The answer isn’t consistent across the country and so you should speak to your local immigration office.

In Samut Prakan, if we leave the country using a re-entry permit to come back then we do NOT need to file another TM30 on return.

However, if you forgot to get this re-entry permit, like one of our teachers recently did, you need to file a new TM30 as you are coming back on a different “visa”. In their case it was a 60-day visa exempt stamp.

@Ray *****

They give you a date for you to return in a month’s time to hear the verdict. If all goes well I will get the full year stamp and I will then immediately apply for a multi re-entry permit. However, a few times they said my documents hadn’t returned from Bangkok yet and they said to come back in a few days time. Also, one time on verdict day they said they weren’t going to extend my stay! But that’s a rare occurrence. For most people “verdict day” is just a formality where you go back to get the full year stamp.

@Tod ********

Yes good advice as several times my approval hadn’t arrived on the set date and I had to come back 2-3 days later. They told me not to travel far until I got the one year stamp.

You won’t have trouble leaving the country or at the embassy. However, you *might* have trouble with the immigration office near your new school. There *may* be a fine for not cancelling your extension based on work.

We just had a bad experience at Samut Prakan Immigration. We were trying to change a visa exempt stamp to a Non B when the immigration officer spotted an old Non B in the passport that hadn’t been cancelled properly. Our new teacher had left the country to work in Vietnam for two years. Then came back. As it turned out, their old school had also neglected to cancel their work permit. Long story short, the IO refused to continue with changing the visa type. So we couldn’t employ this person.

@Stuart *********

I think you are confused. This is an arrival card. You are probably thinking of TM30 which is your landlord registering your home address.

@Stuart *********

It’s a digital arrival card for foreigners intending to go to Thailand. Click on the link for more information.

Thanks Tod for your very thorough post.

@Nitsuj *******

Sorry to hear that. We have one new recruit this year that has to leave the country and come back. We are doing our best to support her. I know how difficult it can be at the best of times. I wish you the best of luck.

May I suggest something here as we have a similar situation every year with our new teachers. We want to save them the cost and hassle of having to do a visa or border run and so we bring forward their start date.

For example, someone we are recruiting is having his work permit cancelled on 31 March. Normally our contracts start 1 May which is the start of the school year. But we moved it forward for him to 31 March. That way he doesn’t have to leave the country. Obviously we are both in agreement we don’t have to pay him for April.

Can you not ask your new employer to do the same? Or ask your old employer to change the date for the end of contract so it matches the start of the new job? We’ve done that for teachers who left our school and their new school weren’t ready yet.

From what I understand, if at the end of October you still cannot fly home and you can get another embassy letter then you pay another 1,900 Baht for another 30 days, and so on until Immigration say otherwise. Good luck!