Bad News For Poi Pet Visa Runners.....

[aussiestyle1983]

I just returned from a visa run to Poi Pet and this is the story.

Arrived with about 15 others on one of the regular visa run services. No one from our bus was on overstay which we were told was good news. We got into the departure hall at 9am. The person in front of me was pulled to the side after presenting his passport to the immigration officer at the counter. Then, a senior immigration officer started talking to him and one of the visa run organisers. He was told that he already has 3 visa exempt stamps in his passport since October 1, 2006 and if he were to leave today, he would not be allowed in unless he went to Phnom Phen and entered with a tourist visa. His days did not yet total 90 days, but he still had afew days left before his permission of stay expired, so the immigration official just told him to turn arround and use the rest of your days allowed from your last entry. He was told that even though his total days in the 180 period has still not reached 90 days, he has allready had 3 visa exempt stamps and he would not be able to get any more unless he got a tourist visa first.

The person was an Asian male of about 28 years of age and he was neatly dressed and very polite. He gave the immigration officer no problems and was very calm.

It was actually good that the immigration officer checked his passport before stamping him out, otherwise he would of been stuck out of Thailand. It was also good that this happened on the weekend (the Cambodia consulate which is usually used to get the Cambodia visas was closed, so he did not pay his 1000 THB for the Cambodia visa yet.)

So that is what happened today. From what I saw, it seems that the immigration officers are following this new 90 days in 180 days rule, but from what happened today, it seems that if you allready have 3 stamps and your total of days is close to 90, you will be warned that if you leave, you will not be allowed to come back in. This could of been a one off, because there has been reports of others getting the 4th free stamp there, but this is just what happened today.

My advice, if you allready have your 3 free visa exempt stamps and you total of days is close to 90- if you want to try for a 4th stamp make sure you leave afew days before your permission of stay expires, so if you are told you can not get another stamp, you will still be able to turn around and spend your remaining days in Thailand to make plans.

Once again, it was good to see the immigration officer informing the passport holder of this before stamping him out of Thailand, or he would of been stuck there...................

and, this might just be the case today or for this random person, so if you are going for your 4th free stamp soon, please post your story here.

Edited January 21, 2007 by aussiestyle1983

[aussiestyle1983]

also.............

The new air-conditioned Thai check points were a plesant change.

Well, maybe they aren't that new since I hadn't been to Poi Pet for 9 months!

Edited January 21, 2007 by aussiestyle1983

[visarunner]

This particular Visa Run Company should have known this.

The rule has been made to be followed.

Lucky for the guy that Immigration did them the favour and checked beforehand.

[LivinLOS]

This particular Visa Run Company should have known this.

The rule has been made to be followed.

Lucky for the guy that Immigration did them the favour and checked beforehand.

If he hasnt yet reached 90 days what rule says he cant come back in to Thailand ???

Just more evidence of a confused system where no one really knows what the outcome it.

[aussiestyle1983]

This particular Visa Run Company should have known this.

The rule has been made to be followed.

Lucky for the guy that Immigration did them the favour and checked beforehand.

If he hasnt yet reached 90 days what rule says he cant come back in to Thailand ???

Just more evidence of a confused system where no one really knows what the outcome it.

Very good point.

visarunner- You can't blame the visa run company as the new rule limits the visa exempt entry days spent in Thailand to 90 in a 180 day period, nothing mentions that you can only get 3 visa exempt stamps in a 180 day period...............

Edited January 21, 2007 by aussiestyle1983

[Mid]

should not the deal have been that he would be allowed back in with an expire date that matches his current one ?

thus negating the visa run ...................................

anyway , kudos mr immigration man

[aussiestyle1983]

should not the deal have been that he would be allowed back in with an expire date that matches his current one ?

thus negating the visa run ...................................

anyway , kudos mr immigration man

Other people have reported getting a 4th stamp and getting over the 90 days allowed, maybe he thought he could do the same, or he just didnt know.

But yes, they should of allowed him the option of leaving and getting the same date admitted untill when he returned. I guess immigration assumed he was on a visa run to only get another 30 days and thought that they would be kind enough to advice him not to leave as he would not be allwed back in without a tourist visa. Whatever the case, the rule states 90 days not 3 entries, so yes, he should of been able to leave and get stamped in for afew days upon return.

If this continues to happen, I wonder how this will affect the people do do regular trips or weekly border crossings there that only spend afew days in Thailand each time. Hopefully some one who crosses the border every week wont be not allowed to enter after their 3rd free entry, this would be ridiculous.............

[PeaceBlondie]

Thanks, aussiestyle, for a first-hand account of what you saw. I went through there a week before, and saw no such problem, but you did, for sure.

If the immi. officer cares about the visa runner, which this guy did, he saved him money. We aren't sure, but if the 90 day rule were to be applied strictly (and this was pretty strict already), the runner would have only gotten a few days for 1000 baht. The only time I thought an immi. officer was steering me wrong, she was actually trying to save me about 1,200 baht.

C'mon, folks - put yourself in the officer's place. You see an endless queue all day long, and you're very busy. What's easier to count - stamps, or days? And he could probably see at a glance that most of those stamps were about 30 days apart. Instead of counting three times, and then arguing about it, he gives friendly advice.

Why argue about a fourth stamp if it would only be for five days?

[LivinLOS]

Maybe he only needed a few days until his next flight.. Maybe whatever..

The issue is there isnt any clear or consistent application and given the complexity of counting days around month ends and 180 day rolling periods through the same I feel the Thai immigration simply isnt capable of achieving this.

[aussiestyle1983]

If only they had modern computers at all checkpoints, caculating the days you have spent in Thailand on what types of visas wouldn't be so hard.......... Only in LOS

Then imm officials could concentrate on following the correct procedures rather than flicking through passport pages trying to look for the right stamps to count.

Edited January 21, 2007 by aussiestyle1983

[PeaceBlondie]

If only they had modern computers at all checkpoints, caculating the days you have spent in Thailand on what types of visas wouldn't be so hard.......... Only in LOS

Then imm officials could concentrate on following the correct procedures rather than flicking through passport pages trying to look for the right stamps to count.

But even with uptodate computers at all checkpoints (some of which are remote), they'd need to write the software, install it, train the officers how to use it, correct the software mistakes, enter the data correctly, use the program properly......nahhhhh.

[LivinLOS]

Have a network to all those remote border posts that maintains 100% uptime..

Given my years of Thai internet I haven't met a single service provider who can give 100% uptime..

[dazzab]

should not the deal have been that he would be allowed back in with an expire date that matches his current one ?

thus negating the visa run ...................................

anyway , kudos mr immigration man

Other people have reported getting a 4th stamp and getting over the 90 days allowed, maybe he thought he could do the same, or he just didnt know.

But yes, they should of allowed him the option of leaving and getting the same date admitted untill when he returned. I guess immigration assumed he was on a visa run to only get another 30 days and thought that they would be kind enough to advice him not to leave as he would not be allwed back in without a tourist visa. Whatever the case, the rule states 90 days not 3 entries, so yes, he should of been able to leave and get stamped in for afew days upon return.

If this continues to happen, I wonder how this will affect the people do do regular trips or weekly border crossings there that only spend afew days in Thailand each time. Hopefully some one who crosses the border every week wont be not allowed to enter after their 3rd free entry, this would be ridiculous.............

If you check the following website http:/www.thaiconsul-uk.com/visas1.asp it clearly states in bold under the "Visa Exemption Rule" that quote "please note that 3 entries (maxiumum) are allowed within any 6 month period under this rule"

Also it states that it is not possible to re-enter Thailand after a period of three, 30 days stays within 6 months until a further 90 days have past if the applicant has no visa!

[aussiestyle1983]

should not the deal have been that he would be allowed back in with an expire date that matches his current one ?

thus negating the visa run ...................................

anyway , kudos mr immigration man

Other people have reported getting a 4th stamp and getting over the 90 days allowed, maybe he thought he could do the same, or he just didnt know.

But yes, they should of allowed him the option of leaving and getting the same date admitted untill when he returned. I guess immigration assumed he was on a visa run to only get another 30 days and thought that they would be kind enough to advice him not to leave as he would not be allwed back in without a tourist visa. Whatever the case, the rule states 90 days not 3 entries, so yes, he should of been able to leave and get stamped in for afew days upon return.

If this continues to happen, I wonder how this will affect the people do do regular trips or weekly border crossings there that only spend afew days in Thailand each time. Hopefully some one who crosses the border every week wont be not allowed to enter after their 3rd free entry, this would be ridiculous.............

If you check the following website http:/www.thaiconsul-uk.com/visas1.asp it clearly states in bold under the "Visa Exemption Rule" that quote "please note that 3 entries (maxiumum) are allowed within any 6 month period under this rule"

Also it states that it is not possible to re-enter Thailand after a period of three, 30 days stays within 6 months until a further 90 days have past if the applicant has no visa!

The actuall law limits the number of days to 90, not the number of entries to 3.

That consulate and many others have miss understood this and have given miss-leading information.

You can come in and out af thailand as many times as you like on visa exempt entry stamps as long as the total number of days in thailand in 180 days dont exceed 90. But it seems that immigration officers are doing different things at different places on different days. Most of these officers dont understand the law and most of them confuse us all by using the term "visa on arrival" rather than "visa exempt entry"

Good luck to any monthly visa runner that goes to Poi Pet for a 4th stamp if you total days is allready 90. Hopefully you will get it and share the good news with us.