BritTim

While it would not be cheapest, the best nearby consulate for tourist visas (when you have bad stamps in your passport) immediately pre Covid-19 was Yangon. Unless you assess the risk as high, you do not need to use Myanmar, however. If you are just worried about history at one specific embassy (and have a new passport since) any embassy/consulate should be fine, though avoiding Phnom Penh would be prudent.

I believe the same interpretation will probably apply this year, but we must wait to see what immigration decide. They might decide differently. We shall see.

You may have found an ancient page discussing applications for an imaginary Non O-A visa within Thailand (at the old immigration office that predated Chaengwattana). The Non O-A visa application from within Thailand was never available, and the documented requirements were therefore completely irrelevant.

In person and postal applications are no longer possible. You now must do everything electronically (which is easier anyway).

Get the extension of your permission to stay as usual (which may be for a little less than a full year if your passport expiry date is under 12 months ahead). Then, immediately apply for a new passport. You should avoid having a passport with less than six months of remaining validity as this can create complications if you need to travel.

Surprising. At which immigration office were you successful? Did your friends enter Thailand with a Non Immigrant visa or with a 15-day visa on arrival? Did you all go through an agent, or apply directly yourself? The published rules definitely now state that only those on regular tourist visas or visa exempt entry qualify.

After the STV is issued, you have 90 days during which you can enter, potentially meaning that you might not enter Thailand using the STV until December. Have you see clear confirmation that this is true, and that you would still be able to get the second 90-day extension in June 2023 (expiring September 2023)? You might be right, but that did not seem to be the interpretation of the rules that was the consensus shortly before the STV was fortunately extended last year. As I wrote in an earlier post, the STV becomes a fairly attractive option for some if that is true, especially given the troubles some had at certain entry points back in 2019 when trying to make full use of METVs.

I have never seen any evidence that the authorities are concerned at that stamp, as long as you obey the order to leave. You have been totally legal throughout, and you may often end up with the stamp for something simple like the end of your work contract with no suitable extension being available to gain you a few days to get your affairs in order prior to leaving. Overstay stamps (even for short overstays) can occasionally be a genuine problem, however.

What is not clear (at least to me) is whether September 30 is the last date on which an STV can be issued, the last date on which an STV can be used to enter the country (unlikely), the maximum permission to stay expiry date (unlikely) or the final date on which you can apply for a 90-day extension. If you can enter Thailand using an STV until September 30, and still be eligible for both 90-day extensions, the STV is a more attractive option.

I have had issues with attempted corruption when trying for a visa on arrival at land borders, but never at Phnom Penh airport. The only advantage of the e-visa, when flying to Phnom Penh, is that it saves space in your passport.

When you apply for an extension, and are denied, you are always given the order to leave the country within seven days. If this is advantageous, by all means go for it. However, make sure you really do leave. Immigration is seriously unhappy if you ignore the order to leave.

If pre departure Covid tests are not a requirement for your destination country, I do not think they will be a requirement for the transit at Suvarnabhumi. However, I would recommend that you verify your airline endorses this interpretation of the rules.

If entering Thailand with a visa it definitely should not matter. While others want to disbelieve this, by law, Thai immigration officials are given less power than their Western counterparts, and they are only supposed to permit or deny entry according to clearly defined criteria specified in the Immigration Act. Unfortunately, immigration officials at some entry points have decided they should have a power to override the decisions of consular officials, and refuse to honour valid visas. The situation with visa exempt entry is less clearcut. For more than a decade, there has been a directive to immigration officials that visa exempt entry should not be allowed if being used to stay longer in Thailand than is consistent with regular tourism. There are many ways that can be interpreted and, at some entry points, it may be interpreted strictly. Immigration officials are definitely empowered to deny visa exempt entry (in the same way that consular officials are empowered to deny visas) if in their sole judgment the purpose of entering Thailand is not tourism. That is in spite of the fact that there can be valid reasons for short visits to Thailand that are reasonable, but not strictly tourism related.

I can confirm with 100% certainty that this is possible. Further, the Non O-A visa is not so attractive nowadays (apart from a somewhat complicated application process) because of insurance requirements that are not always satisfied by excellent international policies. The main challenge with the Non O application in Thailand is opening a bank account, and transferring in the 800,000 baht (retirement) or 400,000 baht (marriage) from abroad that is a requirement. The application must be done with at least 15 days left on the permission to stay from your tourist (including visa exempt) entry. Apart from that, it is usually very easy. If the extra bank deposit amount (retirement) is easy for you, that makes future extensions even easier.

Your idea of coming into Chiang Mai with an actual tourist visa is about the safest approach I can think of. The main danger is if you decide to risk a visa exempt entry.

Anything "to be launched in the next year" that is announced by ASEAN might happen eventually, but will 99% certain take longer than a year, and no one can predict what the visa will eventually mean. The combined Thai/Cambodia visa turned out to be more trouble than it was worth, and was discontinued within a year. Other proposals for multi country visas have come and gone. More than a decade after it was announced to be imminent, it is still impossible to purchase a combined BTS/MRT ticket in Bangkok, something that ought to be really easy to negotiate.

Ideally, have stamps transferred to the new passport, and apply for a further one-year permission to stay before leaving. Starting from scratch is certainly possible, but can involve some additional costs. For instance, if you decide to return visa exempt, you will probably have to factor in throwaway onward flight costs, and there is a small chance you could even be denied entry.

This has been clearly highlighted in several previous threads.

It seems immigration did not notice that it was a cancelled passport. I have left Thailand with a blank new passport three times over the last 20 years or so. On each occasion, Immigration has done stamp transfer to the new passport before stamping me out. On one occasion (at Suvarnabhumi) I asked for a re-entry permit also, which was duly placed in the new passport.

I looked years ago at whether you could enter the Damnok free trade zone (where the golf club is located) and return to Thailand without Malaysian stamps. I was told that this is not possible. [I did wonder why it was not possible, at least, to get your Thai exit stamp cancelled instead.] I believe, if using the golf club, the club will arrange to get Malaysian stamps in your passport without you needing to pass the Malaysian checkpoint. I would imagine, at the current time, you would be questioned about your plans when exiting Thailand, and not allowed to leave without a Thailand Pass if you stated an intention of returning promptly to Thailand.. You would also need to satisfy Malaysian health requirements. Note that the Damnok free trade zone is technically Malaysian territory, although in the area between the checkpoints. It is not exactly a "no man's land" as that is generally understood.

If you have a re-entry permit (and the immigration official does not ignore it) then you will be stamped in until the date specified on the re-entry permit (the expiry date of the associated permission to stay). If you still have an unexpired O-A visa, the official might well decide to ignore the re-entry permit, and stamp you in on the visa instead, giving you a full 12 months. As you implied, immigration will probably insist that you have health insurance (not Covid insurance) to cover the full 12 months in that case.

Immigration at the airport will transfer the necessary stamps from your old passport to your new passport and then stamp you out as normal. This takes some time, and you should arrive early at the airport to allow for this.

Did you ever ask about this at the overstay fine desk about that at the time? Or, did they close that as well and waive fines for those leaving on those flights?

As stated, there is no 30-day visa (except in the unlikely event that you have a transit visa, in which case you cannot extend). Assuming entry without a visa, receiving a 30-day visa exemption, you can extend one time for a further 30 days. Then you have some options for legally staying longer, but they are not easy. It will usually be better to leave Thailand and return if you want to extend your stay.

Do you have a link where someone had this experience? At both Bangkok airports, you can definitely get re-entry permits 24 hours. For the rest, there may be airports with no re-entry permit desk, but I have never read of anyone who found a re-entry desk at an airport closed when they were on their way out on an international flight. If I experienced this, I would definitely have found an immigration official, and asked them to sort it out. Usually, the desk that handles overstay fines can also do re-entry permits if there is no separate desk.