Returning Expats & Dependents

[PeteC]

[caller]

Good to hear!

Enjoy your freedom (sort of)!

[HHTel]

After 8 and a half months stranded in the US, my daughter arrived back in Thailand a couple of hours ago.
Now she just has all the hassle of Covid test at the airport (She's already had Covid) and her 2 week holiday in quarantine, wherever that may be.

She told me that she was a little worried at Doha. While at the gate, half a dozen immigration officers arrived and rejected around 30 people from flying to BKK. She's no idea what the reason was.

[Dannie Boy]

The end of the tunnel is in sight!!


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[HHTel]

And long awaited relief from 'babysitting'!!

[HHTel]

Seems she's been lucky with quarantine. She's billeted in a 5* hotel in Pattaya, free of charge because she's Thai. Migrant, as a foreigner had to pay through the nose for his quarantine.

Citrus Grande Hotel

She's happy.

[migrant]

Great to hear!!

[PET]

If I am in the wrong section Mods please transfer this.
I have a UK friend returning to Thailand this week, and goes into 15 days isolation, he lives in Thailand and has an O visa for retirement purposes which is still valid. He is single and returned to UK in early summer and has now got all the papers to return. He has been given an OA visa from London and asks me the requirements to change this back to an O visa for retirement purposes. He has had the 800,000 Bht in his bank all the time he has been away.
Can you let me have the info he needs - it seems simple but one never knows with such immigration matters

[Dannie Boy]

I’ve never come across somebody with a valid O-A visa trying to convert it to an O visa / normally it’s a case of arriving on a 30 day visa exemption and then applying for an O visa.

Very early this year before the Covid pandemic, I asked immigration at Tha Yang what I would need to do to transfer from a 30 day entry to an O visa (I had an O-A and wanted to avoid taking out medical insurance) but they were most unhelpful. I got the distinct impression they were following instructions not to help farangs to change from O-A to O visa - I was told to come back when I returned from my overseas trip but then Covid struck and I never left Thailand so was forced to take out the medical insurance

Maybe others have specific experience and can answer your question


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[hhinner]

Why rush to change? The O-A gives a year's stay. Plenty of time to work out what's what before changing.

[oakdale160]

Cambodia story--An american Dr who does volunteer work at a clinic in Cambodia. He wanted to return for his usual 6 month stay. He was told he must have a valid negative covid test 72 hours before flying. That is not easy ,but after explaining to a hospital in the US he had the test and got the result in about 48 hours, Finalised his flight to PP. Arrived in PP after a 20 hour journey but now it was over 72h since the test. Refused entry and returned to the US on the same plane.

[HHTel]

That's crazy and against the rules. i.e.

"3.4 A medical certificate with a laboratory result indicating that COVID-19 is not detected by RT-PCR method, within 72 hours before departure."

Edit: Sorry, you're talking about Cambodia. The above rule is for Thailand.

[buksida]

VIRUS ROBS MANY EXPATS IN THAILAND THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS REUNIONS
For almost every year during the 10 years she’s lived in Thailand, American expat Aimee Seaman embarked on a 40-hour flight from Bangkok to her hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska to celebrate Christmas with her family.

“We always open Christmas stockings, go to the Christmas Eve service, and get new pyjamas,” she recalled wistfully. “We open presents on Christmas morning and bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then watch Christmas movies as the kids play with their new stuff.”

But like many other foreign nationals residing in Thailand, Seaman will have to skip the family get together this year, thanks to strict travel restrictions that remain in place amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“COVID is the reason I can’t go home, and that’s really sad,” she said. “I had plans to surprise my sister for her 40th birthday, and that’s been dumped into the ocean.”

Although the notion of being forced to spend Christmas in a relatively safe place like Thailand doesn’t seem to be a punishment – the kingdom has recorded 4,246 infections since the start of the year, a fraction of a daily count in many countries – the comfort comes wrapped with a sense of guilt, loneliness, and the persistent worries for the loved ones struggling to live with the pandemic back home.

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/cri ... -reunions/

Its the first year in many I haven't been able to return (though I'd never go at this time of year anyway). I didn't bother with that re-entry stamp when renewing the visa this year.