tompix321

What happens if an expat goes away for a weekend trip, stays in a hotel away from his normal address and then the house owner forgets to report it to immigration after returning home? 
I guess the system shows no address after checking out from the weekend stay? Will this be reset after another trip? Will it be reset after a trip outside of Thailand? Will it be a problem/fine at a 90-day report? Can a fine be avoided by going on a trip to Burma and back?

Asking for a friend, obviously. 

I want a job as a METV officer in Vientiane !

Loads of time on Facebook !

The consular staff in Vientiane will not be happy with this.

You kidding?

It's the official end of their nightmare,they used to be constantly swamped!

So if people have to go there twice as often (every three months rather than every six months) you think they will be less swamped?

Bravo!....I would expect them to shoot themselves on the foot100% of the time

and I have never been disappointed....lol

Shooting themselves in the foot by getting foreigners staying here to get actual visas?

Retirement, work, volunteering, study, tourist, marriage, family....

People oddly think that they have some sort of birthright to rock on up, no visa, and stay as long as they want.

Good on them for this crackdown.

Having people spend money from their home countries in the Thai economy is good for Thailand, and promising 15/30 days visa free visits and then turning people back at the border is the opposite of goodwill. I didn't see anyone talking about birthright or demanding unlimited stays. How do you benefit from this crackdown? How would Thailand benefit from the money being spent in other countries?

Entries by "visa exemption" are extendable by 30 days at an immigration office. If it is intended that longer than 45/60 days are required for a "holiday" then an appropriate visa should be obtained in advance of arrival.

That's not new, and in no way answers to my questions.

Bravo!....I would expect them to shoot themselves on the foot100% of the time

and I have never been disappointed....lol

Shooting themselves in the foot by getting foreigners staying here to get actual visas?

Retirement, work, volunteering, study, tourist, marriage, family....

People oddly think that they have some sort of birthright to rock on up, no visa, and stay as long as they want.

Good on them for this crackdown.

Having people spend money from their home countries in the Thai economy is good for Thailand, and promising 15/30 days visa free visits and then turning people back at the border is the opposite of goodwill. I didn't see anyone talking about birthright or demanding unlimited stays. How do you benefit from this crackdown? How would Thailand benefit from the money being spent in other countries?

The worth of the item is determined by the purchaser. Case in point: I enjoy my SangSom. I can buy that in a number of places, including 7-11 for 299 baht, or a little mom and pop place a bit further away for 265 baht. Suppose I really, really want a SangSom and coke. Where do I buy it? Always at the mom and pop? No. Sometimes I run to 7-11 because it is closer to where I live. So factors other than just the "worth" of the product have to be factored in.

I would also debate your second assertion, that any rise in the minimum wage will necessary lead to layoffs. This same argument is consistently trotted out in the US whenever a rise in the minimum wage is proposed. The conservatives use this one every single time, and they have yet to ever provide supporting documentation. Are there some layoffs? Undoubtedly, especially in businesses that are already skating on thin ice. However, overall there has yet to be a net loss of jobs. In fact, most of the states or municipalities that independently boost the minimum wage tend to see job growth due to the increased economic activity that results from the higher wages. Those living on a minimum wage do not save that money, and they do not invest that money. They spend it, immediately. That money goes directly back into the economy and typically increases employment.

The fact that the buyers evaluation is the relevant one does not contradict my statement. If you value your SangSom at 350 you can buy it at several places if you include the cost/value of getting to the shop etc. My point was that we (rational entities) do not trade a high value for a lower one. The point is used to explain what economists know about demand and supply. There is a limit where you would say, "Sod it! I'll get a couple of Changs instead or travel far to get a better deal!". Employers can't function at a loss indefinitely. In Seattle unemployment has not gone up but it has gone up less than in the rest of the country. There are many examples (even in Thailand) where people lose their jobs because of the minimum wage. If minimum wage was a good policy Sweden, Norway and Switzerland would be poor countries or at least countries with huge income gaps. The opposite is true.

If you ask 301 B for something worth 299 B, there will be no transaction. It's as simple as that. Raising the minimum wage without increasing productivity just leads to higher unemployment. Some will get 60 B more per day, but some will get 300 B less per day.

If you really want to improve the lives of workers you should promote incentives to increase productivity rather than populist and counter-productive measures like a minimum wage. Education, automation, research and development, investment, free trade and competition all help to boost productivity long term.

why not just pop fly out for a weekend in Cambodia then back in?

Because a visa extension at the immigration office is easier, faster, and cheaper?

Not sure about the pdf, but you can fill in the form while waiting in line so there is no need to print it in advance. The place is the general consulate between the dinosaur museum and the river. You can now pick up the visa the same day at 3.30. I was there three days ago.

Does it really need to be a government project? Here in Chiang Mai there are already plenty of places to eat a meal for 25 to 35 bath (even 15 and 20 B is possible).

1. How should backpackers or touring cyclists/motorcyclists, who often travel spontaneously without a plan, prove that they are tourists, and why should they have to? They may have no or few hostel bookings, and money on a savings account back home connected to a bank card. They may plan to leave at a land border to go to the next country, but cannot say exactly when and where. 

2. What about long term travelers, who may travel for more than a year, perhaps several years, and want to come back to Thailand several times during their big adventure? They will have more than one tourist visa in their passport.

3. Will there be any proper visa for people who want to stay and live off their savings (longer than 6 months), but are not students, 50+, married or businessmen (and not rich enough for Elite card)?

4. Why doesn't Thailand focus more on finding illegal workers at the actual workplaces, rather than suspecting everyone with a special profile at borders? It seems to be a poor way of filtering out the unwanted. Illegal workers can still learn how to get around the filter and many others who just contribute may be kicked out or just scared off to other spending destinations like Malaysia or Cambodia.

However when re-entering the person will state that he/she is entering Thailand for the purpose of tourism.

This is where the abuse can/has set in.

Any thinking person will understand that the serial border runners were/are not bona fide tourists but people who wish to stay long term for whatever personal reason they may have.

It can be abuse if you lie and work illegally for example. I does not have to be abuse though. Why would it be abuse to be a tourist longer than a certain time? Yes, some people want to stay in Thailand for whatever personal reason they may have - like tourism! How does doing sightseeing, take photos and going to bars and restaurants stop being tourism after X days, and what does it become? How is spending money here bad for the country?

I've been a tourist for the last five years. I guess I'm not a thinking person because I don't understand that I don't exist or are an abuser of Southeast Asian countries' immigration laws. I actually thought my spending here had a positive effect on the tourism industry and the whole economy, not a negative effect. Silly me!

It's OK to say that there is or may be abuse, but not OK to say that all border-runners are abusers. Many people just spend their money here; Money from outside of Thailand. The longer I spend here rather than in Malaysia or East Timor, the better it is for Thailand, IMHO.

A legitimate tourist has no problems getting tourist visa's to cover their stays in Thailand

Then you must have a time-based definition of the term, just like Thai Immigration. A bureaucrat's definition. That's not a very open-minded or modern definition and it's certainly not the average dictionary definition. Neither does it benefit the country's economy. I've been a tourist for over five years in 8 countries. At least according to my English dictionary. It makes perfect sense that a government has some time limits, but I still tour and see sights after their arbitrary deadline (in another country or with a new stamp or visa).

Thailand is not a country where you can stay without paying tax. Even if we just spend our money we pay stuff like VAT, energy, fuel, tobacco and alcohol taxes. Even in a mom and pop store you indirectly pay VAT because they pay it at the wholesale, and pass it on to you. We don't pay income tax, and neither should we. We don't work. This is not different from say Denmark (with the highest taxes in the world). If you just stay there for 90 days and don't work you only pay the same kind of taxes. They just happen to be a bit higher.

In Denmark i don't think you have to extend your tourist visa after 60 days though. It should be good for 90 days if I'm not mistaken. (I'm not Danish.)

For people who stay long term in Thailand with tourist visas will nothing change after 12th August. Unless, they had some overstay or too many visa exempt stamps in the past. That said, to activate the second entry after 12th August will be no problem. It doesn't matter how long the "visa runner" stay in Thailand prior. Border to Laos and Cambodia are fine.

I sure hope this is true, but it does contradict what another officer unofficially said at Poipet. That rule said something like "questioning and red stamp if you have more than 6 months in Thailand within 24 months, refused entry if you have more than 6 months within 12."

I read here often about folk complaining about seeing bars run by Eastern European folk taking over the hot spots and what looks like Nigerians selling dope on street corners, weeeeeeeeeeell, to me this is the first step to tidy things up, and it sounds like a good thing. Saying that, I am sorry that genuine folk are caught up in the clean up. But Thai immigration must start somewhere.

Couldn't they start at the actual problem (at the work place)?

What they do no is like saying "murderers drink juice, so let's lock up anyone that drink juice". That does not necessarily mean that murderers will continue to drink juice, but you will be sure to lock up a lot of innocent juice drinkers.

The illegals will find ways regardless of rules (faking documents, tickets, bookings, taking Thai classes, marry a bar girl on paper, etc), but scaring off honest people (spending money made abroad) is not helping Thailand. It shouldn't be hard to take a few video clips of illegal workers and confront them red-handed.

I went to Chiang Mai immigration this morning and was told there is, and will be, no change in the handling of tourist or multiple tourist visas. Mae Sai border trips are ok and not considered visa runs, and extension requests are welcome. A national newspaper and reports on this forum disagree, but I'll take the work of officials myself.

Thanks, but this sharply contradicts what another TV member wrote and he was also in contact with the immigration officers. The difference is that he contacted an immigration office at a border. Why would Chiang Mai Immigration get internal memos from Bangkok about issues that only matter for border checkpoints? And why should I trust one of these reports more than the other. I understand that you trust what you heard, but from my point of view there is just more confusion.

Well, technically if one owns a condo and owns a car in Thailand, it is getting a bit harder to call the man a Tourist. It can easily be interpreted that he is clearly working off shore and then coming back and living in Thailand.

Why is that? Is a car not possible to use for touring/tourism? And since when do you need to be non-living (undead?) to also be a tourist?

I've been a tourist (or "tourist" for those of you with a time based definition of the word) in SEA (8 countries) for the last 5 years. I do not work. I use saved money from an EU country. I'm not 50 yet.

This is what I have in my current passport:

* TR visa (double entry) issued in May 2013 in Savannakhet, and used for two entries plus two extensions until November 2013, when I entered Malaysia.

* A three day visa exempt visit in Thailand in February 2014, and

* a TR visa (single entry) issued in May 2014 in Penang. It's now active and extended until August 12.

So some of my options are:

* Leave and spend my money elsewhere (which is fine for me).

* Go to Laos on holiday for a few weeks and also get a new tourist visa (and keep touring in Thailand).

* Study Thai and get an ED visa.

* Look for a job and get a work permit + non imm.

I would like to hear from you guys about my chances to do the TR in Laos alternative.

Will I have trouble getting back in?

How long should I stay in Laos before applying?

So does anyone know if this would be possible? I hope I didn't post this in the wrong thread.

I guess this clears up a few of our questions: http://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand/new-visa-rules.php

A dose of good news awaits tourists—following the new regulation set by Thai Immigration, visitors can now come regularly to Thailand without limiting their stay within a total of 90 days in a six-month period.

The restriction has already been abolished so tourists can now visit Thailand as often as they want, provided that they obtain 30 day Visa on Arrival at airports and 15 day Visa on Arrival if they are traveling via land borders.

However, immigration officials still recommend getting visas prior to arrival in Thailand, as they remind visitors that back-to-back short visas are not the proper way to extend the stay in the country on a long-term basis.

This new regulation is predicted to greatly benefit travel agencies as more border trips are expected to be booked with the increased influx of tourists eager to renew their visas.

I've been a tourist (or "tourist" for those of you with a time based definition of the word) in SEA (8 countries) for the last 5 years. I do not work. I use saved money from an EU country. I'm not 50 yet.

This is what I have in my current passport:

* TR visa (double entry) issued in May 2013 in Savannakhet, and used for two entries plus two extensions until November 2013, when I entered Malaysia.

* A three day visa exempt visit in Thailand in February 2014, and

* a TR visa (single entry) issued in May 2014 in Penang. It's now active and extended until August 12.

So some of my options are:

* Leave and spend my money elsewhere (which is fine for me).

* Go to Laos on holiday for a few weeks and also get a new tourist visa (and keep touring in Thailand).

* Study Thai and get an ED visa.

* Look for a job and get a work permit + non imm.

I would like to hear from you guys about my chances to do the TR in Laos alternative. Will I have trouble getting back in? How long should I stay in Laos before applying?

I worry that I may get into trouble soon, but I may be wrong. This is what I have in my passport:

TR (double entry) visa issued in May 2013 in Savannakhet, and used for two entries plus two extensions until November 2013, when I entered Malaysia.

Then I have a three day visa exempt visit in Thailand in February 2014, and a TR (single entry) visa issued in May 2014 from Penang that is used and extended until August 12.

So my options are? Leave and spend my money elsewhere? Go to Laos on holiday for a few weeks and also get a new TR visa? Study Thai and get an ED visa? Look for a job and get a work permit?

I would like to hear from you guys about my chances to do the TR in Laos alternative. Will I have trouble getting back in? I'm doing bicycle touring and photography and has been a tourist (or "tourist" for those of you with a time based definition of the word) in SEA for the last 5 years. I do not work. I use saved money from an EU country.