There's great, great news for expats on non-immigrant O and O-A visas who require a Thailand re-entry permit.
You can now get them as a matter of course at Bangkok's main airport, Suvarnabhumi. Yes, you don't have to make the arduous journey out to the main immigration headquarters on Chaeng Wattana -- if you live in BKK.
A news item dated Dec. 7, 2010 on the airport's web site details the new service -- I should say resumed service. Previously, you could only get these on an emergency basis. Previous to that, you could always get a re-entry permit as a matter of course. Now the latter service is back.
But this is important: On the day of your re-entry permit application, you have to have a boarding pass for a flight that day.
You may ask, what is a re-entry permit? On a one-year non-immigrant visa, you leave and re-enter Thailand as many times as you wish, as long as you have the multi-entry option. As you re-enter the country within the one-year visa period, each time you collect a "permission to stay" stamp. It is dated one year down the road from re-entry date . This, in effect, gives you two years of use of the O-A visa. Another way of looking at it is that the stamp keeps your visa alive. (After that you apply for yearly extensions of stay, but that's another topic.)
But as your visa heads toward its inevitable expiration, there may be a time when you will not return to the Kingdom until after your visa expires, but before the permission to stay date stamp expires. In this case, you must get a re-entry permit (single or multiple) in order to keep your permission to stay stamp alive. If you do not get the re-entry permit, you have to start the non-immigrant visa application process all over again.
The news has also been confirmed by members on www.thaivisa.com who have gone through the process since the news release last week.
I think the Immigration Bureau of Thailand and the airport authority need to be congratulated for bringing back a much needed service. It's also a sensible service that fits the needs of frequent air travellers who can now happily skip the extra task of visiting the local immigration bureau before flying out of the country for work, vacations or for returns to the homeland.
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