BritTim

You will need to fly in at least one direction (either when leaving or when returning)

Immigration's system should contain a complete record of all entries and departures from Thailand, back for many years, together with the type of visa used. In addition, it should have details of all extensions, re-entry permits, and any "conversion" visas you have received from Immigration in Thailand. (There will not be full details of visas issued by embassies/consulates abroad, but that should not be needed. Only the type which is noted on your entry record.) Why they asked to see your visa was unclear. Maybe, when data was transferred from your old passport to new passport, the official omitted to note the type of visa on which your original extension was based. They might just have wanted to double check that information in Immigration's computer system was correct.

I would add to the comments on why a re-entry permit exists (rather than just allowing you to automatically reinstate your previous permission to stay when you re-enter) that it may be partly due to a past historical issue. Today, Immigration's computer system contains all the information that is needed to resurrect the previous permission to stay. Decades ago, when the re-entry permit system was first used, no such system existed. Some mechanism was needed to tell Immigration that you were eligible for a re-entry, and the details of the permission to stay to be reinstated. A special stamp in your passport made sense as a way to do so. This stamp would only be placed in your passport on request, so as not to unnecessarily use space when you did not intend coming back (usually true when travel was much less convenient than today).

It would be an unusual treatment regimen that required regular presence at the hospital over a lengthy period, but did not impede travel between the treatments. What do you have in mind? Radiation treatments following cancer surgery that are projected to continue once every two weeks for six months? I do not think there is anything in the rules that prevents an embassy from issuing a multiple entry Non O for medical treatment but, even with a pretty convincing explanation from the hospital, I think it would be very difficult to get.

Use the new passport to book your return ticket. That might sometimes be necessary anyway so the airline knows you meet the immigration requirements for your destination. Immigration on exit do not care which passport you use for the flight booking. They only care that you present to them the passport you used for entry.

For a long duration extension, I believe what you propose would be very sensible, and in line with most other countries. However, it would need to be paired with an additional change. There would need to be a way of cancelling your existing permission to stay. Currently, this is done by leaving the country, and it is difficult or impossible to do it voluntarily in another way. For visas, the situation is different. If you are suggesting that the permission to stay on a single entry visa should automatically be protected, allowing you to make a quick trip out of Thailand and request your permission to stay is reinstated on your return, that could work. If you want the ability to re-enter up to the expiry date of the visa (with or without this affecting the validity period of the permission to stay) then I can see difficulties.

Comparing visa exempt entries by air with visa exempt entries by land is like comparing apples and oranges. Completely different rules are applied. With visa exempt entry by land, the authorities try to follow the spirit of the Immigration Act. The officials are given hard and fast rules: if you have used fewer than two visa exemptions by land in the current year, they must allow your entry. If you have already received two previous visa exempt entries by land in the current calendar year, you must be denied a third. It was decided that this kind of clearcut rule could not be employed for visa exempt entries by air. Instead, the officials are instructed to use discretion in determining whether visa exemptions are being requested as the authorities intend, i.e. broadly speaking, for regular tourism. Entry should be permitted or denied according to the judgment of the officials. As might be predicted, not all officials in all locations will have the same idea about which travellers qualify and which do not. What is most certainly true is that attempting to stay long periods in Thailand on visa exempt entries with little time between will eventually result in a denied entry.

In most cases, if you have a valid, unexpired multiple entry visa, you will not want to protect your existing permission to stay (though you sometimes still might) by getting a re-entry permit. I have the strong impression that you do not know the difference between a visa and a permission to stay. Many countries do not have this distinction, Thailand does, and it is critical that you understand it.

Sounds more than ever like an overwhelmed and disorganised agent. This is all too common.

There is a difference between a first extension (at the end of the 90 days from the initial Non O) and subsequent extensions. For the second and subsequent extensions, Immigration wants to check that you complied with the conditions for the previous extension.

It is infuriating, but the MFA website has quite a number of errors, and I expect many MFA officials are quite ignorant of the rules applied at Immigration (a different branch of government).

There would only be a problem with a border bounce if trying to use the Poipet/Aranyaprathet crossing. If you have the finances, and do it yourself, I do not think there will be a problem with the "conversion" visa and one-year extension. If you really do a visa run with them, followed by having them process the visa and extension, 60,000 baht is very high, but not totally absurd. If you must use an agent, find a different one. Your current agent is perpetrating a borderline scam on you.

It is worth mentioning that this may not be the end of the problems. The next time she comes to Thailand, her passport issued in Thailand but never used might be queried. In the past, this has led to drama with immigration wanting you to use the foreign passport again. In at least one case, the Thai passport was destroyed on the spot at the airport by the immigration official. This was an extreme and atypical occurrence, but lesser issues might be encountered. Be prepared.

I concur that this is a hard and fast rule with only one exception. If you acquire Thai nationality while in Thailand, you are allowed to exit on your newly acquired Thai passport. On the other hand, I believe a senior official can decide to waive the fine.

Sadly, that is not possible. The international bus will not stop anywhere on the route to let you off. I have wondered whether offering the driver 20 baht to briefly stop opposite the consulate might do the trick.

There most definitely have been. Most unfortunately, there were cases of offshore workers (often oil workers) who have a one month on, one month off schedule who wanted to use visa exemptions to spend their off duty time in Thailand (mostly with Thai wives or girlfriends). IMHO, this ought to be a slam dunk reasonable use of visa exempt entries, but some such workers were denied entry in 2019 after several entries.

An even bigger factor is the total time recently spent in Thailand as a tourist. For instance, those who have been in Thailand continuously for two years on an initial tourist visa followed by Covid extensions would run a serious risk if flying out and back for a visa exempt entry. On the other hand, there would be absolutely no issue doing a border bounce at almost all land crossings.

Additionally, the restriction is two visa exempt entries by land in any calendar year. If entering on October 1st (45 days) and extending for 30 days, you would be doing the first border bounce for a land based visa exemption around December 14 2022. You would then be free to do two more visa exempt entries by land in 2023. Effectively, this would allow you to stay continuously for almost 300 days.

@ubonjoehelp! I know that this changed for all countries eligible for visa exemption (and some others) many years ago, but cannot find links that confirm this. It is frustrating that most sites that people are likely to rely on, including the MFA site, fail to have the current correct rules. The very best site to use is the IATA Travel Centre that contains the rules checked by airlines at check in. I believe this site is even comprehensive enough to identify where specific airlines apply additional rules over and above those mandated by Thai Immigration. However, few travellers are even aware of that site.

Presumably, you were turned away at airport check in for your flight. Although the requirements you quoted were wrong (Thailand immigration does not enforce any supposed rule of six months remaining validity on your passport) some airlines do insist on six months validity. That is one of several reasons why travelling with a soon to expire passport is a bad idea.

A model report from, obviously, an intelligent and experienced traveller. Well done in dodging the tuktuk driver scams, and I am impressed that you could avoid the "Development and Stability of Laos" fee, which I might have felt willing to pay as long as I was convinced it was legit.

It appears to me that this is a stupid troll topic. You do not encounter any immigration officials when checking in and boarding a flight from Suvarnabhumi to Phuket. If (highly unlikely) she encountered a scammer who convinced her that they were from Immigration and handed over 6,000 baht, that would not be Immigration's fault.

It is seriously inadvisable to travel on passports with less than six months validity. A lot of things can go wrong. That said, this is just a further confirmation that Thailand (unlike most other countries) only requires that you have a passport valid for the intended period of your stay in Thailand.

As Joe explained, the reason for your permission to stay can usually only be changed at Immigration at the time your existing permission to stay expires. Thus, assuming your permission to stay is not conveniently ending at the right time, you need to exit Thailand (without a re-entry permit) and return. For the return, a Non B or Non O visa (marriage) would both be OK. You can work on a permission to stay based on marriage. It is also possible just to return visa exempt, and sort out a "conversion" visa at Immigration.

The "under consideration" date is flexible to a limited extent. If Immigration has not called you, you can assume your extension is 100% approved, and you already have that extension in principle, with just a missing stamp in your passport to prove it. That said, some officials would be pretty annoyed if you turned up three weeks late.