THEPHUKETNEWS.COM
FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2020
PHUKET NEWS
5
Caught in COVID lockdown Tanyaluk Sakoot reporter2@classactmedia.co.th
H
undreds of foreigners arrived at the Phuket Immigration Office in Phuket Town on Monday morning (Mar 23) in the hope of extending their stay in the country instead of risking contracting the COVID-19 coronavirus by having to travel home or anywhere else to comply with the Thai immigration regulation issued late last week. Last Friday (Mar 20), Phuket Immigration confirmed to The Phuket News that by order from Bangkok all tourists can extend their stay by simply presenting themselves at the Immigration office, filing an application and paying B1,900. However, all foreigners staying on any other kind of visa must obtain a letter from their respective embassy in order to be granted an extension to stay. The order caught many foreigners, and embassies, unaware. One foreigner who has been living and working in Thailand for more than a decade told The Phuket News that he had been told that he had until April 3 to leave the country to comply with Thai Immigration’s requirement for him to leave the country every 90 days. “As I am on a Non-immigrant, multiple-entry business visa. I am
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Foreigners queue at the Phuket Immigration Office in Phuket Town on Monday (Mar 23). Photo: Supplied able to travel to and work in Thailand for a maximum of 90 days at a time. This is not usually a problem as I return home regularly every six to eight weeks. “However as my home is under siege of the coronavirus, I have stayed here for the full 90 days. Now I must leave as there are no extensions available for business visas. When I go home I will have to go into 14-day quarantine then I must get a COVID-19 medical clearance before trying to get back into Thailand to continue the business. “There is great risk Thailand will close its borders and not let me return. The sensible choice is
for me to send the Thai staff home. Stop paying rent, tax and wages in Thailand and move all my assets out of Thailand. That is not good for me and not good for Thailand,” he said. Worse, by Monday Phuket Immigration Deputy Chief Lt Col Udom Thongchin confirmed that any foreigners still in the country after their permits to stay had expired were being fined, the maximum, B500 a day. Lt Col Udom explained that his office has no authority in the matter. “Everything is up to the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok… If a foreigner’s permit to stay is about to expire and they cannot
get a letter from their embassy, or their embassy refuses to issue them a letter, we have no regulation that can help them. We can only wait for any new policies to come from the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok. “My advice is for foreigners to urge their embassies to issue them a letter requesting a 30-day extension. If their visas expire, they will be charged for B500 a day overstay in accordance with the law,” he added. Lt Col Udom clarified that people having to leave the country because their permit to stay will expire does not apply to foreigners renewing their one-year extensions to stay. “These are being processed as usual,” he said. “If people are just renewing their one-year permit to stay, like they do every year, they do not have to leave the country while waiting for their renewal to be approved. These people are unaffected,” he said. By Monday afternoon the Australian Consulate-General in Phuket confirmed it is providing visa support letters to Australians in Thailand who can prove long-term residency in Thailand. “Please email Consular.Phuket@ dfat.gov.au with your personal particulars page of your passport and a copy of your current visa. There will be no fee applied for this service,” said a notice posted on the consulate’s official website.
“We will not consider providing these letters to those who are traveling on Tourist Visas,” the notice added. “Australian Government advice remains that Australians should seek to return home while commercial options remains to do so,” the notice said. Australians were urged to check the Australian government’s SmartTraveller website for more details. By Tuesday, the British Embassy in Bangkok announced that it too is issuing support letters for any visa type so that British nationals stuck in Thailand can extend their stay in the country instead of having to risk infection by travelling either back home or to another country. “The British Embassy can issue a letter to support applications to extend existing visas. Those holding a tourist visa should first apply for a 30-day extension at an Immigration Office,” said the notice issued on the Gov.uk website for the British Embassy in Thailand. The notice adds that to apply, email Bangkok.DocumentaryServices@fco.gov.uk with evidence of: • Copy of biodata page of passport • Entry stamp • Visa stamp/sticker with expiry date At the time of going to press, these were the only two embassies The Phuket News had confirmed were issuing the letters.