phirho

It seems the Russians working here illegally is a major target.

It doesn't seem to be that way. If you read the first post, you see other nationalities like UK and USA were refused entry as well. Moreover, Russians still getting 30-day exempt entries on other land borders just fine (e.g. Ban Laem)

Disclaimer: I have no real skin in this game as I'm on a new non-O multi. I'm just curious.

Are you staying on back to back 90 day entries from a Multi visa? In this case it is clearly an abuse of the rules and not how this visa is intended to be used. If the crackdown continues, these visas may well become the next target after NON-EDs

Nothing on that web page gives me any confidence in the scheme.

I don't think Thailand Elite is any less reliable than the alternatives. When getting extensions based on retirement or marriage you have to satisfy the requirements each year and there is no guarantee that these won't change. They can easily increase retirement age or required funds or whatever.

With Elite you get 5 year visa with (quoted from their FAQ) automatic 1 year approval of stay on each entry.

Granted, their marketing is a huge failure and I wouldn't even know about this option if not for Thaivisa. At this point I think they should just rename it to something less pretentious and focus marketing efforts on the long stay visa. After the last year's relaunch they are definitely moving into the right direction (changing of entry stamp from 90 days to 1 year and introducing the 500k visa-only option)

Doesn't Thailand have bi-lateral agreements with some countries e.g Hong Kong. Does this mean HK citizens will have no problems getting visa exempts? If they do start stopping HK citizens from entering, then HK could easily refuse entry for Thai citizens in return.

Among the countries Thailand has bi-lateral agreements with, are Laos, Korea and Russia, and citizens from those three were mentioned as specifically targeted by the crackdown, so it doesn't seem the agreements give any protection.

The deal was signed in 2005 and became active since 2007 (so 7 years, not 3). Before this agreement Russians didn't need visa in advance but could get visa on arrival at the airport.

It establishes mutual visa-free regime (so Thais get 30 day visa exemption in Russia as well). Because of this agreement, in the past toughening of visa regime did not apply to Russians (e.g. there was a time when G7 countries only got 15 days at land borders but Russians still got 30)

Russians are the 3rd largest nationality among tourists arrivals in Thailand, so I doubt what you say is true but with the current crackdown who knows..

I'm currently staying on a Non-ED visa (thai language school) received Jun 5 and as I understand it, after the initial 3-month permission of stay it is possible to get three 3-month extensions (since i'm enrolled for a 1 year course)

However, with regards to the latest crackdown reports I decided to switch to the 500k elite card lite, and I'm wondering whether to apply now and lose the remaining 11 months I can potentially stay on the ED visa.

So, my question is: since the crackdown began, was anyone actually refused the ED extension at the immigration?

If they do refuse the extension, will I have enough time left to apply for the elite card or would I have to leave Thailand immediately?