!

Of course we left and went our own way to enjoy a holiday on the beach in Rayong to celebrate the extra month of family bliss and look forward to the next visit in 3 weeks to one month to get the final 8 months stamped in the passport.

I think the lessons to be learned from this extension process are:
1. Do your research on thaivisa.com very carefully
2. Go down to the local immigration office before you need to do the extension for a dry run, till you have everything okayed and in principle acceptable
3. Get an excess of documents prepared to support you extension and they will happy. Not enough and they will not be happy and delay things more
4. Present yourself well (dress, manner and attitude) and know what you want precisely
5. In a friendly and Thai way don’t take no for an answer but show a copy of the National Police Office Order 606/2006 in Thai with the relevant section highlighted
6. If the officer you are dealing with still doesn’t agree with you politely request, a more senior officials opinion and also show this officer the relevant section
7. Be thankful and show respect when you have been given an extension!

At this point in time I think it is appropriate for me to say thank you to George and the team at Sunbelt and thaivisa.com, for blazing the way ahead and being the ones who did it first and them told us all about it being possible. I think their support of this forum has more than any other thing, made visa extension more predictable and so life in Thailand a bit more pleasant.

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