@Rob ******

Visa 1 USD = 31.1 THB

%2F25%2F2020&submitButton=Calculate+Exchange+Rates

@Rob ******

[CORRECTED COMMENT] either the MasterCard or Visa exchange rate is used depending on how your ATM card is branded. Both are good rates.

The BKK NY branch is a commercial bank for businesses, not doing retail business. Same as the BBK London branch.

The situation for US citizens as I understand it:

1. Apply for the embassy letter (they basically want data from your passport photo ID page) here:



2. You should receive the email letter in hours of applying (like the one above with personalized with your data). Print it out, if you can, in color on good paper (not required since Thai Immigration has agreed to accept emailed embassy letters from the US, but can't hurt). You also may want to print the email you received from the US Embassy Bangkok to which the embassy letter was attached. This shows that the US Embassy Bangkok emailed it to you (again shouldn't be required, but ....). Nice to have the response letter from the US Embassy Bangkok on your smartphone and the embassy letter itself (Again, not required, but can't hurt).

3. Apply at your local Thai Immigration office for the 30-day "emergency due to Covid-19" extension. Should cost 1,900 baht (but some places have been asking for 2,000). You will likely only receive an "under consideration stamp" that names a date to return to the immigration office.

4. Return to the immigration office on your return date named in your "under consideration" stamp. Hopefully, you will receive another stamp indicating you have final approval of an extension of stay from 27 September to 26 October. Your continued presence in the country is made legal by the current amnesty to 26 September and/or the return to immigration date stamped in your passport on your "under consideration" stamp.

5. There have been statements from some officials (in the Phuket office) that this will be a repeatable process. That is, nearing the end of your 27 September to 26 October extension acquire another embassy letter from US Embassy Bangkok... basically repeat steps 1-4. There is of course no guarantee that the US Embassy Bangkok will continue to provide the letters and no guarantee that Thai Immigration will continue granting extensions, but that looks like a possibility going forward. No one knows how long that will last.

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Different Immigration Office but still might be generally helpful:

@Evelyn ******

If you had an education visa it had associated with it a permission to stay stamped into your passport. If that permission to stay has expired then you are on amnesty. You can request the US Embassy letter and since you are on amnesty you should be able to take that letter and apply at Immigration for an "emergency" 30-day extension of stay (due to inability to return to the US). You could apply as soon as tomorrow (Tuesday) but it may be a little busy being the first day open after the 4-day weekend. You could apply as soon as you can because the extension if granted should begin on September 27 (the day after amnesty ends) not begin from when your application is granted. The cost should be 1,900 baht (the price of all extensions of stay). I think this is your clearest path to getting an extension of stay good till October 26.

I'm not sure if the embassy letter is sufficient proof of inability to return to the US or whether Thai Immigration will be interested in seeing evidence of difficulty in returning to the US (for example, flights you booked that were canceled). I believe that previously during the pandemic it was enough simply for the applicant of an extension of stay to present a letter from their embassy and by that alone, they were granted the "emergency" 30-day extension of stay.

Two reasons why you might not want to apply for an emergency extension of stay now. One reason is if you think you can qualify for a regular long term extension of stay instead of just an emergency extension of stay. (In this case, it may be better to pursue that long term extension of stay by applying for such by September 11.) The other reason is if you want to gamble that Thai Immigration will extend the "free" amnesty for another month (it doesn't look likely to me but it's a possibility). To play this last possibility you would delay asking for the emergency extension of stay until there is an announcement on the subject of the amnesty being extended into October. You could wait until September 24 before applying for the emergency extension and hope that there's been some sort of definite announcement on an extension of the amnesty before that time.

Personally, as I'm risk-averse I would obtain your letter from the embassy and apply for the emergency extension of stay. For me, it would be worth the 1,900 baht to get an extension until October 26. ่ Even If the amnesty gets extended I would still think the peace of mind in the meantime was worth the price.

Brian McCarter gave a useful answer above. That's how you get the embassy letter. It appears to be an automated process, a friend reported he got the letter after about 10 minutes even this weekend. How Thai Immigration reacts to that application is entirely up to them, but many hope it will result in a 30-day extension of stay commencing on September 27. You won't know until you try yourself or there are reports of US citizens being granted the extension or not.

Other than his response the ratio of signal to noise in the comments to this post seems very low. ;-)

I did my retirement extension in March of this year and there was no booking system. You just go to Room 103 (ground floor, corner closest to the motorcycle parking) and give your paperwork to the cheerful Immigration Officer who is usually seated outside. (Just to be clear you don't need to go inside or get a queue number from the immigration volunteers -- you deal directly with the immigration officers for long term extensions in Room 103.) He will confirm that you have everything, tell you what else you may need, and then gives you a queue number with which you wait outside of Room 103. (Generally, with Covid-19 they prefer you to wait outside of Room 103 unless you've been called in to present your application to an officer or are waiting to have your picture taken. This system is really nice compared to how it was done 4 or so years ago. I usually pick up my bank documentation and then make my way over to Phuket Immigration, so arrive there around 9:30 AM. I've never had to wait too long, maybe half an hour, before being seen by an officer. The time spent with the officer is usually pretty quick as well, maybe 10 minutes, then you wait to have your picture taken (20 minutes) and get a receipt to pick up your passport with the new extension (and usually a new 90-Day Report notice) the next day.

On the day I pick up my passport I usually also apply for a re-entry permit, which is done inside the building getting a queue number after the immigration volunteers check your paperwork. This year it was amazingly quick. Took about 10 minutes. In previous years it could take 2 hours or more. I think because of the virus situation wait times are for the time being pretty short.

That's it 2 days out of the year. I file my 90-Day Reports online, and the only other reason I have to visit Immigration is for the odd Residence Certificate (e.g., for getting a driver's license or similar).

I see from the Phuket Immigration Volunteers site (which is usually reliable) that you can apply for the retirement extension 30 days before expiration. I may have just been lucky when they accepted my application more than 30 days before expiration. It may actually depend on how busy they are. If you show up 45 days before expiration and they are not busy they might just figure, why not, and accept it from you at that time. Worst case they say, too early, and you come back 30 days before expiration. Of course, you would need new bank letter and stamped bank statement if they turned you away.