greg1965

I have been away from this forum for a couple of months so forgive me if I am a bit behind.

But can anyone explain to me if it is still the policy that one can no longer stay in Thailand longer than 90 days within a 180 day period without having a work, marriage, or retirement visa?

So basically there is no long term visa to Thailand with out work, marriage, or retirement?

Is this ture?

And is this being enforced?

cheers

I was under the impression thatt you could no longer obtain back-to-back-to-back tourist visas from the consulates.

Am I mistaken on this point?

I thought the new rules would only allow 90 days in the country and then 90 days out, and that it would make no difference wether one had a tourist visa or just did visa runs with out the tourist visa.

I was planning to come to Thailand and stay for awhile, but after the new rules were announced I decided that 90 days in and 90 days out would not work for me.

Am I missing something?

Just had an interesting phone call from a nice lady with the Thailand Elite Card people.

I am still in the USA and she called me at home from Thailand. It must be quite late there. I had sent them an email yesterday and already they are calling me. So I guess they must really want to get the 1 million baht business.

I questioned her about how the process works. She said it takes 2 or 3 weeks to get the card. I can go to Thailand with a VOA, and then apply for the 5 year rolling visa once I get there.

My only concern is if Thailand Elite is run by the TAT and have no authority for issueing visa what happens if the immigration people decide not to give me the visa? I may just be worrying needlessly. I don't know.

Has anyone else done a Thai Elite card? If so I would be very interested to know how soon you got your 5 year visa after receiving the card.

What about getting an "Elite Card"?

Are they easy to obtain if you have 1 million baht to pay?

Are they good for 5 years or just 1 year?

Do they eliminate the need to do 30 and/or 90 day border runs?

Don't know the answer to these questions, but hoping maybe you do.

Perhaps I am missing something - but if one goes to say Malaysia and the Thai consulate/embassy there to get a proper visa won't they also be refused if their passports are showing back-to-back-to-back visa requests. It seems to me even if one tries for a legitimate visa at a foreign consulate they will still be up against the 90 day restriction.

Perhaps I am not understanding this right. It wouldn't be the first time.

Actually I am rather hoping someone will prove me wrong on this point.

Does anyone know if when doing the investmnet visa in Thailand the 3 mil baht you depsit in a government bank account can be used as you see fit through out the year and then "topped off" at the end of the year?

Or is the 3 mil baht locked into the account for the entire year?

Hi,

I would like to live in the Kingdom the same as the first poster. I do not want to work as an english teacher. I have done this before, and it is terrible. I do not want to spend 3 million baht to purchase a business that will not make money. But I have an investment income of around 40 to 50,000 baht per month and so I could support myself in Thailand.

But how can I stay for the long term? You can only use the visa run 3 times and then you are at risk to be rejected. So if I go there for a 30 tourist visa I think I could do the visa run for 3 months, and then after that I might be foreced to leave. If this happened I could not return for 6 months. But I don't know if the Thai authorities really enforece this law or not.

Does anyone know?