Rob Browder

I doubt very much they go to Poi Pet, which is what I was referring to. The 60 days exempt stamps are free. The Cambodian cost is ~1500 with same day exit. Your travel-cost to/from is the only other factor - back in the day, I did it by bus to Chanthaburi + songthiew to the border for maybe 600 baht round-trip. I'd do anything to avoid riding in a crowded van at 5AM. Maybe if they ran them at some decent hour.

Because Poi Pet is the most corrupt point of entry in the country, and upon trying to return to Thailand you could be denied-entry (stamped denied in your passport) for not having enough money - even if you have plenty - then their helpful "agent" will try to extort you for a princely-sum to get in. Literally any other land-border is possible, with some "affordable" corruption only on the Cambodian side. Expect at least 300 Baht for a same-day enter/exit, as Cambodian rules say you must stay overnight - plus some more on top of the official visa-fee if you try to pay in $$ vs their crazy exchange-rate.

Showing the intended accommodation upon entry? Sure. But not the owner's title-deed, because that has nothing to do with a foreign renter's permit to be in the country. It is certainly not a reason to try to break up a marriage by denying an extension of stay, because the owner won't or isn't around provide it.

The eVisa is only accepted at certain border-crossings, and I do not know if any of the border-run van services use those. Certainly not Aranyaprathet/Poipet - maybe Trat's Hat Lek / Koh Kong, but I don't recall a report of such.

What jobs do "those people" do on the islands? Competing with the illegal-working Burmese - really? As to those with remote incomes - that's great for Thailand - money just flowing in from other countries, funding Thai salaries and VAT taxes. And now, they can use the DTV Visa to avoid all the silly running-around for extensions, visa-runs, and spending chunks of their incomes in other countries, just to avoid problems with Thai immigration. Every 1000 / 1500 Baht for a Cambodian / Lao visa, was money not spent in Thailand, plus the days/months out.

No, only those with a source of income which might create a tax-liability they do not wish to pay. They could swap countries every 6-mo - avoiding the similar tax system in Cambodia, for example. Someone bringing in Social Security income will have no tax-liability in Thailand on that money. The same is true for other forms of income, if the tax-rate is the same or higher + paid in the country where it is earned, provided there is a dual-tax treaty. This really isn't that complicated. I don't see why people are upset. But then, I always did my own taxes in the USA, including for a small business. It's literally elementary-school math.

In any case, this is an issue which has nothing to do with one's extension. You gave immigration the rental-contract and the person who rented it to you, and a map to the place. They can (often do) come visit, to see if you really live there. Maybe it's a sub-let or whatever - who cares? What does that have to do with immigration? They can refer it to the land-office or tax-authorities if they want - but none of that has anything to do with the applicant or the validity of their reason for the extension. Use an agent, and none of this ever comes up - which provides a clue as to the real motivation for all this.

This was because people were paying $50 to the US Embassy, vs ~$350 to immigration's "agents" - to get their "no-money in-the-bank" extensions. This was interfering in the flow of funds into brown-envelopes, so Thai immigration asked them (and the UK and Australia) to quit issuing those letters. Actually, it is against federal law for our embassy to do what was being requested. BUT, it is a USA Federal Felony to lie on that affidavit - and I never heard of a single case of anyone being referred to the FBI by Thai Authorities for not having the income they claimed.

There is no exception to the 180-day tax-rule for them with the DTV - any more than someone with dividend-earnings on a retirement-based annual visa/extension.

Agree, but I have also been asked to show the chanote, before, so best to have that one also - especially if doing a marriage-based extension, where they may try throwing everything at you they can, to stop you doing it successfully. I was asked for that to spite already having a current TM-30 on file, before - they wanted all of the same docs again.

The MFA guy would not get into the tax-issue. There is no tax-break in the law for this visa, so the 180 days/year in Thailand rule would apply. What is owed, if anything, depends on the income-source/type, applicable deductions, and/or dual-tax treaties.

That is not the reason Thai immigration is putting in denied-entry stamps in passports, because it is absurd that someone from a Western country would work here at an under-the-table job - 10+hour days for 6 days, to earn the same as McDonalds-pay for one day back home. Instead, they were stamp-pretending the person didn't have money. We had multiple examples of this posted here. Meanwhile, those coming from neighboring countries, where illegal Thai pay is higher than where they come from, got unlimited border-crossings. I did notice the one-night-out rule the MFA noted for the DTV. That is not unreasonable.

I guess if your income isn't taxed in your home-country or no dual-tax treaty with Thailand, it could be a significant problem. Otherwise, just means filling out a tax form here, to stay fully compliant.

The main things needed are just 3 copies one needs to report themselves, so it is not a landlord-problem - the landlord's ID plus the house-book and chanote for the residence - all signed by the landlord. They can draw lines across these copies saying "Only for immigration purposes," to assuage any fears they have about sharing these.

I am not aware of any Thai law about 180 days currently in existence regarding tourism. VAT is just as relevant as any other form of tax. Neither are relevant to immigration. In Thai law, Immigration can only deny entry for very specific reasons. None of those reasons involve "been here as a tourist too long." They did not define "how many days out" because that would allow people to avoid paying their agents, and simply stay out the proscribed period.

For the most part, those are the short-term tourists, who never had a problem coming to Thailand visa-exempt.

In some cases, condo-management handles rentals for owners, and have the needed documents. This was done for for me, before - but I also paid my rent at the condo-office. If you have a separate agent (not condo-mgmt), this is less likely - but cannot hurt to ask.

In the recent video, the MFA guy says the new policy for visa-exempt entry can be for purposes other than 'strictly tourism'. Primarily, he talked about the DTV, but did a rabbit-trail on the new 60-day exempt, also: As to how someone can "be a tourist" here beyond a certain time - why not? They could define a number of days, and publish it in the Gazette, if they wanted. Otherwise - not working, goes to beaches, etc (i.e. "spending money" into Thailand) There is nothing saying a tourist cannot pay taxes - as we all do, with VAT, all the time. I have not seen any law/rule in the Gazette on this. As well, there is no legal reason given to immigration to deny entry on "being a tourist too long" - only for illegal-working or otherwise engaged in illegal-activity, or not having the required 20K baht, hotel-booking, and flight-out within the stay-period. Thai immigration is restricted to very specific reasons for denial - in an attempt (futile, at some entry-points) to prevent graft / agent-scams to let people in.

I am curious what a "sponsorship letter," in lieu of the 500K Baht, would be. I get the general idea, but ... the sponsor shows a bank account with 500K in it?

They would need to make clear what a traveler needs to show, if this is the case. Not that they would necessarily do that, of course. In the case of hassling people with Tourist Visas for "being here too much" - which ONLY happens at Known Problem Immigration points of entry - they refused to define the limits, and refused to give a list of what to show (beyond what the MFA said we needed, which "wasn't enough") to satisfy them. It is arbitrary. What they were really saying, was "Better pay my agent-guy to get in the next time, or else I will abuse my authority and put a Lie in your passport, as the reason I didn't let you in!" The rule may be, as before, "Avoid known-bad entry-points." But, maybe they have been told to back-off - who knows?

Many moved before that. There was already business-boarded-up wreckage when I got here, which was before Prayut. And, before I came, in my travels from Mexico to S-America, then in Cambodia, and the PI - everyone warned me NOT to try to stay in Thailand, because of immigration-hell. Even those who had never come had been warned by other expats who had.

Not being sarcastic - for a fully-airborne respiratory virus like covid, even an N-90 mask is like using a chain-link fence to stop gnats. OTOH, there are other pathogens which are spread by contact and droplets, and masks and hand-sanitizer can help prevent catching those.

I recall had to upload an XLS type file (or maybe it was CSV-format) to complete this - as you said, designed for a hotel or similar. For that file, I remember I had to fiddle with the date-format, to get it to work - but it tells you immediately if it was "ok" or not when you submit it, so easy to fix and re-try.

If Thailand were a restaurant, the Public Relations equivalent of this would be: Each person who gets this treatment is the same as a customer finding an entire dead rat in their bowl of soup. The victims talk about that experience for a LONG time, and the Internet means it doesn't need to be published in a newspaper. Thailand does NOT need this type of "press," if they want to try to restore the huge money flows they wrecked with "crackdowns." If Immigration want to DEFINE how many days a person needs to stay out before returning on a Tourist entry - as economically-foolish as that is - then at least SET a SPECIFIC NUMBER of DAYS out, before returning, and quit playing this "Pssst - pay the agent, just to be sure," envelope-game.

They screwed up BIG TIME with the "crackdowns" in the past, which have given Thailand an "Immigration is a PITA" reputation. There are angry former-Thai-expats all over the world saying how "it was good before, but not anymore." Talk about bad public-relations. They should have NEVER limited visa-exempt entries, or stopped the double/triple entry visas, or limited how many times you could get TVs at consulates, not offered the METV locally, and- worst of all - blocked entry to people at entry points, including those with Visas. They could not even just set a bleeping number of days-out, before returning trouble-free, so people could plan. Look how, even now, all the people here saying, "Beware! This probably won't last," - and we are the folks who loved Thailand enough to stay to spite the immigration-hell. One guess is, they know they mortally-wounded the golden-goose - but they can't "lose face" by saying they screwed up, and promising to "NEVER do that again" - so have offered a 5-year visa to bring in folks who can at least know they will have that much "slack" before something changes, again. Even so, there is skepticism Immigration won't SCREW IT UP, AGAIN, by hassling people "staying too long/often" on this visa - to spite the fact there is no welfare to abuse in Thailand. Only time will tell - and perhaps heal the old wounds to Thailand's formerly "welcoming" reputation.