Caldera

Bangkok, of all places! Shouldn't the young man have fled to Phnom Penh instead?

My prediction is that those higher fines will do nothing with regards to making Thailand's deadly roads any safer.

Expect to pay a little tea money to the Cambodians for allowing you to leave on the same day you arrive. Other than that and on the Thai side in particular, you shouldn't have any issues.

I don't think there's any substance to this. Consulate officials usually know nothing about immigration matters, and often give wrong advice. But I would actually welcome a clear-cut rule, because now that it's left to airport immigration, at some airports they just see it as an opportunity to hassle and extort people who happen to be over their imaginary limit of acceptable time in Thailand as a tourist.

Nowadays (it used to be different), you always clear immigration where you first land in Thailand, so if there's a stop in Bangkok, that's where you will need to get stamped in. There are direct international flights to Chiang Mai and Ko Samui, but not that many. For example, you could fly to Vietnam first and then from Saigon to Chiang Mai. If you want to visit Vietnam anyway, that might be a good option, otherwise it's probably a significant extra cost.

His heart seems to be in the right place and I cannot find fault with his reasoning. That being said, politics should be left to the locals, I don't think it's wise for a foreigner to get involved in such a public manner. Realistically, what can he hope to achieve?

My prediction is that it will be more successful than the doomed Smart Visa, but not by as much as they hope. That's because I think it will mostly cannibalize other visas rather than attract large numbers of fresh expats to Thailand. I can easily see why some people who qualify for the new LTR will switch to it from their current visa or extension, due to its unique benefits. For anyone who wasn't attracted by the existing options, on the other hand, I think those additional benefits won't be enough.

They always had trouble with people just showing up without having made the appointment that's required in Vientiane. That's one reason, there might be others.

Yeah I mean where's the money supposed to come from? Inflation, energy price hikes, etc. etc. China is still closed, Russia is at war. Chasing the high-roller pipe dream won't mean they just magically materialize in significant numbers!

I'm currently in Vietnam and I like it. The biggest catch is that they still haven't brought back the 3-month tourist visa which I'd have preferred - you can currently only get a 30-day eVisa (or enter visa exempt for 15 days if your passport country qualifies).

In the big scheme of things, that amounts to almost nothing.

As the climate with regards to tolerating overstays has most definitely changed, I would try to avoid planned overstays - even very short ones. If it happens by accident or is unavoidable at some point, at least there won't be a history of several overstays that way. That being said though, I wouldn't really expect any repercussions from such a one day overstay being discussed here.

Could start being collected. OK. Till the next delay...

I'm aware of such a service offered by an agent pre-Covid, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's available again. From memory, it was about 3,000 Baht and they made sure you got a sympathetic officer who stamped you in without hassle. How reliable such a service is or has been, I have no idea, I don't recall any firsthand reports of anyone actually using it.

That's a good point and others might want to take note. If and when challenged by immigration, having a fake ticket is probably worse than having no ticket, as it suggests a deliberate effort to deceive.

The best you can do is to get a letter from your school, explaining the situation, before you leave. If questioned by immigration, you could then show it and hope for the best. If you leave for such a long time without even your school's consent, on the other hand, chances are immigration won't like this at all.

That's the price for a visa on arrival. Which isn't the same as visa exemption. Entering visa exempt is free of charge

Sandbags 555. Have they ever helped, I mean really?

Exactly. Those agencies that have a website, such as thaivisaservice.com mentioned earlier in this thread, also clearly state that rule. I've never heard of an agency that helps you exceed that limit.

No they don't. The limit applies whether you use an agency or go by yourself.

You learn something new every day. I wasn't even aware that Suvarnabhumi Airport has a Terminal 4.

I'm calling TMI on this one.

I think the main issue is that they struggled to fill those vans. Now with the Covid extensions gone, that might change and prices might go down somewhat.

I've never informed them and it has never been a problem. I had asked them about it and the response was a shrug, so I'm not sure if they even have a procedure for this.

By "certified" they simply mean that your wife signs those photocopies of her documents.