dtag

Final update . After travelling in the Philippines for 2 months, i flew back in today to Don Muang with the exact same Thai tourist visa. 

 Still valid, and no questons asked even about if I had a ticket out ( which i did have printed out and ready). I was stamped in for 60 days  as shoild have happened 2 months ago.  

So seemingly   my story was right all along. I was the victim of one jerk IO who decided to detain me for 3 days without cause and then also try to screw me with Cambodian immigration with a false letter regarding my finances. 

I eagerly await the apologies of the various know -it-alls on this forum  who were all too excited to say I was the problem. 

Have a great weekend 

As I mentioned before, I am not an English teacher. I am an international school teacher  and have been in various schools around the world for 15 years. My contracts are typically offered 6 to 8 months begore the school year starts , so I always enter countries on legit work visas. I was taking a year off and had already scheduled s flight to the US from new zealand in November. I am going to trsvel SE asia  from now until about mid october. Already owning s car in thailand, my plan was to spend the first 2 months on a road trip snd then sell the car . I was coming back as s tourist , and not to work. I have no idea what the hell a blue stamp means  and am not sure why I woild br expected to. 

I really find people trying to constantly change the facts of my story bizarre.  And for Gods sake - what is the point of being grammar police when someone is typing on a phone ? 

So once someone works in a country, they can then never again be considered a tourist there? I did not "lose" my work permit. It was cancelled as the school year had just ended and I was not returning to the same school (international school year)

And even if you prove you have money enough to support yourself to get a visa, it is "standard practice" to not be allowed in for not having enough money? These comments are just getting stupider.

There is not "more to this". My posts are exactly what happened. I did not even get angry with the IO when he yelled at me. At first, I thought it was just a young IO trying to act tough and I would be let in, so I acted as jai yen as  I could.

As I stated, I have only ever come into Thailand before on Non-Imm B visas with my work situation.already sorted. I don't intend to seek work there ever again and hope to never have to even visit.

The only reason for me to come back is to try and sell my car, but I am working on getting that done by a former co-worker.

I have told my story, if folks want to desperately cling to some hope that things like this can not happen in Thailand, they can go ahead and keep believing that. But I would expect to hear more stories like min in the near future

Thanks ubonjoe, I knew it was a bad idea. It is just aggravating to go through something like I just did and  have people just try and act like I am to blame for what was a clearly effed up mess. Or to act like I am being dishonest  I still have fall out to deal with from it- such I have possessions, including a car, in Thailand. I really just came here to explain not only my story , but explain tht I was seeing this situation greatly distress  others while in that room. I don't know if avoiding Phuket immigration is the solution or what. But I posted my story as a legitimate warning in good faith

I going stop looking at this now. Thanks for the kind words from most of you

Update:

I flew into Phnom Penh this morning as scheduled. My passport was not given to me but to the airline who took it directly to Cambodian immigration. A letter inside that I had never seen said I was expelled because I had "insufficient funds" . I had submitted this information when getting the visa . I have plenty of funds in both a Thai and US bank account (each one does). This was never mentioned to me by Thai immigration as I could easily just had shown them my bank account balance on a text message from Bangkok Bank. Or brought up the website for my US bank account. It was really sweet of them to give me that extra little challenge to getting a visa back into Cambodia- the place they insisted on making me return to.  The only reason I was ever given as to be denied entry was suspicion that I was really coming back to work illegally. The actual words, said over and over were "you came to work, you came to work" 

I also was never asked to sign anything at any point. My only choice, besides literally running out the door, was to comply with the detention (including paying for my flight back and fees for rooming there). I contacted the only people I thought could help me- the office staff at my former school, and immigration refused to listen to them. Sorry- i never thought to keep an attorney on retainer for such a situation as this.

My visa was valid and had no reason not to be accepted.

To the continuing naysayers- Everything I have said is completely true. You are right though , it makes little sense. The only real sense it makes is they want to appear to be cracking down and they have a quota and they also make a little money on getting people like me to pay.

I'm not sure why people think I would concoct this story and be so eager to dismiss it. But I think they will be eating their own words in the next few months as this becomes a more common story

Also- oddly The Tourist visa has no void stamp or any mark on it or anything.

Ok I guess no respect for basic privacy on this forum. I am an American citizen and properly credentialed teacher with a Masters in Education who has taught only in fully accredited international schools around the world for 15 years. I have never been an ESL type English teacher.  Every position I have taken in the different schools I have worked in has involved recruiting me form another country to work there.  So I have never gone anywhere and gotten a job as a tourist and then changed visa. I always go into a new country  with the full work visa arranged before I get there, That was the case with the job I just left in Phuket.

I planned to take a year off months ahead, so I checked several times with the office staff at my school about when my work visa would cancelled so as I would time out well when to return on a tourist visa. I also researched and felt that the 60 day tourist visa would be the more responsible thing to do as I knew the Thailand portion of my trip would be longer than 30 days, and i didn't want to do any border runs. (as I have never done one before).

Both I and the Thai director from the school I just left told this to the overzealous immigration officer and he refused to listen . I understand enough Thai to know he just told his coworkers that I was putting my friends on the phone and that he was not going to let me in no matter what.

When I showed him a pane ticket from Bangkok to Phnom Penh as proof of exit, he claimed it was more evidence of a future "visa run"

So maybe you keyboard warriors can get off your high horses and maybe , just maybe, admit, that I may have gotten screwed by an a-hole immigration team who laughed while they did it. Because I have just had to spend 3 days hearing about them behaving in quite similar ways  to other people while we have been confined in a small room together. 

I agree with you Khao Yai in trying fight for things , if I had a longer term plan of living here. Really this just screwed up for me how I wanted to start a much longer trip to other parts of Asia, Aus, and NZ. I was looking forward to this journey starting with visiting parts of the country I have never had time to get to. Because I actually really like Thailand and most Thai people. Losing that is worse than spending 3 days bored and annoyed. But it's ruined now.

And, based on plenty of time to converse, I know this place is now ruined for everyone else I have shared this room with. Those living here will be moving away for good , and the tourists will definitely never return, nor will their friends and family ever come here on a trip.

This hasn't been- oh just get on the next plane out. It's been being locked in a room where you rely on random visits by airline  security employee offering  to take money buy you food and water a few times a day. And having two beds for three complete strangers , etc.  

Living quarters , along with a small love seats,  to the side, for 2-3 grown siting together all day and sleeping at night. Go ahead and say "i must be your fault" , But you come do this for 3 days when you had a valid visa issued by an embasy

I have kept in touch with some of the other guys who were here before. One Australian guy detained also came in on a 60 day tourist vista he got from KL embassy. He lived in Aus and had not even visited Thailand in years. He had booked rooms for the whole time, etc.  When returning his passport , it had a letter saying he could not stay because he had "insufficient funds" Well, he had had to show his bank balance in KL to get the visa, and had never been asked here to provide them again. They just essentially made up a reason to boot him. Just like with me- insisting I was going to come back to work illegally with zero justification for saying this.

In the end , they can not allow an embassy to say you are acceptable for a visa , then have different rules here at the airport.

Yeah wisperone- I meant  my tourist dollars for life. In the short term, the money I would have spent here will now be going into the hands of Filipinos mostly

Ok Non- B, forgot the name. I had a work permit and worked. As I mentioned, the work permit was voided while I was in PP, as my job was over. Great sleuthing -  I have worked in Chiang Mai in years past and moved away to China. Since then, I have a updated and expired passport. But the passport I have was issued 2 years ago.  Still never come in as a tourist before. 

The story I just told you is completely true. You can choose to make excuses for this if you want. As it happens , I'm the one sitting in a detention room for days when I had a valid visa and have never broken any immigration laws once.

You can choose to make me out to be lying all you want. But me and a half dozen other people I have had to share a room with these last few days know the truth.

My advice stands- tell you friends to fly  into Bangkok as they could arbitrarily get screwed by the immigration folks here

I will be out tomorrow morning as it was the first available flight to PP direct from Phuket. It's just been all rather stupid and silly. Stuck in room accepting your fate is bad enough , but then sharing a room with a regular stream of new , disgruntled people gets really old. Especially when most of them were not even classic "visa runners", who at least have some idea this may happen to them at some point.

This sin't actually "cracking down" on anything. It's just screwing people at random.