Thailand makes visitor visas pretty easy with their 30 day on arrival visa for most countries. Most tourists are only spending 30 days in Thailand so that works out well. However this visa leaves to many people taking advantage once inside the country to overstay. This gives rise to the 90 day reporting and demand for passports when staying in hotels and/or condos or apartments.
I am on a non-immigrant O-A visa. These can be for work, education, retirement, or marriage. I have yet to figure out what the O-A refers to. They all have a one year and then subsequent reapply again format. They also have a 90 day reporting period where you have to notify the local (provincial) immigration office of where you are staying. You would think you would do this only if you move but alas, that is not the case. There is no charge for this so it is not a money grab. The government just wants to know where to find you. Your apartment, condo, hotel, informs the government every time you check in. It actually costs me about 500 baht in taxis and a half day 4 times a year.
If you want to leave Thailand and reenter under the same visa period you must apply for a reentry visa at 1,000 baht. If you don't then you invalid your existing visa and have to reapply. I am on a October 2018 to October 2019 O-A visa and when I leave in February and return in August I want to continue on the same visa so I had to go get a reentry permit at the Samut Prakan Immigration office. Luckily I was also able to do my 90 reporting period at the same time. All in all it was about a half day.
Yesterday I spend the other half day, reviewing flight and hotel details as well as Thavorn's immigration details to make sure there would be no problems on travelling to Canada.
We fly on February 17 to Taipei with Air China and then from Taipei to Vancouver with Air Canada. We arrive in Vancouver during lunch hour and check into the Sheraton in downtown Vancouver for 5 days for Thavorn and Jaidan to acclimatized and buy some warmer clothing. We then fly with Canada to Ottawa arriving on February 23 at 1 am in the morning. That is a Saturday so we are hoping my son Jordan will be awake to pick us up.
We will be staying at my sister Ann's downtown condo until March first when we move into an AirBnB for 6 months. Unlike many parts of the world, it is hard to get an apartment for a 6 month rental as everyone seems to want a year.
Almost time to start a countdown but I think I will wait for 30 days to start a countdown on this blog. It should be interesting for me to blog about how Thavorn and Jaidan adjust to Canada, not to mention myself, as I have been gone for a long time and I am sure Canada has changed.
I am looking forward to see some Carleton basketball games and seeing my friends. I almost said old friends but they are old in 2 different ways. Old as in their age, an old in terms of how long I have known them. My only young friends are in Thailand. I truly hope they are not hanging out in Tim Hortons complaining about the government and their taxes. However, where do 68 year old guys hangout nowadays in Ottawa .. That will be a problem :-)
TTYL
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