Finally back at school after 9 hours away. Samut Prakan Immigration has accepted my application to extend my stay. They’ve given me a temporary one month “under consideration” stamp. It now has to be sent to Bangkok for their approval.
Every year I never know if they will extend or not. Twice now they have rejected my application and I was only saved when someone high up in government made some phone calls to support my case.
I don’t like asking people for favours but I’m lucky I have so many people in government who follow me on social media and they acted without me asking. I know there’s other people who go through similar situations as me each year. And so I will help give them voices by sharing my own experiences publicly.
A lot of Thais have said to me that they didn’t realise that many long term expats, and even some foreigners married to Thais and with Thai children, were facing difficulties with visa renewals every year. Many said to me they thought I had a long visa or were even a Thai citizen by now.
Hopefully one day someone with the power to make a change to the system will hear our stories.
#Thailand
"It's certainly a shock to the system," said Michael Wenning, an American tech start-up owner, predicting that "a huge gap in the ecosystem" of U.S. startups will be left in the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank's sudden failure. #GLOBALink