masterblaster

2 hours ago, Caldera said:

That letter is a border pass and does have a picture. Thais can get a similar one for visiting the border areas of neighboring countries.

Ahhh didn't even see the picture when the folks hand it over to the soldier.

Thanks! No more shall I wonder.

What cracks me up about those vans is there are always a couple folks who instead of ID cards produce a written letter that's been folded all to hell, and the cop/soldier will read it then without any other form of ID with picture etc. they are cleared. I always assumed they are Burmese and it's some document related to their right to be in Thailand, but really no idea.

I like to imagine it saying something along the lines of "Htay is pretty cool, let him pass."

On 12/26/2018 at 4:39 PM, rumak said:

Actually.... MOST  immig offices PRESENTLY only want you to report  when re-entering the country from abroad

Can confirm for Chiang Mai. We tried to report after a few days road trip to Sukothai and that lady looked at us like we were crazy, said no need unless new departure card.

Title says it all, I've seen conflicting opinions on whether we need to swing by immigration after staying at a hotel somewhere in Thailand then returning to our apartment in Chiang Mai. After a two-nighter to Sukothai we figured better safe than sorry and since it only takes a couple minutes we'd go ahead and get the TM-30 stamped again. The helper/intern person was totally confused since our last TM-30 stamp still matched our exit card date, and when we got to the lady behind the desk she looked at us like we were idiots and said "only when go out!" so we left and got back on the bus home.

I'm sure some people in here already knew this, but figured one more confirmation that as of Dec  2018 no need for domestic trip if in Chiang Mai.

Carry on.

Just completed a there-and-back-again at Mae Sai for my METV.

Happy to report easy-peasy. Burmese guys gave me the option of dispensing with the pretend to shop thing on their side and added both enter and exist stamps at the same time, then back to Thailand where no questions asked, no 20k baht, no proof of residency, nada.

Took 10 minutes from getting out of the Songthaew in Thailand to complete.

Cheers guys, you always come through and it's appreciated.

If I may take this in a slightly different direction for a short bit...

I'm staying in a condo in Chiang Mai on an METV, and the owner filed a TM-30 so I have a stamped receipt. From attempting to digest the many (sometimes conflicting) comments on this subject, my take is the following:

1. When I leave Thailand for the 60 day in/out requirement, upon returning I'm supposed to take that receipt to immigration here in CM within 24 hours to have it stamped again, or renewed, or something like that.

2. However, if I have no intention of doing an extension of stay on this METV it's just a waste of time since I'll never need proof of TM-30, apparently people at borders/airports have no interest.

That about sum it up? Thanks in advance, as always.

Cool, thanks fellas. 

Thanks for replies, sounds like I'm leaving before November 15th either way. If I go to immigration to have it corrected they'll make it 60 days and I'm leaving before Nov 15 anyway, so I might as well just leave before then and save the trouble of going to immigration for a correction.

To clarify, if I just leave within 60 days there shouldn't be any drama since I'm within the METV rules? 

Thanks again.

So I showed up at Swampy with my shiny new METV, and the nice lady in immigration stamped me for a 90 day stay. I'm pretty sure METV allows 60 days so curious if anyone else has had this happen, did they change the max stay from 60, or did she just mess something up with her math? One would think her math would be fine because she probably stamps plenty of SETVs for the same 60 day period every day on the job, so somewhat puzzled by this.

Hello again, I'm back for promised update.

We applied for an received METRs at the Thai Embassy Consulate in Washington DC. Instead of letter verifying employment we both contacted our last employers and asked them to send us letters validating that we did indeed work there before retiring to travel, which was honest and proved sufficient. The process was quite easy with no long lines, polite staff, and we were able to pick them up in two business days instead of the advertised five.

Thanks again for all the replies and help, best of luck with everything.

I emailed the embassy in DC describing my dilemma, saying I could supply both the bank statement and additional paperwork showing investment portfolio that we are using to fund our annual expenses in retirement. They responded quickly saying proof of our retired status along with info on financials would suffice. That's still a bit open to interpretation since while we are retired (never working again) we don't fit in any official retirement category like collecting a pension from a government or private company.

We're planning on getting letters from our last employers stating that we resigned three years ago to retire and our final annual salary. Hopefully that along with financials should do the trick.

I'll be sure to update the thread with what goes down in September when we make the application.

Thanks again everyone.

8 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

Hi, maybe I am missing or overlooking something but it looks to me that applying in your home country for a multiple entry tourist visa (METV) would be the easiest option.

 

Thanks!

Yeah the only thing with METV was proof of employment letter, we aren't working just in an extended travel slacker stage of life living on savings. Ubonjoe had an interesting suggestion, I'll try to investigate further.

11 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Since you are over 50 years old you should check with the embassy or one of the consulates in NY, Chicago or Los Angeles since you could be considered to be retired which would be equal to being employed and then show enough financial proof for your visas.

Intriguing! I wonder how this works that I'm 50 and wife is 47. We'll be near Washington DC visiting my parents while in USA so there is the embassy nearby.

I'll try to contact them.

Thanks buick.

We are planning on having a burner ticket for that initial arrival, last time I looked cheapest was $30 to Singapore on AA.

Another factor for/against METV is that it really doesn't bother us two visa runs in seven months. I realize people living in Thailand long term it gets old and becomes a chore, but we haven't been in the area for awhile so would probably be somewhat excited to have a short trip to a neighboring country for a few days. We're tourists too.

METV should would take a lot of the x-factor out on being the random person given drama on reentry.

Hi again thanks glegolo and ubonjoe for the info.

I'm 50 and my wife is 47. I've looked into the ME but it sounds like they require proof employment letter, which isn't possible for us since we're living on savings. We could easily prove any requirements of money in the bank and I've heard of people setting up their own company to meet the ME employer requirement but we'll only be in USA for a couple weeks before heading to Thailand so not sure enough time to get everything together.

Hello all!

My wife and I are planning to live in Thailand for seven months starting in September 2018, enough time for a six month lease in Chiang Mai and a little buffer time on either end to travel the country a bit. We are citizens of USA and going to be living off savings so won't be working. I've been reading the forums and trying to get a handle on what is the easiest and drama-free method of a seven month stay, it's difficult because it seems things change a lot and are quite inconsistent depending on entrypoint. Would appreciate feedback from the experts in here, the plan =

Sep. Arrive on intl flight from USA, get exemption 30 days

Oct.  Extend exemption + 30 days

Nov. Round trip flight to Laos, obtain 60 day Single Entry Tourist Visa

Jan. Extend SETV + 30 days

Feb. Border run overland (not Poipet), exemption 30 days up reentry

Mar. Extend exemption + 30 days

So in a nutshell I end up with Exemption (60) + SETV (90) + Exemption (60) = 7 months. Would be a total of one airport exemption in 2018, one SETV in 2018, and one overland exemption in 2019.

Are there any major flaws here? We haven't been in Thailand since early 2017, and have the following in the passports we'll be using:

2017 = one exemption via overland entry in January

2016 = one exemption via overland entry in April

2015 = intl flight arrival on SETV extended to 90

Thanks in advance for any advisement.

We got a tourist visa in Bali, and would strongly disagree with your recommendation to go elsewhere.

We had no waiting, and they accepted printouts of our booking confirmation emails from Air Asia as proof or travel. Wrote up some details here:

http://middleagednomads.blogspot.com/2015/11/getting-thai-visa-in-bali.html

Asked and answered, thanks ubonjoe.

We shall stay the course and plan on receiving 30 day exempt at Mae Sot, then immediately going to Famous Ray's for a cheeseburger and beer.

I know this has been done to death in here but it is so confusing figuring out what everyone means in answering every possible permutation of exempt/visa/one day/trail etc. so please accept my apologies in advance for rehashed material. Our situation:

We're long term travelers from USA

Flew to Thailand from Indonesia with 60 day tourist visa

Extended once in Thailand for additional 30 days

Entered Myanmar overland at Myawaddy (in Yangon now)

After 28 days travel in Myanmar, plan on returning to Thailand overland at Mae Sot with visa exempt

Leave Thailand to Laos overland a few weeks later

I've seen people saying no visa exempt overland at Mae Sot, which obviously throws a serious monkey in the wrench. I can't tell if they mean for people doing the one day in/out thing or chaining together visa exempt arrivals, neither of which would be us since we left Thailand for four weeks and have no visa exempt stamps from Thailand in our passports.

Are we going to be refused entry at Mae Sot?

Thanks so much for kind replies.

Thanks for the replies... excellent info.

Hello. Me = long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm curious about your experiences getting the dog there. Can you just crate it in the US and pick it up in Thailand? Is there a concern about how many hours that is, or whether it's too hot or not fed/water for that long? Are there services available to care for the animal while it's en route?