Hal65

BKK or phuket right? That is the key point. Maybe CNX these days too. If you've heard of this at land borders I'm curious which ones. I tend to use Nong Kai and Ban Laem. 10 years ago I used Poipet, I heard that one is bad now.

It was about 3:00 AM and I was heading to the local 7 eleven on foot. Suddenly I hear a crash and then a bunch of thais shouting. I look over and I see a truck stopped on the road with a motorcycle on the ground. The thais are angrily yelling at a white guy. It's hard to say who was at fault, One of the thais keeps punching the foreigner in the head. He punches once, waits 30 seconds or a minute, punches again. After about three rounds of this, the foreigner gets angry and squares up. A moto taxi driver mediating suddenly does a lunging punch, punching the white guy in the head. The foreigner realizes he's being attacked from two sides and covers his head. This prompts both of the Thais to stop. My read was the moto taxi guy was enforcing violence one way and successfully forced the foreigner not to respond. I watched for about three more minutes and then left. There was at least less Thai to foreigner punching in the next three minutes (I counted one more). I didn't see the accident, but while they were trying to get police coming over, the Thai men were clearly in the wrong by punching the foreigner while he was simply asking the crowd "why does he keep punching me?" That was a scary situation to see one way enforcement by the moto taxi guys. I wanted to video it but man, that level of street justice... no thanks. Thai men seem to know they can get away with casual violence and use it unprovoked if they feel justified.

2016? Wasn't much of a crackdown then. Only at BKK have they ever tested me. I just said "beginner" and they let me pass. He chuckled snidely (he wasn't happy but I guess it was too much a risk or similar calculus). This was I think 2018/2019. Like I said, 1 year volunteer visa, rest on EDs for 11 years. All it takes is using land borders or CNX (though someone above said CNX is harder now).

Class is up north so no. I'm either flying in or mailing (or 13 hour train ride... sucks without a bar girl... then becomes way fun)

My agent at the school said I can (postal) mail my passport directly to the school to handle cancellation around 3 weeks before the 1 year expiry date. So no worries there. I'm always a little nervous sending my passport by mail. Once did it to the US embassy too.

Yep, don't fix something working 😉 Okay, visa exempt it probably is. There's 2 reasons I usually go for the tourist visa 1. Higher chance of passing through immigration with a visa instead of exempt stamp (visas are more respected). BKK and Phuket airports excepted of course. CNX is safe with a tourist visa. 2. Border run is a full 8 hour day lost. Tourist visa is a small series of trips (UTP, Udon, Vientiane and back) that one can make a short vacation out of. But the tourist visa also introduces the chance of tourist visa denial as well. I could go exempt from there I suppose. I think if I can cancel my ED at the border, I'll just go exempt. (Yes, EDs need to be cancelled prior to exiting).

I always check with the forum because it's bad to assume the past is the present. The school might know about tourist visa concerns, since many of their students are going through the same.

I'm in Thailand and have been since 2014 😉

A Thai language school told me they don't know if I can get a tourist visa immediately after my ED visa. I've done this in the past so has some rule changed? I have a US passport. I have a lot of Ed visas, probably 9 or 10 at this point. In the past I've always just gone to Laos, gotten a tourist visa, used a land border to get back into the country, and then reapplied for an ED visa.

I like to time a vacation at the end of my Visas, re-entering as a tourist (best option for my status). Later I switch to ED in country. Vientiane is still the best option right? What about Phnom Penh and Yangon? One of my vacation stops are Jakarta and Singapore but i hear those are non-ideal. Same with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.

As a US citizen I'll be visiting Japan at the end of my most recent ED visa. I was thinking of getting a tourist visa from the Thai Embassy there instead of doing a stop in Vientiane. Does anyone have experience getting a tourist visa at the Japanese embassies? I'm wondering how hard it is.

Hi I was planning this for the future, trip not taken yet

Has anyone ever gotten this visa (or extension of stay) before? Happens if someone is suing you or accusing you of a crime, but the crime or evidence doesn't justify jail yet. Length of stay attached to the case right? How slow are the courts? Anyone know a lawyer who can advise?

Pattaya and Krabi have flights from Dubai, and Samui from Singapore and Hong Kong. As an American with a long history of EDU visas, I typically enter Thailand through Chiang Mai. I come in on Tourist and convert to EDU. Are Pattaya, Krabi, and Samui low on immigration officer scrutiny like Chiang Mai? Or more like BKK, DMK and Phuket?

I can confirm they are still there and also close 8pm. My guess is the Terminal 21 guy was mistaken. He probably meant to type 20:00, not 22:00 as their closing hour

The 2nd Rd DHL and Naklua Rd Fedex both close at 6pm. But I have noticed that the Central Festival 5th floor UPS table, and Terminal 21 UPS, close at 8pm and 10pm. For someone on a night schedule this really helps. Have you guys seen any other UPS stores around town? I am on Soi Buakao Google maps claims there is one in Big C Pattaya Klang: https://www.google.com/maps/place/UPS/@12.9303573,100.8869361,15.46z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x310295fceccffb25:0xdff528b42843bd0b!8m2!3d12.9352298!4d100.8948128!16s%2Fg%2F11c5x7b9q7?entry=ttu I went there and no one knew where it was. I even searched the parking area for it.

Anyone have a good apartment cleaner they can recommend? I stay in Pattaya.

My plan is to always enter through CNX. Chiang Mai seemed pretty easy. I need to go to Cambodia for a few days at a time. Over a year I may need to do it 3 to 5 times. It can be timed to look like mostly weekend trips to a neighboring country.

Is it "harder" to get approved for? Or just costlier at 3,800 baht? I assume unlimited re-entries? Do I need to prepare an excuse for it? I am considering using an agent. In my case, the US embassy Cambodia (Phnom Penh) has next day appointments for notary service (I'm in real estate) and BKK is 2+ weeks booked out. I probably need a cover story as that blows the lid on my stay in thailand for "education"

So back on the Thai Elite, has there ever been a period where they appeared to roll out new pricing, determine it was too high, and actually lower it? My guess is no but I'm happy to hear otherwise.

I'm in the long term ED visa crowd, my most current one will take me over the 10 year mark in Thailand. ED it is until I'm 50 in 12 more years. Or if they decide to do a serious crackdown, off to the Phils or Cambodia. As we are seeing here it's a pure monetary decision as to what will happen. If Thailand becomes rich enough to expel us middle income expats on non-work visas without much dent to their economy, they will. If not, they won't. Putting personal desires aside I think in another 10 years they will be rich enough to clamp down hard.

The 100 person restriction on the 5m visa is reflective of the fact they do not intend to sell many of them. You are buying the 15 year for 2.5m and another 5 years for 2.5m. The only people who would do that are so value unconscious that they prefer Singapore and similar. The 15 year at 2.5m is the most comparable visa to the old 20 year at 1m. Less commitment to less people, for more money is their calculus. Given the flood of 10k applications per year, they had the leverage to do it. The "right" amount of people will still pay more for less years. I'm in disagreement that it was a COVID surge. China and Asia grows richer by the year. This is 21st century elite pricing.

I was planning on getting the 20 year next year. But going from $32k to $143k scuttles that plan. Based on pricing per year being lower on the smaller visas they are trying to commit to less years while asking for more money. I hope the market punishes them harshly. I think it will not. My guess is many wealthy Chinese will happily pay for 5, 10 and 15 year visas at the higher price points.

I'm not clear on why you suggest this over getting the passport card? I got the PP card and verified on ID.me

I got a big refund and as a fraud prevention measure they required me to verify with 2 IDs before processing it. You always pay US taxes, you are taxed on global earnings minus taxes paid to nations with mutual tax treaties.