BritTim

I have no first hand knowledge. However, there were quite a number of credible reports pre Covid, including from people arriving at Suvarnabhumi with freshly minted METVs from their home country.

The thing to realise is that, although it has better infrastructure than most, Thailand is basically a third world country where laws as written are regarded as guidelines that officials can follow or ignore at their whim, only limited by what their superiors will tolerate. Thus, you need to adapt your behaviour appropriately, to match the actual actions of officials in each area, in order to meet your own objectives. Forget about what is "legal" or "logical". All that matters is what happens in practice.

This is not strictly legal without a work permit which is almost impossible to get. However, if you have no Thai employer or customers, the authorities do not care, and your activities are 100% tolerated. No one is ever hassled for doing this until you are potentially depriving Thai companies of business or Thai citizens of employment.

The first question was can he get an extension from immigration (after a visa exempt entry) to extend his and his wife's stay to 90 days. The answer is no. Doing a conversion to a Non O would be possible, but could end up causing complications in September when they really want to do this. Immigration hates going through the complicated (for them) process of the conversion on the basis of retirement and then have you turn around and say "never mind".

Your current plan to return visa exempt by air in January will be OK. However, for the longer term, you either need to only use visas, or combine a visa or two entering by land, in conjunction with entering Thailand by land for visa exemptions (limit by land is two per calendar year). If you can afford a Thailand Elite membership, that would provide simplicity and peace of mind.

The agent might be offering money directly to the official who uses their discretion to waive seasoning. The agent and official would then be committing crimes. (Most likely, this would have no consequences for you in the unlikely event that the corruption was prosecuted.) For the safety of the agent and the official, it is important that they properly use the loopholes available to circumvent the anti corruption laws.

Unlike in the past, legal long stay tourists now need to be much more careful about where they enter Thailand. With a visa, there should be no problem but, as you discovered, some immigration officials believe visas allowing people to be long stay tourists should not be allowed. For your next exit and return, I advise you to use land crossings (most) or the few airports (such as Chiang Mai) that have historically always honoured visas.

It is simple. You (i) apply for and are granted an extension based on one of the valid reasons listed in the relevant regulations; or (ii) you apply for an extension without satisfying any of the valid reasons, and are given seven days to leave the country; or (iii) you are on overstay. If you do not, one way or another, get your permission to stay extended before its expiry, no sob story (valid or not) will help you. You will get an overstay stamp. There are two exceptions. First. if leaving one day late at either of the Bangkok airports, you might not get an overstay stamp, and you will not be fined. Second, if your permission to stay expires on a day when immigration offices are closed, you can, without penalty, go on the first subsequent day they are open to apply for an extension. I think, if rejected, you would still get the seven days to leave the country without penalty. EDIT: Maybe this suggests that, if prone to food poisoning and wishing to leave on the last possible day, you should try to arrange your visit so the last day is the first on a long weekend, with immigration closed for three or four days. Then, if the worst happens, you can visit immigration to get your seven days to leave the country when immigration reopens.

If you already entered another country, the Thai exit stamp cannot legally be cancelled, unless you can get the other country to cancel both their entry and exit stamps (which is unlikely to happen). Anyway, cancelling the exit stamp is not usually necessary, unless you are unable to access the re-entry desk without being on the other side of immigration. If you identify your error after stamping out of Thailand, but before entering another country, it should still be possible to get a re-entry permit (and the visa stamp was prematurely marked cancelled).

Like certain immigration officials, he obviously feels that tourist visas allow people to stay long periods in Thailand which is obviously not the intended use of such visas. In particular, the loophole provided to people of actually allowing multiple visits in quick succession is something the authorities obviously never anticipated, allowing you to stay much longer than is necessary to visit a few temples, palaces and waterfalls. It is even worse than people who use visa exemptions more than once in their lives, which at least only allows a 75-day stay. He supports the actions of immigration officials at certain entry points who seek to mitigate the grave damage wreaked on Thailand by having people stay and spend money in Thailand for months on end.

There are organised package tours to Phnom Penh from Bangkok, but these are targeted at tourists who are not seeking a Thai visa. As Jack intimated, we need to know the situation more clearly. If your friend is an occasional short term visitor to Thailand, and is eligible for, and happy returning visa exempt (45-day stay given on entry, extendable by an additional 30 days at immigration) then one of these package tours, possibly one including both Angkor and Phnom Penh, might make sense.

In my view, Laos is the place to go if you have never been to either (though Angkor is spectacular). A good start is a couple of days in Vientiane followed by Luang Prabang. (the old Royal capital). I find the more laid back vibe of Laos more comfortable than Cambodia. There is less crime, and less Chinese influence. However, it definitely does depend on the type of tourist experience you are looking for. If looking to save passport space, both Laos and Cambodia allow the use of e-visa at some land crossings and airports.

What you omit (important at the current time of political correctness) is evidence of the preferred pronouns King Charles III wants used. How do you know "he" or "she" or "they" do (or does) not want to be referred to as "she" and "her"? [Cannot resist contributing to this silly discussion]

Since any six months rule is an unofficial one imposed by a limited clique of officials, there is no way to predict what they will deem to violate their conditions. Leaving by air and returning by land should be problem free at most land crossings. Unofficial rules seem to mostly be applied at selected airports.

Historically, a multiple entry Non O to visit your Thai child used to be available sometimes in Penang. They would often only issue a single initially, but a multiple on subsequent applications. However, you needed to be able to show financial proof (iirc 200,000 baht for a single and 400,000 baht for a multiple). That information is old. I can recall no reports for several years.

They can, if they wish, get a United Nations travel document that most countries recognise, and will issue visas, under suitable circumstances. However, stateless persons living in Thailand will rarely travel internationally because Thailand might block their return.

There are certainly more options available for extending your permission to stay if here on a non immigrant entry. However, there is no guarantee that you will be able to extend using the same reason as previously. Your own changing circumstances, changing requirements, and discretion of the officials in interpreting those requirements means that your last one year extension of stay might be your last.

Firstly, what illegal activity do you think happened? Far often than not, people arranging work permits and extensions of stay based on working either use a lawyer/agent themselves, or have their employer arrange everything, again often with the help of an intermediary. The procedure is not as convoluted as it was decades ago, but still something busy people do not usually want to deal with. The use of an agent to get together the paperwork, and sort everything out is legal and normal. Secondly, he already has a police report. The interest or disinterest of the police in the situation has become moot. There is no suggestion at this time that a criminal case should be initiated (except, if he is unlucky, against the OP for his immigration status). Any action against the agent for negligence (usually to be avoided in Thailand, though I would consider it in this case) would be a civil action between the OP, his lawyers, the agent and the agent's lawyers. The police would have no involvement.

The procedure to get a replacement passport starts at https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports. Note that you are required to formally cancel your old passport before applying for the replacement. Also, it will normally take 6+ weeks before you have a replacement passport in hand. Given that it is 11 months since this horror show started, I think you need to find out your current immigration status. I would advise using an immigration lawyer to find out. You do not want to turn up at immigration yourself with an overstay of this length. If it transpires you are on a lengthy overstay then, rather than visiting immigration, either look for a fixer who can resolve the situation (for a hefty price) or prepare quickly to leave Thailand using an emergency passport (that the UK Embassy can provide within a day or two). If leaving on a long overstay, expect to be blacklisted from returning to Thailand. Hopefully, your permission to stay was extended before the agent lost your passport. There is a good chance of this, but the failure of the agent to return your passport might well be because they left it too late to apply for the extension, and were unable to resolve the mess this created. Good luck!

I assume you married into an urban middle class family (what I recommend). Unfortunately, while a very unfair generalisation, among poor up country Thais, the stereotypes others rely on are not totally without foundation.

The process is: Police report [DONE] Get replacement passport. The correct procedure depends on your nationality. If you tell us what that is, someone on here probably knows the exact procedure. Usually Google can tell you, and your embassy definitely can (though some embassies are difficult to get in touch with promptly). Go to immigration with the replacement passport, police report, and letter from your embassy to Thai immigration asking them to recognise the new passport as a replacement for the lost/stolen one. Follow the officials' advice on any remaining steps. This could become very tricky if the trouble with the agent has put you on overstay.

Non immigrant is used to indicate that, while not a tourist or in transit, you have only a temporary right to stay. You have not been granted permanent residence. "Temporary" can mean for a year or even longer (with the O-X visa) but, as requirements change, you may be unable to stay past the end of your current permission to stay. New Thailand Elite memberships now only last for a maximum of 20 years (so, in a sense are temporary) but the original memberships were lifetime and they are categorised differently.

Explaining this to the hotel might be frustrating, but there is no legal reason why you need stamps to be in the new passport in order to check into a hotel. Just show them both passports, and be patient in explaining it to them.

If you are confident you will want to remain in Thailand, one of the big advantages of the Thailand Elite program is that it insulates you when the immigration laws are changed on a whim. That is, unless you think the Thai authorities will refuse to honour Thailand Elite visas down the road which I consider highly unlikely.

Historically, Thai immigration at the Friendship Bridge in Nong Khai has been hassle free. While there is never 100% certainty that nothing changes, it is extremely unlikely that you would be refused a visa exempt entry there. Returning by air to Bangkok, however, especially if planning to enter visa exempt, would not be risk free.