Caldera

It's a bad idea to travel overland in border areas with an overstay, as you could be unfortunate enough to get caught at a checkpoint. Just travel to Laos earlier than planned.

You could consider applying for a multi-entry tourist visa. While you don't really need it for your relatively short stays, chances are better that you'd fly under the radar with your pattern, having an actual visa designed for frequent visits as a tourist. Regardless of the visa exempt vs. tourist visa question, in case you get questioned, make sure that you meet all the official requirements for entry as a tourist (cash, flight out, hotel booking) upon each arrival. Additionally, be prepared to prove your employment in Norway and ideally your work schedule, as that would help convince an IO that you don't work in Thailand illegally.

I don't think so, it's probably about fees. A while ago, Grab Thailand started to charge an extra fee when using a foreign card to pay. Maybe True cannot be bothered for some reason and stopped accepting foreign cards completely instead. They're probably un a strong position to negotiate fees with Thai banks, but not with foreign banks.

You could ask such a visa run company specifically if any of that is a concern when applying for an education visa. That old volunteer visa in your passport could raise questions even in Vientiane, as their expectation would have been that you subsequently apply for an extension at immigration in Thailand. They might not be too happy that it didn't work out as expected and that you now try the education visa route to prolong your stay.

Tricky, especially because you've already used up your land border visa exempt entries for this year, so you risk getting stuck somewhere outside of Thailand. I don't think Savannakhet applies their "180 days" rule to anything other than tourist visas, so they might be your best bet. Did your school not give you any advice about where to apply? They must have other students in the same situation.

The meddler is meddling, no surprises there.

So the headline is nonsensical, as so often. Not the fact that they were mining bitcoin is illegal, but the fact that they were stealing electricity.

Maybe. From the OP it isn't clear if he went to the Ban Laem checkpoint or to the Ban Pakkard checkpoint. They're both in the same district.

For someone who travels a lot in and out and who's interested in the perks which used to be much better, buying such an original Elite visa isn't a bad option. But others use it mostly as a means to stay in Thailand with as little hassle as possible. For that group, having to apply for an extension every 90 days instead of once a year makes it a less attractive option.

Isn't that "state pension" that low that frozen or unfrozen barely makes a difference? Google says £221.20 a week, so about 40,000 baht per month. Someone who doesn't have additional income or assets cannot have a comfortable retirement on that money alone anyway.

Take a clearer picture of the passport data page and try again. Most likely that issue is due to reflections or poor lighting.

What would be the benefit for that agent? If you have to fly out, the agent doesn't get any money.

Looks like her mental health issues weren't the result, but the cause of the confrontation.

Crisis lol. Let's continue to call it "climate change", shall we?

That's a new one and completely nonsensical of course. Sorry to hear about your ordeal.

You mentioned a bank letter. Was that a letter stating just your current balance (as of the day it was issued), or a bank statement covering a certain period of time?

You don't need a Thai ID for LINE Pay, but it isn't compatible with PromptPay. You can only use it to pay where LINE Pay is accepted. I think the same is true for TrueMoney. They are similar systems, but separate from PromptPay.

Well, the OP just pointed out something that I'd consider a major disadvantage: Thailand gets millions of tourists per year who can't participate in PromptPay, because they can't get a Thai bank account. Nothing to do with evading the authorities.

It's relatively new, but yes, apparently financial institutions have been instructed to check a foreign customer's permission to stay when conducting business. There have been reports of this happening before.

That looks like a half-baked mess.

The man. The mystery.

What's the new name gonna be? Ivanka Plaza?

Apparently, you were of retirement age and the IO saw you as a frequent visitor, so tried to steer you towards a retirement visa. That's a bit over the top with regards to your particular history, but not unheard of.

Is it even worth it to buy a Lao SIM card for a short trip? I've always bought a 7-day data roaming package for my Thai SIM card instead. I'm sorry that I can't give you a definite answer to your question, but knowing how bureaucratic Laos can be, my best guess is that they might well insist on seeing the original. And knowing how inconsistent Laos can be (same as Thailand), it might well be different from one place to the next.

If you're lucky enough not to get shredded by one of their deadly walkways, it's not a bad airport. What I like in particular is that I usually get through much quicker than at Suvarnabhumi.