Last updated on April 15th, 2020 at 03:43 pm

Here’s What to Do If You’ve Got a Non-Immigrant O Visa Based on Marriage in Bangkok…

I have Thai Non-Immigrant O visa based on marriage to a Thai wife. And April 15th, 2020 was the date I needed head to exit Thailand and return to reactivate another 90 days.

But… because there’s this COVID-19 mess going around and travel has semi-halted and borders have shut in and around Thailand.

As a result the first few weeks of April the Thai Government Immigration office in Bangkok saw a surge of panicked foreign tourists and Thai visa holders trying to get in to sort out things out. And I read people were turned away because staff couldn’t handle the unexpected workload.

On top of that, I have a baby due sometime near the end of this month or early May.

Which means traveling outside the country, even if I could, is not an option since going out and about increases my chances of getting infected with the disease, and bringing it home to my family.

Thai Visa Amnesty of April 2020

Lucky I waited a little while before heading to the Thai immigration office in Bangkok. The Thai government came out with a visa amnesty giving tourists some breathing room until April 30th. Before the amnesty went into effect, very long lines of foreign tourists could be seen waiting outside of immigration offices.

The Wayfaring Soul Tip #9 “It’s better to over-prepare than under-prepare.”

As most foreign tourists making their way to Thai immigration offices throughout the country were short term visitors but couldn’t get out of Thailand due to flight cancellations or border closures. A lot of foreign visitors got panicky. I wouldn’t blame them.

Because any foreign overstaying visitor would’ve been hit with a 500THB per day penalty fee at immigration checkpoints.

With the Thai visa amnesty in effect, this was great news for me as I could expect a lot less people inside Bangkok’s Thai immigration office.

Here’s How My Experience Started…

It’s April 12th. My current visa stamp expires in 3 days. First thing I did was do a little google search and check what paperwork I needed to bring with me. You would think you’d only need to bring your passport.

But as a guy living here for a long while, I know things are not as simple. It is better to over-prepare than under-prepare and you will soon read why.

I could not find anyone sharing any experience about going to the Thai immigration office to reactivate a Non-immigrant O visa due to the fact that I can’t leave the country.

I could only find the information about Thai visa amnesty. But the information found there was not specific to my visa type.

So the next thing I did was call the phone number as listed in the photo for Bangkok’s Immigration Office and ask around.

Surprisingly, someone answered after three rings. I explained my situation. Which is I have a Non-Immigrant O visa based on marriage. I was told to just come in with my passport.

I Wish It Was That Easy…

In a way she was partially right, you do need to bring your passport. But the other paperwork (which I list below) I brought was not mentioned. But I brought it anyways. That’s just the way I do things.

But, you have to make photocopies. Which you can do inside Thai immigration office. Since I didn’t know for sure if there would be lots of people inside I wanted to get all my photocopies done beforehand.

Here’s What I Photocopied and Brought With Me:

1. Passport photo page, including Thai visa page, last exit stamp page including TM 7 departure card.
2. 1 Passport sized photo (obviously you don’t need to photocopy this)
3. Thai marriage certificate plus any paperwork regarding your relationship to spouse. **Also bring the original paperwork**
4. Spouse’s Thai national I.D. Card
5. Blue book or Tabien Baan (ทะเบียนบ้าน), which is a house registration book. Either with your name or spouses’ name.
6. A short letter written by your spouse stating you live with your spouse including current Thai home address.

Off to the Thai Immigration Office in Bangkok I Go…

I was confident that I got all my paperwork. My wife and I left our home at a little before 8am and reached the Thai Immigration Changewattana building B around 8:30am.

My wife is nearly 9 months pregnant and we felt prudent she stayed inside the car.

When I walked to the front entrance of the building I was pleasantly surprised not to find a long line of foreign tourists waiting to get in.

When I made it past security I thought, okay, maybe there will be more people waiting inside to get their visas sorted out.

Nope.

The Thai visa amnesty worked its magic. I wouldn’t exactly say there’s no people inside. Which there are. But it’s just a lot, lot less people. Even less people than I remember when I had was visiting Thailand on Multi Entry Tourist Visas.

There’s a makeshift table near the entrance of Immigration Division 1 office. I explained to the immigration officer my situation. The officer asked where’s my wife and I told them she’s waiting outside, inside our car because she’s pregnant.

I was handed the visa extension form which I happily filled out and went to get my ticket number.

I was surprised to see there’s 22 persons ahead of me. Which is not a lot. Numbers were called relatively quickly.

Only thing is there are not a lot of seating available, due to social distancing measures. I think previously before the visa amnesty went into effect lines of foreigners had to stand and sit a meter apart. Plus many seats were taped off to keep people away from each other.

I can see why the environment would be so inhospitable before the visa amnesty.

My Number’s Up…

Overall I waited about 30 minutes before my number came up. I went to the cubicle I was directed to and laid out my paperwork like a proud schoolboy laying out his prized book report.

And then.

“Where’s your wife?” I was asked.

First, I assumed my wife didn’t need to accompany me. Also she being nine months pregnant I didn’t think this would be an ideal environment for her to be inside.

There’s no way I could talk myself out of this one even when I explained to them she was pregnant. But I didn’t want to be difficult. Seeing as there’s a lot less people inside I thought it should be fine. I called my wife and met her near the entrance.

When I brought my wife in, from then on everything was smooth sailing.

So if you have a Thai Non-Immigrant O visa based on marriage, bring your spouse!

But as I said, she’s pregnant and I wanted to be on the safe side. And there are a lot less people inside the immigration office.

I was never asked about TM 30, the reporting of foreigners requirement in Thailand. My wife has me registered already but this information was never asked.

Signing Paperwork and Taking Pictures…

Remember to bring your original Thai marriage certificate. The immigration officer handling me used her webcam to take a photo of my wife and I holding our Thai marriage certificate together.

I asked for 90 days and got laughed at. They gave me 60 days which is better than 30 days. The fee was 1900THB so I’ll take that.

After we signed the paperwork I waited for another 20 minutes and my passport was returned to me with a fresh 60 days.

Conclusion

Bring your wife! That is if you need to sort out your Thai Non-O Immigrant visa based on marriage in Bangkok when you can’t exit Thailand. I guess it makes sense. I mean a Thai marriage certificate is just a piece of paper and immigration officers don’t know if you got divorced.

And bring every piece of photocopied paperwork I mentioned above. Bring the originals also just in case.

Bangkok’s Thai Immigration office opens 8am to 5pm with a one hour break for lunch at 12pm.

I hope this information helped you out. I wish I found it online or wherever earlier.