raz0r21

Hi, My situation is that I work freelance for several clients doing SEO work, through an invoicing company in my home country. This means I can basically stay wherever in the world, and I arrived in Thailand in september 2022 after 3 years of covid, with a 60 day tourist visa. After that I did a 45 day stamp border bounce, and am now going to extend with 30 days. The problem is that I am looking to find a visa that fits me in the long run, since I have already experienced questioning about staying "too long" in Thailand with tourist visas during 2019. Also, since I only earn around 1,2 million baht per year its very hard to find a suitable category. The business visa option is very expensive for me, and so is the elite visa. I am also not eligible for the retirement visa for another 10 years. Another option I have thought about is to start my own company here as I could invoice my clients from Thailand and pay tax here instead, but as far as I know that requires me to employ thai staff which I cant afford. I have also been thinking about studying thai, since I can work half days most weekdays, and then study in the afternoons. The problem with that is that the visa is only for 12 months, after which I will be back in the same situation. If anyone has some tips it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the wall of text!

Thats one of the mysteries of the universe ????

Yeah, I had several friends who had the same issues during that time. That was a rough year... but back then I couldn´t even imagine how bad it would get in 2020 ????

Okay I just want to comment on this since I have had experience with being questioned about "staying too long" in Thailand. Between the years 2016-2019 i was flying in every 6 months and staying for 6 months since i worked on and off back home, and it wasnt a problem until september 2019 when I was coming in on a new exemption at Suvarnabhumi airport. When I landed the queue was totally empty and the immigration officers had all the time in the world to scroll through my pages in the passport. They asked alot of questions about what I am doing in Thailand, if I have friends here, if I had any pictures of me on holidays here etc. They also said that I can´t stay longer than 9 months during a period of 3 years. I told them I had never heard about this rule. Whatever I said didnt help, even after showing them my exit flight ticket and answering all their questions. They then proceeded to take me to some immigration boss who asked about my income, if I knew how to speak thai etc. They also asked if I had a girlfriend and I didnt at the time so I said no. Also showed them a screenshot of my bank that I had an income from my home country. After 45 minutes to an hour of them saying "I dont believe you", i finally said okay well then I will sleep here at the airport and leave tomorrow on the next flight. Then they just stamped my passport and let me in.

I hope there will be some more info about positive test on arrival asap, I doubt people want to play russian roulette with their holidays.

No comments yet? This is complete insanity, especially if the proposal actually goes through. In peak high season they want to reintroduce covid restrictions? People are masked up everywhere anyway. Also, to flipflop with rules back and forth will just deter people from coming to Thailand. And covid isnt even that bad anymore for most us. Not to mention that vaccines dont stop the spread. So what is actually going on?