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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawThai Immigration Form TM 8: Application for Re-Entry Permit

Thai Immigration Form TM 8: Application for Re-Entry Permit

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing Thai reentry permits specifically this form here TM 8. This is the specific form for an application of a reentry permit to Thailand. 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the reentry permit, what are we talking about? Well for example if one comes into the Kingdom and gets a business visa and then they go ahead and get a B visa extension, if they leave the Kingdom without a reentry permit, that extension basically extinguishes upon their departure from the Kingdom unless they get a reentry permit in order to keep their status alive. This is the form used for getting a reentry permit. This is for non-immigrants who are living in the Kingdom of Thailand who need to leave and wish to come back and preserve their status while they are gone. You go ahead and use this form.

As noted in other videos on this channel where we discussed the specifics of the forms, unfortunately the TM 8 is like some of its brothers and sisters in the Thai Immigration Form system; a little bit deceptive and insofar as often times and every case is going to be circumstantially different, it is not just the form; the form is not exclusively the end all be all to the adjudication of the matter. Usually you are looking at supporting documentation including the documentation pertaining to the application of the B visa, or the underlying B Visa or O Visa. Whatever the extended Visa category is ED, M, all these kinds of categories are going to be non-immigrant and they are going to require a reentry permit if they have been extended, to go ahead and preserve that extended status while that non-immigrant is abroad to return to the Kingdom and sort of take back up their status.

So reentry permits are very important. It is something kind of unique to the Thai Immigration system that they usually entry permits. It is my understanding that many other jurisdictions, once an extension is granted and once a Visa is issued they don't really have this reentry permit system; Thailand does.

The other thing that should be noted on this form is there is a box for single and multiple so one can obtain a single entry reentry permit which costs one price and a multiple-entry reentry permit which costs another price. Obviously the multi-entry reentry permit is going to go ahead and cost a little bit more but the thing is on the multi, one can come and go as they please. A word of caution with respect to single entry reentry permits. I have seen folks get them and then forget that they only got a single, leave and their status dies. Multiple-entry by and large, especially when one is getting their one-year extension completed, and so they are looking prospectively at 11, 12 months out into the future; probably not a bad idea to just go ahead and pony up the extra money to get a multi-entry reentry permit so that you can basically be sure that throughout the duration of that extension status, you can come and go without worry of having that extension extinguished while one is abroad.