BANGKOK, 2 April 2020: An online appeal hosted on the social community website change.org asks the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs to lobby for a two-month extension to visa stays.
The petition created by Mytsap calls on Thailand’s ” Ministry of Foreign Affairs to use its influence to ask the Immigration Bureau to offer an automatic two-month extension of stay to all foreigners in Thailand whose visas are about to expire.
It would ensure foreigners could stay safe and adhere to the social distancing rules set out by the Thai government and would help to safeguard the health and lives of Immigration officers who are at risk.
The long queues of foreigners seeking visa extensions after airlines shut services to Thailand contravene the government’s social distancing requirement of around 2 metres. However, at the Immigration Bureau due to crowded conditions, both officials and foreigners are at risk.
The online petition requests that the 90-day reporting be suspended and that requirement to apply for 30-day extensions be replaced by an automatic extension fo two months to clear the backlog of paperwork and the need to visit the bureau’s offices.
Thailand’s Immigration Bureau is migrating some of its visa processing services to an online portal, but the performance and capacity of the website servers involved need to be upgraded to resolve the frequent timeouts and failures to complete the application online in a single session.
Indonesia gives stranded tourists an automatic stay permit extension.
No need to go to Immigration office.
No fines.
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