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Visa for 8 year old Philippine girl


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I have now been living in Thailand for the last 6 years on a retirement visa. Since 2008 my Philippine gf lives here with me. She stayed here always on a double entry tourist visa either from Cambodia or the Philippines. Now we have changed her visa status into Non-B which expires March 2013. Since Sept. 2011 we have also her 8 year old daughter living with us. She is here on a 30 day visa on arrival and is enrolled in Burappa International School Pattaya and the help we are getting from the school is not existing, they are hopeless and incompetent. If my daughter wants to leave can she be charged for overstaying? What kind of visa do we need for her if we need any? I am titally confused and frustrated because different visa agents are telling different stories and at the end you always got the feeling, that they want your money for as little work as possible. My gf and I can not get married, because she is still married in the Philippines, and they don't know divorce, we can only get her marriage annulled which will cost us about 250.000.00 PPeso without guarantee from the lawyer, that the annulment will be granted. Maybe somebody on this website experienced the same problems, every advise will be appreciated.

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Guest lemikins

Can't help re the visa, but can advise on other matters.

Annulment- you will find there are no legal grounds for this, as they are very narrow however some solicitors offer them. 250K P is actually very cheap. They require a number of bribes, and even then there is no guarantee. Many Filipinos can cite you cases of this going on for years.

 

Did you know that although she cannot get divorced in the PI, she can get divorced in other countries, without requiring resident's status? It's true, and although the PI govt will never recognise it, the foreign govt does for the purpose of marriage. It may 'pay' you to check with a solicitor in LOS if they allow overseas divorce.

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She is here on a 30 day visa on arrival and is enrolled in Burappa International School Pattaya and the help we are getting from the school is not existing, they are hopeless and incompetent.

 

Why would you expect them to be competent at visas? Tha's what parents are for, surely?

 

If my daughter wants to leave can she be charged for overstaying?

 

If she is over her visa she WILL be charged, there is no "can" about it. She's here on a visa, she overstayed. What did you think? A poor little helpless child, they couldn't possibly charge her?

 

What kind of visa do we need for her if we need any?

 

And you blame the school for hopelessness and incompetence? Did it never occur to you that there are real experts in this in Pattaya? For free? At the immigration office?

 

Answer to your question: She needs a visa to stay in Thailand. Most probable is a non-immigrant to attend her school this year. If she has overstayed her current visa, you'll have to clear that up, too.

 

I am titally confused and frustrated because different visa agents are telling different stories

 

Why not go to the ONE place in all of Pattaya that has a reliable "story"?

 

and at the end you always got the feeling, that they want your money for as little work as possible

 

Very discerning of you. This would be unlike which other businesses?

 

. My gf and I can not get married, because she is still married in the Philippines, and they don't know divorce, we can only get her marriage annulled which will cost us about 250.000.00 PPeso without guarantee from the lawyer, that the annulment will be granted. Maybe somebody on this website experienced the same problems, every advise will be appreciated.

 

So legally, you really have no stick in this at all, from the Thai perspective. Nevertheless, you can scoot along to immigration and get the info for your girl friend to get to work on extracting her daughter from the immigration problem she (the daughter) seems to be in. At the moment, by your description, she's wracking up the 500 baht payments to the government every 24 hours and not much else is happening. Get to work!

 

If it were my kid.... well, it wouldn't be but if I returned from a trip to Mars and found my kid in that situation, I would grab the kid and her passport and all the other papers including Mom's passport, and I'd head immediately for Jomtien and the immigration office and clear it up by this afternoon. And I'd take a wad of money in case I could pay the fine right there plus the 1,900 for the new visa application.

 

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I have heard groups of lawyers get together , open an office they call a "law office " and offer advice specializing in things like immigration and visas and even divorce. They might be a source of "legal advice" vs. visa mill shysters and brain dead school administrators. One "law office" even has a weekly column in Pattaya People weekly and seem very competent and are Thais not expats hustling a quick buck.

 

Just an idea. They might be able to arrange a student visa as an example.

 

I'd talk to a Thai lawyer before running to Jomtien to present an illegally in country eight year old nearly three months overdue to leave to an immigration officer. Since all they can do is a 7 day extension on a visa exempt and only once at that.

Edited by ricktoronto
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Since all they can do is a 7 day extension on a visa exempt and only once at that.

 

Obviously.... well, apparently not obviously, but ACTUALLY everything that will be done with the girl will be done at immigration and not any other place. "All they can do" is fix up the problem so there isn't a problem any more. Lawyers can't do that. Lawyers can advise you on how to approach the people who can and will do it. So can immigration officers advise, only for free. But the only possible unique sole solitary group of people who can (and will, later if not sooner) actually really physically *_will do_* something are the officers of immigration. Going to a lawyer for an otherwise legit kid overstayed three months is overkill. You're paying the lawyer for something you can pretty easily accomplish yourself.

 

Three months is a trivial overstay. But it's an overstay. It can (well, it will) be cleared up by immigration, because no matter how much money you have, lawyers can't clear it up. Then the next step is to arrange a "real" visa, possibly based on her going to school, maybe not. Either way, lawyers can't do that, only immigration can do that.

 

That (probably non-immigrant) visa will run out when the school ends, but it might also be extendable *IF* you don't pixx off immigration too much with lawyers and agents that they decide you're a lot of trouble.

 

There's no such thing as a student visa. There's a type of non-immigrant visa for students, there's another one to accompany mother, and so on, but they all are non-immigrant visas. The task after cleaning up the overstay is seeing where and which category the kid can fit into the non-immigrant visa. Immigration officers are ever so good, and ever so inexpensive at advising on this stuff.

 

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Fair enough but I'd consult a lawyer as to the law then if required have them accompany me to immigration. Translation as well would help.

 

I agree that I wouldn't use a "consultant"

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Thank you guys for your replies. I have received the answer I was expecting on Thai Visa. A child under 14 does not have to pay for overstaying her visa. We can either apply for a dependent visa or for an ed visa, but both applications have to be filed at the main immigration office in Bangkok, visa changes can't be done at Jomtien immigration.

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If it were my kid.... well, it wouldn't be but if I returned from a trip to Mars and found my kid in that situation, I would grab the kid and her passport and all the other papers including Mom's passport, and I'd head immediately for Jomtien and the immigration office and clear it up by this afternoon. And I'd take a wad of money in case I could pay the fine right there plus the 1,900 for the new visa application.

 

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Jeez Joe... you got there in the end after you put the stick down!
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Thank you guys for your replies. I have received the answer I was expecting on Thai Visa. A child under 14 does not have to pay for overstaying her visa. We can either apply for a dependent visa or for an ed visa, but both applications have to be filed at the main immigration office in Bangkok, visa changes can't be done at Jomtien immigration.

 

Well, thank goodness for the Internet. You can always get the answer you want, for sure.

 

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Well, thank goodness for the Internet. You can always get the answer you want, for sure.

 

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You certainly was no help at all - as usual

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