Mudcrab

So, the only loophole available for 3-week-on/3-week-off oil workers is now entry visa exempt through airports. This is tough for Thailand to prevent as the requirements for air tickets and money is satisfied. Having a limit of 90 days per year (as at land borders) is not really practicable. All they could do, perhaps, is have a red stamp on exit like "no visa exempt entry allowed until ...." that airlines had to look for. Otherwise, the xenophobes are winning.

Why do you call this a loophole...you have something to hide?

I believe the visa exempt entry is a valid method of entering and leaving Thailand multiple times...in fact forever.

As is the Thai Elite visa for the oil millionaires.

I don't believe a genuine visitor needs a "loophole".

Usual knee jerk reaction, lets look at the "what" and not care for one minute as to the "why" !

None of you know the circumstances involved and yet are mostly screaming to "hang em high"

Dont be so quick to judge, until you know the facts, and besides, there may well be a family and dependants involved too.

One would hope that if there were a family and dependents involved then the person would have a sense of responsibility.

Overstaying by nine years brings any sense of responsibility into question.

Who lit the fires?

Indonesians.

And we should feel guilty?

Indonesia should be paying compensation to all the countries affected by their lack of control.

Wow my thread got nice and long. So what I can gather from all this is we ALL just have to wait and see what happens. If the visa run days are over than I guess it another SEA country for me, time will tell.

Not all.....not the people who have the legal right to stay long term by qualifying for the correct visa/extension.

So since it seems that Thailand is moving to become more strict with the double entry tourist visa process. How will people who stay here on long term tourist visa make it now? Do you think maybe people will have to go to Vietnam for a month or 2? Do you think this is just all talk and then back to business? Do you think us farang (with out the other visas ) will have to find some other loop hole. Or is it still a wait and see situation?

And there is the crux of the matter from start to finish.

Some small enlightenment

According to the company for which I am a consultant in 6 ASEAN countries, METV visas will not be available to our European clients and they must apply ME visas in their home countries, however in special circumstances an METV can be issued to our European clients from neighboring countries. More details on Monday or latest Tuesday. TAT had no details available last week at the ITB-Asia in Singapore but details will be released to the Thai inbound operators at the London Travel Mart next week in London.

We also received infos that a family of four that is on a tour to Thailand with one of the qualified inbound operators DO NOT NEED TO PROVIDE the financial of 6000 Euros as they are on a package tour in Thailand and hotels, tours and flight has been already prepaid.

The METV facilitates comfortable travel on multi-country tours such as 14/21 days tours in Indochina where as an example the tour starts in Bangkok, travel to other Indochinese countries from the North of Thailand and enter Thailand back either via Vientiane - Nongkai, Savannaket - Mukdahan and several other entry/exit points via Cambodia and Myanmar.

I also asked my CEO if business will drop and he said not at all as our clients can just get a stamp at any Thai border if they don't want a multiply entry visa and they will never get refused as our tour guide has a good link with the immigration and even let them know in advance when the border is crowded.

Even if the METV is not available to any neighboring country, a 60 days tourist visa can always been issued and a 30 days extension can be applied within Thailand so a tourist will always have a chance to stay in Thailand for 90 days and possible get another TV for another 60 days.

Everything is fine so no need to worry. Genuine tourists will always be welcome to Thailand.

PS: The Financial requirement seems to be only needed so that the potential tourist can proof they have the means to travel to Thailand for up to 6 months.

Which seems to be the concept many people fail to grasp.

All the reasons/excuses in the world of what/what is not a genuine tourist put up by many posters will not change this underlying principle.

A tourist tours...then goes elsewhere.

They don't permanently tour in one country, at the same address, for ever.

They cease to be a tourist at that point.

The amount of airtime these sorts of thread generates seems to confirm that there are many, many non genuine tourists posting whose only intention is to try and bend the ever strengthening regulations for their own purposes - none of which is genuine tourism in the accepted sense as mentioned above.

Seems the Thai authorities are acknowledging this, witness the threads on ED visas, border running etc.

Good thing or bad thing?

Depends on your particular point of view I guess.

But it can't be ignored.

Let stop it or we will say good bye with our planet. We can change plastic by Labile compounds. Let save our planet now, not in future.

With myself, I won't never use plastic . If I use, I will throw them in the trash

Trash doesn't go away...it just goes somewhere else.

Stop it --or say goodbye to life on the planet as we knew it!!!

Lets ALL do our bit to reduce pollution

the only way to stop plastic bags clogging our drains, killing marine life, polluting the country side, is for governments to force the change and make it happen, from plastic shopping bags to paper biodegradable bags.

why don't they force them ?

they don't really care about the future ?

Yay sisters....lets chop down all the trees so we can go shopping with paper bags.

Didn't think this one through, did you?

Direct flights to Vientiane or Savannakhet are usually expensive. However, if leaving from Bangkok and you hurry, you can pick up a reasonable deal on Bangkok Airways this Sunday.(4,405 baht all in one-way).

Don't forget the 7,000 baht overstay fine for 2 weeks.

What is your home country Yuhani?. The Thai embassy in the U.S just released their requirements (ubonjoe posted the link on another thread) and they mirror the ones from two other G7 nations, Germany and Italy. The details you have given us appear to show that you live in Thailand year round, but take a trip back home every year. The problem with this is that every country that has posted the requirements for the METV has required proof of employment. Many foreigners living here long term on tourist visas are understandably nervous, but we really need to wait until the consulates in Vientiane and Savannakhet post their requirements and more importantly, how strictly the various embassies and consulates will enforce these requirements.

I just checked with the consulate website in my home country (Germany). For the new visa they ask for proof of funds and tickets for one onward trip. Also no mention about proof of employment (even as i'am selfemployed that should be no problem). So as I always will apply for METV in my homecountry and get another 1 Entry Tourist Visa abroad later, the situation should to work out for me i think.

I always hate the uncertainty about the rules, because makes it difficult to plan (long term rent etc.) I hoped the new METV would make it easier, but looks like it's the opposite :-)

You are spending pretty well the whole year in Thailand on tourist visas yet you are self employed.

Interesting.

i drink tap water , cook and clean with tap water and im still here .

Many people with low immune systems who cannot do tap/reverse osmosis water.

The 30 year old Thai model dumped you already huh?

i got to keep busy while shes out making 70000 baht at work.

Wow..is that 70000baht a day!!!

I bet she has trouble walking after a day like that.

Sounds like a keeper...hardworking girl like that.

Chuck in Dads 25 bucks a week and you're on easy street.

Never have to worry about the price of water again.

i drink tap water , cook and clean with tap water and im still here .

Many people with low immune systems who cannot do tap/reverse osmosis water.

The 30 year old Thai model dumped you already huh?

Careful. You'll provoke another ten pages on how big a contribution retirees make to Thailand.

I wonder if they apply the same logic to immigrants in their home countries? It's been shown that immigrants to the UK make a net positive contribution to the economy but that doesn't stop many folk complaining about how many of them there are (or rambling on incessantly about the ones who take advantage of the social security system).

It will be interesting to revisit the contribution of the current wave of immigrants in say 5 or 10 years in Europe.

I don't understand all the schadenfreude when announcements such as these are made about ED visa requirements. Would the majority of posters be so keen to voice their support if everybody on a multi-entry non-immigrant 'o' visa had to demonstrate income from overseas to support their 15-month stays in Thailand or those who extend such visas based on marriage with 400k in the bank had to do the same (or show that they actually spent that 400k on supporting themselves)?

I'm not actually staying here on an ED visa at the moment but I did in the past: I spent a leisurely year studying at my own pace and supporting myself with money from the UK. I've spent many years in Thailand on various different visas but I have never worked illegally in that time and I have never understood the attitude of other foreigners towards those of us who are not over 50 or married. The Thai authorities appear to be happy for me to be here, but some expats seem to resent the fact. Fortunately for me and those like me, it is the Thai authorities we have to deal with when organising visas and extensions of stay, and not our 'fellow' Westerners.

If i told my wife she had to live on only 400k baht a year - I don't think she would be too happy. Nor would I.

Looks like the noose is slowly tightening on all the visa rorters be it ED, back to back visa runners etc.

Eventually only people with a genuine legal reason to visit/stay in Thailand will be able to do so.

Just like most other countries.

is this such a bad thing?

I dunno, if they did that and also got rid of the retirement visa, like most other countries, would that be a bad thing?

Wouldn't bother me...I'm married.

Looks like the noose is slowly tightening on all the visa rorters be it ED, back to back visa runners etc.

Eventually only people with a genuine legal reason to visit/stay in Thailand will be able to do so.

Just like most other countries.

is this such a bad thing?

Why on earth would anyone other than a masochist want to grow a lawn Thailand? It's about as easy as getting hairs to sprout on a billiard ball - and about as pointless, I reckon.

Waving goodbye to this boring chore was one of the perks of moving to Thailand, where most sane expats settle for a tiled or concreted patio, graced by a few tubs of green stuff which are a breeze to maintain.

I'm guessing ThaiJack is from the UK, where spending the summer coaxing a recalcitrant mower into life and sweating your guts out over a patch of boring greensward outside your house is almost as much of a national perversion is wasting Sunday mornings cleaning The Car.

I am reminded of a former Surrey neighbour of mine who would wheel his beloved mothballed mower out of the garage almost as soon as the winter snows had retreated. My lawn-loathing mates and I used to call him the first cuckoo of Spring (though only behind his perspiring, aching back, of course).

I never dreamed he would have soulmates in the LOS.

Why on earth would anyone other than a masochist want to grow a lawn Thailand?

Not everyone has come from a cold miserable place...some of us are actually from the tropics originally and quite like lawns and gardens.

You like the concrete...I like grass under my bare feet.

My Dad once told me "buy cheap, you'll buy twice", never a more true word was spoken.

I would almost say we are related, that is what my dad told me too.

Only problem in Thailand is that a higher price does not always mean better quality. Its easy in some cases as a good brand-name does usually indicate better quality but among the no name stuff higher price does not always mean better quality as prices vary a lot.

When it is something that i feel is important i take my time to research it a bit and with tools i never buy the no name crap. Still a shop has some responsibility when selling crap.

In the UK when a shop sells you something, it must be fit for purpose, otherwise you can demand a full refund,

and the shop cannot refer you to the manufacturer.

I'll be sure to quote you next time I'm in Global House.

Perhaps the new requirements in Sweden are a way to avoid giving visas to the "new" Swedes who won't eat pork.

If we forget the pedantics of a few re what is an O-A visa,

WHY NOT?

It is a visa for RETIREMENT=until death do us part.

I have been doing such for more than a decade.

or until it is refused...then what?

Finally...at long last....a digital nomad telling the truth!!

And the relevance of the criminal background check in OP's first post?

If there aren't any thus far......I suspect it will only be a matter of time.

Not married...too young for retirement....still wet behind the ears methinks.

Time for the OP to spend time in the real world, not the fantasy of the internet world dreaming up more scenarios than an author of thriller novels.

You might consider a solar powered unit.... While doing some research for a new product I'm considering bringing to the market in Thailand (Air Conditioner Clothes Dryer) I ran across these solar powered units that seem to be energy self sufficient. The one I looked at was 12,000 BTU but I have an apartment that's larger than yours and I purchased a 12,000 BTU unit (not solar) and keep it set on 27 C (24-7) and my electric is about 1800-2000 per month 4 BAHT K. Of course the solar units are a little more expensive than traditional units, however reducing or eliminating your electric bill (A/C use) while contributing to "green" energy usage would seem to be worth paying a little extra up front. I would think you would achieve ROI in 12-18 months.

There are many companies who produce these units, the link below is just the one I happened to land on..

(Link: http://sunchisolar.en.made-in-china.com/product/XKlxSUvcAYhV/China-Acdc-Type-Hybrid-Room-Use-High-Efficiency-Best-Solar-Power-Split-General-Air-Conditioner-Price.html )

Green? Really. You any idea the amount of pollution created making solar cells. When you add the manufacturing cost, and account for environmental damage due to pollution, only a Westerner would pat them on the back and congratulates themselves for 'Going Green', while being completely ignorant of the immense ecological damaging and collateral costs (of eventually having to clean up the pollution) occurring around the manufacturing sites and mining operations.

"But they're just Chinese peasants being poisoned and only China is being turned into a toxic cesspit."

Liberal, green, and ignorant (at best) or complicit (at worst). That's like thinking all the 'Green' nuclear energy is only adversely effecting the area adjacent to Fukishima: Ignorance or complicity. That begs the question. You live on the US Pacific Coast? Green? Actually more like nuclear ionized ' Blue' in the US West Coast future.

The last reason I'd use solar cell is because they are 'Green'; they are not. But they have their uses.

There are many solar thermal boosted units that don't use photovoltaic solar cells, which I believe is where your concerns lay. There are some very good units around that will perform the same function as an inverter unit but use around 70% of the electrical power.

Take a look here:

http://www.icesolair.com/the-basics-on-how-solar-air-conditioning-works