Caldera

You say you don't have a work permit. You don't say what your visa status is, but that's quite important.

Surprising? At age 77? I'd say she has well and truly earned her retirement.

I didn't need more reasons NOT to fly to India, and yet they just keep coming...

If you want to "stay" here with your Thai wife, there's a Non-O visa and 1-year extension available to facilitate that What's in question here is the 60-day extension to "visit" your Thai wife. Looks like the Ubon Ratchathani immigration office has their own interpretation on that. Their suggestion to do a border run instead is quite hilarious, not least because that means that the Thai government loses 1,900 baht while the government of a neighboring country collects a visa fee.

A bit late for that, all the evidence is out already!

So Samui is ranked 1st and Phuket 7th, but the headline and most of the article sing the praises of Phuket? Laughable.

It really is beyond ridiculous that beach goers aren't allowed to enjoy an ice cold beer while lounging on the beach. A world-class holiday resort (as they like to see and portray themselves) should realize that.

And again that's nonsense. Unless you have a multi-entry visa, you'd still need a re-entry permit to leave and re-enter Thailand. A single-entry visa can very well be unusable for re-entry even long before it expires. Just give it a rest. We know that visas aren't extended, but it isn't always necessary to point that out religiously and pedantically whenever a poster uses that term.

Nowadays the website has PDF export functionality. After submitting your notification, search for it and open the details. You'll then find that option. You can download and print the PDF file.

There's no app that currently works. Use the website, which works fine.

That's nonsensical, it doesn't have anything to do with the semantics of "extending one's visa" vs. "extending one's permission to stay". It's about failing/forgetting to obtain a re-entry permit before leaving Thailand. Which (as you very well know) is a process separate from applying for an extension.

In Bangkok, the fee has been 200 baht for a long time. In fairness, that includes the EMS postage for sending it to you (no other option available), so it's not like they just pocket all of it.

How's that even relevant? Visa exempt entries by air were already "unlimited" before, and yet, airport immigration have long had their own guidelines for limitations. As far as I can tell, they haven't changed at all. Meanwhile at land borders, the change to "unlimited" was a big thing, especially for those using border run services. I can see how beating that dead horse can get you kicked out of FB groups.

I hope he's right but I don't see it.

I used to enjoy the "winter" season in Bangkok, but the pollution at that time of the year just got too bad.

If you don't have USD, they charge 500 baht. Which is quite a bit more, which is why it's often suggested to have crisp US dollars ready.

Airport IOs are quite allergic to seeing someone return for another visa exempt entry to Thailand after just a few days or weeks out when they had just maxed out a visa exempt stay with an extension.

Why put "Thainess" in your handle when it's this alien to you? None of what you've been reporting in this thread should have come as a surprise to anyone who has lived here for at least a few years.

He announced a while ago that he's leaving the forum, as he had had to deal with some unfair comments on here. So I wouldn't expect an answer to PMs.

Of course not, but isn't the whole point that the payment does NOT go to the immigration office, but to the immigration officer?

They were wrong in any case, there's no requirement to have a flight out from the same airport. If you encounter a clueless check-in clerk like that one, you need to ask to speak to the supervisor instead of falling over backwards to meet such an insane demand.

I'm pretty sure they'd accept a hotel booking from someone who isn't there for a border run / has never been to Thailand before. The TM30 just gives them the complete address in a clean and uniform way. Of course a new TM30 notification will need to be submitted upon re-entry.

Those new Cambodia stickers are quite annoying. They could have made them a bit smaller.

Correct, the current version of the certificate of residence issued in Bangkok states its purpose. I think that's a recent change.

Next time, tell them you didn't bring any cash and ask for their QR code. Write "Bribe for TM47" in the notes for the transaction. There you have the receipt you asked for.