Non-immigrant Visa Renewal O

I went to the Hua Hin immigration office on Friday, October 22 to renew my O visa

This was my second renewal for a year since after having an OA visa for two years, I made a stay in Laos last year which allowed me to obtain this O visa from the Thai embassy in Vientiane with which I returned to Thailand again (validity 90 days) and last year already in October I had this visa renewed for one year.

Last year, I relied on the documents indicated to me on the Internet and obviously I was missing some documents, I had to go back and forth before I could finalise this renewal.

To avoid these inconveniences this year, I had taken care last year to very carefully note all the documents that had been requested from me by the immigration officer.

And this year, I had therefore scrupulously prepared these documents and no others.

Below is the list of documents I had brought.

But read the following list carefully, it’s the most interesting.

Documents provided :

– Copy of the different pages of the passport

– Original E-visa

– TM 7 (application for renewal)

– Copy of the yellow book (Tabien Baan)

– Copy of the rental contract

– Copy Thailand Arrival Card

– Passport photos

– Book bank

– Statements (1-year account statements showing the 65,000 thb monthly)

– Affidavit (certificate of income countersigned by the consul)

This is exactly the list of documents that I was asked for last year.

Having read on the Internet that this could possibly be requested, I had added a situation plan of my housing, made on free paper.

What is very interesting is that by chance I came across the same immigration officer as last year.

She started by giving me back the original visa, the copy of the digital entry card, the rental contract and the yellow book by telling me that she did not need it.

As you know, it’s useless to discuss in a Thai administration office, but we don’t do it again, I still asked why it wasn’t the same documents as last year that were required, I should have suspected the answer : "because it changed"

In the documents I had brought, some were not judged compliant. I had the passport copies made in the small Bluport copy shop but for some reason that escapes me, they had slightly enlarged the photocopies and she verified that it was strictly the same size as the passport pages. So it is necessary to redo the copies.

What we did at the photocopying office which is on site at immigration.

My first advice is therefore to make all the copies in this place since this lady knows exactly what the immigration officers expect and this kind of small inconvenience does not happen.

This year, the immigration officer indicated that she attached the affidavit to the file because I had brought it, but that it was not worth making this document next year, she told me that it no longer had value for the French, which was not the case for other nationalities.

She simply said "with France something has changed", I didn’t ask any more questions it’s useless.

More annoying, she told me that the account statements were not enough and that she was missing two documents from the bank :

– A certificate indicating that I was indeed the holder of an account with them and that it was in business today on the date of my visa extension application

– A certificate indicating that funds of 65,000 bahts had been paid from an account abroad, every month for one year

On the other hand, I had updated my Book Bank a few days before but it was not suitable because the update must be from the same day of the request.

So I went to Bangkok Bank. I started by making a transfer of 100 baht to my account which allowed me to actually have a dated update.

Then, I asked a bank employee for the two certificates. She signed me the first certificate (cost 100 bahts) but she told me that since I had the one-year bank statements it was enough and that she could not make me the second certificate.

Back at the immigration office, I give the officer the missing documents and give him the answer of the bank employee. She asks me : "The most important word for you is that of the bank employee or that of the immigration officer ? ”

In these cases, the only thing to do is to apologise and return to the bank what I did.

With the help of my Thai partner, we explained the problem to another employee who asked us for an hour to be able to realise this certificate. Again why does it take an hour I don’t know and I don’t want to know.

We took the opportunity to go eat a piece, and when we returned the certificate was waiting for us for an additional 500 baths.

The file being complete, it was enough to wait a few minutes upstairs and I came out with my visa extended by one year.

So I updated my list of necessary documents for next year. A priori, the visit to the consulate will no longer be necessary. On the other hand, I will ask for the bank documents a week before so as not to have any worries.

Note that if it is quite possible to print your account statements yourself, it is better to do it regularly because if you ask the bank for them at the last moment, there is a delay (at least at Bangkok Bank) of seven days to have them. So I had printed them all myself directly in my banking application.

Good luck, it’s only one day a year, it’s okay.