bangers101

Consumers are so confident they are spending less and accumulating more debt.

That sounds about right..

The number of posts by people revelling in other's misfortune speaks to the collective (lack of) mental and emotional health of the usual suspects, and the many new ones who seem to have been drawn out of the woodwork by this turn of events. It is frankly disgusting.

And to those comparing the rules and their administration in Thailand to those in the US, UK, etc., the difference is a major one: due process.

In the US, at least, people who are blacklisted will have had their day in court; likewise, deportees will have been heard by competent, if not sympathetic, officers of the court. No individual will be blacklisted by the front line thugs at Customs and Border Patrol...

Other differences are too numerous to mention, but include no reporting once a permission to stay has been granted (green card), etc.

Contrast this with the largely de facto power of the average farang-despising immigration officer to exercise caprice in handing out red stamps in your passport. Consider also that it is largely a crap-shoot as to whether you encounter one of those farang-haters, or one who is merely jealous, or one who didn't get laid the previous evening, etc, etc, etc., or one of the relatively professional and competent ones who try to administer the law fairly.

One suspects that many of the more strident advocates of the "have your ducks in a row, and no harm shall befall thee" myth have their uncomplicated and repeatable routine worked out at one of the more quaint local offices where such professional and farang-friendly officers ply their careers. Chaeng Wattana, and Suan Plu before it, are/were never so predictable. Nor is it predictable as to what your reception, and subsequent treatment will be like if you move to a new city or province.

Having lived in Bangkok for quite a few years, and then moved to Nong Khai, I can attest to the utter bull$hit you may have to abide if you move somewhere, in foolish regard only to the pleasantness of the place, and ignorantly trust that you will deal with a reasonable and professional immigration staff. Fortunately, until about 2011, the price was only to buy a bag of cookies from the chubby immigration lady, and then you were stamped in with a smile...

And it has only gotten worse. The rules used to be subject to a bit of softening at the sight of a purple note; it was a necessarily unwritten rule, but if everyone was on the same page, it was done gracefully, and everyone went home satisfied and relatively happy. Now, knuckleheads insist on bringing their Western anti-graft sensibilities with them, and foreign governments impose theirs from without, engendering even more anti-foreign sentiment among those whose rice bowls have been broken.

So, it's no wonder that Pol Col Somchai doesn't smile much, or exchange pleasantries with Billy-Bob with his iPad and new pickup in the lot as he has to stamp the guy in for another 90 days or one year. The officer can no longer extort enough to show the trappings necessary to actually get to home plate with the young thing of his fancy...

So, it's not really a lack of respect for the "rules", whatever they may ACTUALLY be, it's the lack of consistency, and lack of recourse that make it incomparable to the Western countries so popular in the posts of the schadenfreudists.

Some Jingthing character has been fighting the wishful thinking and outright lunacy of the deniers throughout this thread. One wonders: why does he bother? Anyone who can not parse the clear and obvious meaning of the statement:

"Overstay for less than 1 year > Forbidden from re-entering the kingdom for 5 years."

is not worth arguing with.

Personally, although it was heartbreaking to do so, I have left Thailand, not so much owing to the vagaries of my own ability to stay, but due to outright abuse of my poor Filipino wife, who was subject to untoward comments from immigrations staff, in Nong Khai, and in Bangkok, and even in Vientiane. It was the correct decision, but not a happy one.

In 30+ years, this is the farthest I have seen the pendulum swing, and I don't dare hope to live long enough to see it return to the point where foreigners can retire with any sense of security or fairness. Thailand is failing, and as Thais will do, will blame everyone but themselves until the bottom is hit. We're easy targets these days, and no matter the parachute, the ground is coming up fast...

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Such bitter bile has it's source somewhere other than a clear view of immigrations rules. The rules for visiting Thailand are clear enough for most of us. and the requirements for long-term stay or residency are there to read in detail. Comparisons are odious at best, and Thailand may well be more strict than it's immediate neighbours, but compare Thailand with countries around Peru or Kenya and the picture is clear that Thailand is, in fact, very easy-going, even with the new rules.

There is no "right" to leave your country, choose a wife from another country and live the rest of your days in a third country with which neither you nor your wife has any connection. Thailand extends a warm welcome to those who visit within the rules , and who maintain a happy and respectful disposition towards their hosts, but you are always a foreigner.

As an aside -- reciprocity of immigration rules is not a "requirement" of any country unless there isa bi-lateral agreement. If reciprocity was across the board, the "holier-than-thou" EU, US and OZ would get the blame for the draconian immigration requirements.

If you read the proposed penalties for overstay, you have to admit they look draconian..... I traveled through the land border not long ago and I was told I would only get a 15 day visa on arrival but I got 30 days on arrival. Its difficult to be clear when you change the rules all the time.

Perhaps immigration should set up a monthly subscription service so tourists and travellers can get the latest updates on the ever changing and evolving visa regulations....... Honestly! its badly timed and badly thought out and is going to scare lots of people away from what is become the lance armstrong of tourist destinations. (5 star hotels are 50% down) .... what's next? erecting a getto at Kao San?

It's about time the authorities got tough with 'OVERSTAYERS'. Seriously, there are people out there that think Thai Immigration laws area joke. The whole process of overstay is considered an 'option' by so many. These normally are the sort of people you look at and start to feel itchy. Well good riddance to them, I hope they are all eventually rounded up and blacklisted.

Having said that, there should be a small clause out in place for those that simply miss by error, a few days or so (maybe a maximum of a week or so), as I sympathise with those who've simply made an error or whatever.

Anyway, no doubt there's a few dirt bags with puckering sphincters at the moment, sad to be them

There is an overstay counter at Immigration. You can't blame foreigners for availing themselves of a service that has been set up and provided for them by the immigration authorities. The authorities could have said many years ago that overstays would not be tolerated. They did not. Perhaps they should have consulted you sooner. No doubt you would put them straight!

Out of interest I am in the uk, I used to post my passport to the thai consulate in hull and obtain my visa very efficiently in a couple of days.

I have just been told there are now NO POSTAL applications anymore for visa . You must go in person, and if you require a NON IMM visa that has to go through london which can take 10 days and may be refused. A friend of mine had a paper missing so his app was refused.

Do you want to bother?

I spoke to my sister who was planning to come to thailand for Christmas but was told her travel insurance would no longer be valid.

She Cancelled and booked somewhere else to go.

Clamping down on visa regulations might be a good thing (its always popular with voters), BUT if might be prudent to WAIT until the tourist industry gets up off its knees before whacking it yet again. No doubt lots of people who would have come to thailand will just stay away because it feels like you're visiting Russia in the 1980"s...A bit scary!

My sympathies go out to thai people who run small business that are dependant on money from tourists ( Ah well its only 10% of the economy! )

Suthep is a firebrand, which is clear from his rhetoric and lack of compromise.

He's also a front man for other people and their interests and agendas.

Lets assume Suthep is successful, what do you suppose happens as this newly installed yellow shirt government starts to re-draw Thailand's electoral map? No prices for guessing in who's favour.

Lets assume there are free and fair elections some time this year and the Reds are triumphantly re-elected and re-endorced as the 'voice of the people'. What then happens to the powerful cadre that has supported Suthep, including the courts, the military, the money brokers, the media etc etc etc?

Either way its looks like rough weather ahead for democracy, equality, freedom and the economy.

Now might be a good time to think about pastures anew...

I read in the Bangkok Post this week that, due to the massive decline in tourists, TOT and other agencies are going to require hundreds of millions of baht to start a new 'Visit Thailand Campaign'...

Introducing a clamp down of non-status visitors might be a good thing but the timing of it looks....well....daft!

it looks like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and these are the kind of problems you get when you don't have a functioning government.