Here’s my visa situation, maybe this can help you
I’m from the U.S. & arrived in Thailand on 30 day non-visa then another 30 day visa extension.
My plan was to do a border run but the border closed the day of, so I got a 7-day visa extension at promenada for 1900 baht on March 19th.
Over the weekend I emailed the U.S. consulate for guidance and after a few back and forth emails over several days, I receive my original extension letter from the consulate...
Monday afternoon, the Consulate told me to send photo of passport details & I received the letter Wednesday morning(today)
I made my way to Chiang Mai immigration around 12:30pm & got all the necessary paperwork.
-passport copies
-passport photo
-Consulate Letter color printed
-The 3 docs you fill out at immigration office
-an extra copy of everything above
-1900 baht
Everything for me finished around 4:30pm so a 4 hour day.
Even though I had a 7-day, they still extended me & there where many people who overstayed several days and just paid the 500 baht/day fee and still got extended.
However, the stamp on my passport reads that I have to report back to Chiang Mai immigration(officer told me it has to be in CM, not BKK or anywhere else) in 20 days(April 15th) because my “application is under review”
I don’t know if it’s because of my 7-day or if that’s typical with the Consulate/Embassy letter.
Lastly. As we know thing change everyday, so I was dead set on doing this today, however, I heard the officers telling several people they needed to cone in tomorrow for whatever reason. I don’t want to speculate but looks like it might be business as usual at immigration tomorrow, so if you can get a letter from your consulate today, tomorrow looks promising.
TLDR : Answer Summary
A U.S. citizen shared their visa extension journey in Thailand, which involved an initial non-visa entry, a 30-day extension, and a 7-day extension at local immigration after a border run was not possible. They received guidance from the U.S. consulate regarding necessary documentation, including a letter from the consulate. The immigration process took around 4 hours, resulting in a 20-day application review period before needing to report back. The experience highlighted the potential variability in processing times and requirements at immigration.
