The final date for a 60-days Covid extension of stay is indeed March 25, but the latest memo from the immigration bureau makes crystal clear that the policy is already on life support. Anyone still in the country with an original 15 day pass (mainly Indians and Chinese) is to be given one week to quit the kingdom. Those more numerous foreigners with a three months’ non-immigrant visa, any type, are also precluded from Covid-related extensions unless they can persuade the immigration officer they are a special case.
Overseas visitors entering with a pre-flight 60 days tourist visa will be stamped in for two months and will likely obtain a further 30 days as part of the (traditional) deal even if they have to persuade the immigration officer they have a good reason: such as enjoying themselves. But 90 days looks like the absolute limit for them. Those entering with a visa exempt 30 days – by far the greater number – will be able to obtain a further month under a discretion introduced by the prime minister back in 2015. But March 25 is already looming: the funeral day for Covid discretion.
There will doubtless be marginal cases. For example, the Special Tourist Visa (STV) allows for a stay of 270 days in the kingdom without leaving. Can those holders obtain a Covid extension if their nine months maximum stay has already expired? The answer is “possibly”. Or what about the non-immigrant volunteer visa holder with a letter saying the charitable organization will collapse without his or her continued presence? We are back in the soft field of officer discretion which has overtaken the once firmer territory of national definitions.
The upcoming expiry of Covid extensions also has implications for applicants for Test and Go entry procedures. The vast majority in the past two months have simply entered with 30 days on the assumption that they could extend indefinitely once here. The latest notice from the immigration bureau in effect is warning that future visitors, if they wish to stay beyond two months, do need a prior visa in most cases. Immigration goal posts are never set in concrete.
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