BritTim

With a tourist visa, you would be fine entering via the Friendship Bridge at Nong Khai and at certain airports. Even with a visa, entering via either of the Bangkok airports, while you would probably be successful, would involve some risk. You really must avoid visa exempt entries for the time being, certainly through airports. If you absolutely must do a border bounce for a visa exempt entry, the risk is lowest at Mae Sot or Mae Sai, with most Laos crossings the next least likely to result in problems.

It is absolutely amazing that you state with complete assurance that it is impossible to apply for a Non O visa (90-day initial permission to stay) at Immigration when this whole thread is about the problems the OP had doing just that! Have you ever looked at the TM87 form "Application for visa" and compared it with the TM7 form "Application for Extension of Temporary Stay in the Kingdom". The requirements for the two are completely different. You cannot apply for all types of visa at Immigration. However, if in Thailand on a visa exemption or an entry from a tourist visa, applications for most of the most common types of visa are permitted. There are literally thousands of threads in this forum about that process.

If you will be arriving with a Non O visa, there should be no problem. It is only while you are perceived as a long stay tourist that officials have it in for you.

Both the extension and the contemplated border bounce will be fine. Be very careful with flying back into the Bangkok airports in the future, unless you have been out of the country for at least half a year.

So far, the effect on Thailand of global climate change has been small, though there is some evidence of changes in monsoon patterns which, if confirmed, could be devastating. That aside, humans are having a huge effect on our planet. As a direct result of human activity, global forest cover has declined from around 50% in 1800 to around 30% today, and deforestation is actually intensifying. The nature of many forests that do exist today is also markedly different. Primary forests have been replaced by tree plantations. As a consequence of this and other factors, we are now in the midst of the holocene mass extinction event, with animal species being eliminated at a greater rate than at any other time in the last 66 million years. Pollution (especially microplastic pollution) is having a major impact on the health of most animal species, including humans, damaging DNA, organs and reproduction. Human induced changes to the atmosphere are already responsible for major changes to the climate in some regions, notably the arctic and parts of the Antarctic. These changes, in turn, are expected to precipitate alterations in ocean currents and wind patterns greatly impacting the weather in large parts of the globe. That is aside from gradual increases in sea levels that will either necessitate evacuations of coastal communities, or enormous investment in coastal defences. Humans have the technology to do harm to the planet that other animal species do not possess. Unfortunately, that technological prowess is not matched with the intelligence to use that technology wisely.

Generally true, but it is unusual to annotate an extension stamp with Non-RE. As I wrote above, it is not really clear. Maybe, the official accidentally wrote Non-RE on the extension stamp rather than the entry stamp.

I believe what he is doing is flight to Vientiane and return by land via the Friendship Bridge. It is possible he wants to get from Nong Khai to Udon airport, but he is not interested, as far as I can see, in the reverse direction.

While NON-RE is usually a notation used on an entry stamp when re-entering with a re-entry permit for any non-immigrant permission to stay, in your case, it might just be intended to denote that the reason for your most recent extension of your permission to stay was retirement. Unclear.

I think the normally recommended solution by public transport is the Airport Shuttle Bus to the Central Bus Station (timetable available at https://www.vientianeairport.com/transportation/) and bus or songtaew from there to the bridge. Takes a bit of time. If there are direct minibuses, I think they are very infrequent, but not sure.

It is hot, but not unusually hot for Thailand during the hot season. The weather forecaster is correct. If the weather we are encountering now were to occur in Thailand in January, it would be accurate to call that a "heat wave".

If you would still like to use Jomtien immigration, talk to your hotel manager and explain your problem. They might be willing to help you out by providing you with a long-term rental agreement on the basis that its conditions will not, in practice, be enforced.

Not a few retirees do live in hotels as it simplifies matters significantly. Some hotels will offer you a sweet deal if you sign a contract for several months. Less than 15,000 baht a month for a nice room is quite common. Living alone has benefits, but that must be balanced against other factors.

Unlucky. If acceptable to you, check into a hotel in Bangkok and apply at Chaengwattana. Your story (which Bangkok immigration accept) is that you are temporarily staying in hotels while looking for a permanent place to live. You will need to make three visits to Bangkok. The first is for the visa application, the second to receive the initial 90-day permission to stay after the under consideration period, and the last when the time comes for the first one-year extension. Subsequent to this, you can just apply for extensions in Jomtien.

A complete guess is that the application was made using a Thai debit/credit card, thus erroneously leading a mentally subnormal official to assume that the applicant was in Thailand.

ChatGPT is a useful tool if you understand its limitations. It is based on information posted over the years by human beings. Most of the information posted by humans (as a perusal of this forum will suggest) is nonsense or misinformation. While the tool makes some attempt to evaluate which information is most likely to be trustworthy, such filtering at the current time is unreliable. So, sure, the information it provides is usually dubious: in this situation, perhaps, no better than a Thai embassy website. However, it provides a baseline that you can check for accuracy against other sources.

I assume that, by "7-day trick" is meant applying for an extension of permission to stay that is denied and, as a result, receiving an order to leave the country within seven days. That "trick" most certainly does exist, and can be utilised any time you are not already under an order to leave the country.

Thailand's treatment of refugees is shameful. The extreme cases much worse than shameful. The article you cite does not even represent the worst abuses. It has been known for refugees to be kidnapped by officials and sold into slavery.

I appreciate your frustration, though some posters, I think, were just genuinely trying to be helpful. Having you tried an email to [email protected] to ask for assistance?

Each time you enter Thailand visa exempt or with a tourist visa, you are entitled to a single 30-day extension of your permission to stay.

The "it did not happen to me" crowd will always try to blame the victim in cases like this. While a bit unlucky, you cannot complain that you received the e-visa late (for reasons explained by others). However, there is no excuse for accusing you of not being in the UK when there was evidence that you were.

Frequent travellers will soon fill up a 32-page or 48-page passport. I once needed to replace my passport after only 14 months of heavy use. In the last 45 years, I have never had a passport that lasted for the full 10-year term of the passport. Even when the UK issued 96-page passports, I filled it in seven years.

By law, all guests staying overnight must be registered. Of course, the hotel may not see you (or may choose to pretend they do not see you).

Contact a well connected lawyer who specializes in family matters. Did you ever attend school in Thailand? If so, they may have a copy of your original birth certificate that the district office might certify if you are lucky. Good luck!

I assumed that those contributing to this thread would familiarise themselves with the nature of typical asylum seekers escaping to Asian countries. Obviously, a Russian journalist, for instance, from an affluent family has many more options, but people of that kind are not fleeing to Thailand to request asylum in Canada.

Is this s real question? families with around 150 baht in savings who are fleeing a village just set alight by the Burmese military find it pretty hard to travel to an international airport and board a flight to New York.