Can my daughter extend her Non-B visa in Thailand or does she need to leave the country?

Nov 26, 2018
6 years ago
My daughter recently started working in Khao Lak as a Dive Instructor. She has a Non B visa which she received in Oct and a work permit. The Non B will expire 13 Jan (3 months ) and I know she needs to get an extension on this for the duration of her contract with the company which will be till 15 May 2019. Can she go to the local immigration for an extension or does she need to leave Thailand? According to her diving company she has to leave the country to get the extension.
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TLDR : Answer Summary
The daughter of the original poster holds a Non-B visa and work permit while working as a Dive Instructor in Khao Lak. She is seeking to understand the process for extending her visa as it is set to expire soon. The comments suggest that she typically should apply for an Extension of Stay at a local immigration office; however, due to potential issues with her employer not fulfilling the necessary criteria, she might have to leave Thailand to apply for a new visa. There are significant concerns regarding the challenges faced by South Africans applying for Non-B visas in neighboring countries, as well as the costs involved.
Darren *********
South African teachers are banned from getting a non b from there.. so do they differentiate between divers and teachers?
Darren *********
Is this not correct then, it was your post..
Darren *********
Darren *********
Susan ******************
ORIGINAL POSTER
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions . We are South Africans and looking at previous posts on this forum re South Africans trying to get visas in Penang etc..... I am a little concerned that she picks up problems trying to get a new Non B.
Darren *********
Susan Merton Mitchell The correct process is to get a Non Immigrant B Single visa based on being employed. Then after the correct documentation has been created (work permit, tax registration, etc) THEN she goes to local immigration office to apply for ‘an extension to stay based on working’ Do not make the mistake many make and think that ‘internal Thai immigration’ is linked to external consulates. Many things have changed over the last several months and employers appear to ‘out of the loop’ now. That’s what makes this forum so useful. She’s four weeks short of fulfilling her contract IF she gets another Non B, check out other consulates (maybe Vientiane, Laos) and discus her situation with her employer. Maybe the employer could step in and meet some of the costs.
Susan ******************
ORIGINAL POSTER
Costly exercise this.....she was in Thailand in July and had to fly back to SA to get her Non B for this position and then flew back to Thailand again.....only to do it again after 3 months (this was not in our budget). Thanks once again for feedback. My daughter will discuss this with the company and hopefully they will come up with a solution that she can rather go to the local immigration because they both qualify for the criteria. Or am I hoping too much🤔
Darren *********
Ahh. She cannot get a non b visa in Penang or Kota Bharu. Laos may still have the door open, maybe. We have two South African teachers returning home in a few weeks to apply for their Non Imm B singles in Pretoria 😕
Darren *********
She cannot extend a Non Immigrant B visa at the local immigration office. The correct way would be to apply at the local immigration office for an extension to stay based on working, but considering the length of her contract I very much doubt that her company will want to go down that path even if they could meet the criterion. Her only option is to apply for another non imm b single (90 days) which would still leave her short by about a month.
Rhiannon ********
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Susan ******************
ORIGINAL POSTER
Robert *******
Normally she has to apply for an Extension of Stay at local Immigration office. But knowing the dive centers, I don't believe they pay her at least 50.000 Thb a month, pay taxes and SSO for her and 4 Thai staff members and that is the reason they tell her to leave the country to apply for a new Single Entry Non Immigrant B visa.
Len *****************
if she got a multiple entry non immigrant b visa. she need to do border bounce. if she got single entry non immigrant b visa, she need to have apply for a yearly extension at the local immigration
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