History of Thailand Immigration? Old-timers please

[HAKAPALITA]

2 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

Can you tell us  what year that was, please?    Thank you.

18 years ago.

[watcharacters]

11 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

I cannot remember what I did last week,so no help at all,sorry

regards Worgeordie

 

I understand what your saying,  Worgeordie.      I have some memory issues as well.     But  there is a difference at times for some of us between long term and short term memory.    I forget  what or even if I ate breakfast some times.   But I can speak  about with a fair degree of certainty  events that happened decades ago.

 

Maybe you'll wake up in two or three days and remember something about immigration.     If that happens members of this forum and especially me would appreciate if you would post it on this thread as a part of history.   Whatever comes to your mind would be highly welcomed.

[PoorSucker]

I remember when nobody went to immigration.

Your passport just went on holiday in Malaysia once per month.

[watcharacters]

5 minutes ago, HAKAPALITA said:

18 years ago.

 

Do you  recall if that was before or after 9/11?

[watcharacters]

3 minutes ago, PoorSucker said:

I remember when nobody went to immigration.

Your passport just went on holiday in Malaysia once per month.

 

Again, PoorSucker, can you put a date on that time?    Do you remember any  immigration requirements whatsoever?

 

You left the country each 30 days to renew a 30 day visa?

 

[HAKAPALITA]

When i came here, it was mainly ones with money, so never really saw anything much .Then there was these School who got Visas for folks who shouldn’t be here realy.



Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[HAKAPALITA]

When i came here, it was mainly ones with money, so never really saw anything much .Then there was these School who got Visas for folks who shouldn’t be here realy.



Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[watcharacters]

19 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Probably not on retirement extensions however.  ????

I was here in 68 and there are many others that go back further, but most of us were temporary at that time.

 

 

As in TDY?     555

 

But back on topic..

[Thaidream]

1971-  entry was 15 days max for Americans and UK Citizens-  If one wanted to extend and stay in Thailand- a $1,000 Bond was required to be placed in a Thai Bank- No Embassy Involvement. The 30 day entry started about 1987 when Thailand officially opened for mass tourism.

 

60s- don't know the exact year but Thai Government wanted foreigners to stay in Thailand and offered Permanent Residency  at no cost as well as lifetime Work Permit-  I know 1 person still alive and still has it. but I can't remember the exact year. There were few  foreigners in Thailand that wanted to stay and Thailand was looking for  people with certain technical skills.

 

80s or 90s-  The Embassy letter that one sees today  is not the original Letter- The original letter was an affidavit where you wrote in the income and it has evolved into a separate letter addressed to Thai Imm. I can't remember the date - but I have to believe it evolved as more and more people were coming to Thailand to retire.

 

Just as an aside- hardly anyone came to Thailand to retire  before the 70s and  the only foreigners  one saw were military  on leave for  7 -15 days.  All entered on military orders via the Military airports or Don Muang- most didn't carry passports and were stamped in on their orders for 15 days- max.

[lopburi3]

1 minute ago, watcharacters said:

 

 

As in TDY?     555

 

But back on topic..

More like PCS as worked here from 68-70 and 78-83.  Many other TDY trips between and after before moving here in 92.

[GroveHillWanderer]

16 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

Do you  recall if that was before or after 9/11?

I'm sorry watcharacters - irony doesn't come across very well in writing, but are you seriously saying that you don't know what year 9/11 occurred? Or alternatively, that you don't know how to subtract 18 from 2018?

[lopburi3]

2 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

Just as an aside- hardly anyone came to Thailand to retire  before the 70s and  the only foreigners  one saw were military  on leave for  7 -15 days. 

Actually the US Military had six very active airbases in Thailand as well as other units throughout the country.  Yes there were a lot of on leave from Vietnam in Bangkok but there were a lot living PCS upcountry also.

4 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

1971-  entry was 15 days max for Americans and UK Citizens-  If one wanted to extend and stay in Thailand- a $1,000 Bond was required to be placed in a Thai Bank- No Embassy Involvement.

As I recall Embassy could issue a letter to allow longer stay for official travelers (recall doing so a few times) without the need for any bond (or they put it up).  But yes only 15 day stay was normal.

[PoorSucker]

17 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

Again, PoorSucker, can you put a date on that time?    Do you remember any  immigration requirements whatsoever?

 

You left the country each 30 days to renew a 30 day visa?

 

18 years ago.

No need to leave the country, fixers went down to the border with hundreds of passport, you stayed home.

[Toosetinmyways]

In the late 70s the visa exempt was only 15 days. Staying one month at a time had to pay 100 baht a day fine. Imigration used to laugh and joke about it.

Trying to be legal they said why bother just over stay much easier.

Changed days for sure

[CGW]

3 hours ago, JaiLai said:

I used to come get stamped in and stay as long as I felt like, just paid the overstay fine on the way out.
I’m sure it was only 200 baht a day though....may be wrong??

I worked offshore Thailand quite a lot throughout the eighties and into the nineties we just used to pay the overstay fee, the company would have the money ready for you to pay fine at immigration, quite acceptable back then and in fact welcomed.

Believe you are correct with the 200 Baht a day.

[Toosetinmyways]

 

1974 Don Muang had 4 immigration booths at arrival. One for Thais three for foreiners. Cant remember if they were single or double manned. An indication of how the immigration requirements have grown. Have they kept up with demand?

[masuk]

3 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Well I came here 30 years ago,and have been here ever since,things changed

little by little until what we have today,which can only be called paranoid,

is it necessary ?, I don't know ,all you have to do is follow the rules they

keep coming up with,expect a lot of Expats will be packing up and leaving

now the requirements for actually having the money in the bank.

regards worgeordie

Six or seven years ago, The Aussie $ was getting around 28 - 30 baht and with a little bit of savings, + my pension, 800K was just reached.

Now the exchange rate is a miserly 21 - 22 baht, and it's quitting time!!

As Australia is a fairly properous country with a good export market, it puzzles me that the exchange rate is so poor nowadays.

[Thaidream]

4 minutes ago, masuk said:

As Australia is a fairly properous country with a good export market, it puzzles me that the exchange rate is so poor nowadays.

Thailand keeps intervening in the currency market to keep it's currency from depreciating against all currencies.  Interesting that they do this because Thailand has a robust  export market.  The proof of this is that Thailand's foreign reserves have declined.  There was a recent article in one of the papers re this.

[owl sees all]

8 minutes ago, masuk said:

As Australia is a fairly properous country with a good export market, it puzzles me that the exchange rate is so poor nowadays.

Puzzles a lot of people masuk.

[delboy]

I arrived in Dec 1989, and applied for my first extension in Mar 1990, married to a Thai wife.  Neither of the 2 officers at Chiang Mai Immigration knew the procedure, and I had to wait until they telephoned someone for info.  There was no specific financial requirement, I was told "the more money you have, the greater your chance of extension".  The bank letter was a requirement and Bangkok Bank issued it free.  I had to report every 2 weeks until it was approved in Bangkok.

 

I needed a certificate of residence in 1990 for a lifetime driving licence, and that was issued straight away, no charge.

 

At my second extension in 1991, the officer informed me that I hadn't been reporting every 90 days, so I started reporting then, and have been since then.

 

In 1991 I had to report every 2 weeks, but I went the whole year without my extension being approved, so I just had to start a new application.

 

In 1994 they told me that I now had to have 200,000 baht in the bank.

 

In 1997 I only had 170,000 baht, not enough for a year extension, so they gave me an 8 month extension (8 x 20,000 baht per month).  After 8 months I had 40,000 baht, so they gave me a 2 month extension until my pension started to be paid.

 

I think the 200,000 baht requirement was increased to 400,000 about 1998.

 

I had never heard of the retirement option until 2003, and that year I changed to a retirement extension. 

[fifelad55]

4 hours ago, worgeordie said:

There was no requirement to do 90 day reporting,but I believe

it was a law,they did not seem so paranoid where you were and

what you were doing, but before leaving the country you had to 

do a tax report,which was a joke,as all they required was 200 or

300 THB,

regards worgeordie

I've been here 13 years and there has always been a requirement to report my address every 90 days since I last entered the country

( at Jomtien).

 

Alan

[lopburi3]

9 minutes ago, fifelad55 said:

I've been here 13 years and there has always been a requirement to report my address every 90 days since I last entered the country

( at Jomtien).

 

Alan

It is in the law but was not enforced here in Bangkok until after 9/11 (17 years ago) and to do you had to climb way upstairs in immigration and wait in tiny office - it appeared to be considered something they would rather not do but now had to do to keep everyone happy.

[gamini]

I came to Thailand in 1963. They gave most nationalities three months visa and it was easily renewable. Immigration officials were really nice. But so were the expats who were mostly well educated , cultured and well-behaved. Things started to change with the massive influx of tourists and would-be residents, many of whom were poorly educated, uncultured sexpats. Also there was a huge amount of criminals on the run and other undesirables pouring into the country.

[trawler]

I first visited in 87 and then worked here from 92-96.The tax return onleaving had stopped around 91 I think.

I do remember after check in with your boarding pass you went to a booth to pay airport tax of 500B for international and 50B for domestic.

Only just recently has my wife done our first TM 30 report as I never stayed longer than a couple of weeks and nobody bothered with it except as others have mentioned in the bigger hotels.

There were a lot of people who filled there passports relatively quickly but never left the country although the passports had high mileage.????

[JaiLai]

2 hours ago, watcharacters said:

 

When was that,  JaiLai?

I want to say that was from about 97 thru till 2006/7 ish.....but i stand to be corrected.

 

I ( and many others ) never gave a 2nd thought to paying the fine, it was no issue at all, even for those with months / years overstays...

[ubonjoe]

51 minutes ago, delboy said:

I think the 200,000 baht requirement was increased to 400,000 about 1998.

I was raised to 250k baht at some time. It was increased to 400k baht in 2003 at the same time they raised the requirements for retirement.

[Kerryd]

3 hours ago, watcharacters said:

Are you saying in year 2000 a deposit of 800K ฿ was required in a Thai Bank  for a permission to stay extension?

 

Please explain.

Yes.

The requirement changed in 1998 to the new, higher amount. However, if you had been getting Extensions prior to that date, you would still only have to have the lower sum in order to qualify for future Extensions (you'd be "grandfathered"). However, if you broke that continuity, even by a day, you would then have to show the higher amount for any future Extensions you applied for.

 

No idea about the Certificate of Residency. I opened my first bank account here in 2004 and had to get a Certificate then. If I recall, I had to pay 100 baht and it was ready the next day.

 

Prior to (2007 ?) you used to be able to be able to stay in Thailand indefinitely by simply making a "visa run" to the nearest border every 30 days. Get stamped out of Thailand, walk into (whichever country) get stamped in/out of there and walk back in Thailand to get a new 30 Day stamp.

Many Visa Companies specialized in that process and had it down to a fine art. I did it a few times back when I wasn't old enough for a Retirement Visa and the Elite Card was kind of "iffy" (like the part about being able to own land).

2,500 baht got you breakfast (usually an "English" breakfast at a pub or other restaurant), a ride to the border in an air-conditioned mini-van (smoking and non-smoking vans) with hit movies to watch on the way. An agent who processed the paperwork and got your passport stamped in/out of the neighbouring country. A light lunch and ride back. Home in the early afternoon.

 

Then they changed the rules (in 2007 or 2008) and initially, anyone who did the land border crossing would only get a 15 day stamp. Then it changed to people from some countries would still get 30 days while the rest only got 15.

 

Then they decided that you could only have what, three "30 day" stamps in a 6 month period, after which you'd have to be out of the country for a 6 month stretch before you could come back again.
Fortunately for a lot of us working overseas, they dropped that bit as well (or did for those of us they could tell weren't trying to abuse the system). I was never turned away or hassled at all despite having 3-4 30 Day stamps in my passport for years in a row.

 

 

[thecyclist]

35 years ago nobody was worried about visas :The were handing out double entry non-immigrant visas like peanuts down in Penang. Back then just about everybody took the train down down to Butterworth, which was full of visa runners, with a quick stop in Hadyai/Songkla to get the required tax clearance certificate (in Songkla you were only charged a nominal fee of a 100 or 200 Baht, while in Bangkok they were really taxing you). All this until the only enlightened administration Thailand ever had, the Anand government scrapped this ridiculous requirement.

Except for occasional brief clampdowns on serial visa runners, it remained fairly easy to get visa till Thaksin changed it all. 

[Mansell]

Was in Bangkok in 1963 on HMS Alert tied up right there on the river. I cannot remember us having to show a passport to anybody in any country, in fact we didn't even carry them when we went ashore. Never got hassled by the police anywhere that I can remember either. Good thread. 

[jayboy]

3 hours ago, gamini said:

I came to Thailand in 1963. They gave most nationalities three months visa and it was easily renewable. Immigration officials were really nice. But so were the expats who were mostly well educated , cultured and well-behaved. Things started to change with the massive influx of tourists and would-be residents, many of whom were poorly educated, uncultured sexpats. Also there was a huge amount of criminals on the run and other undesirables pouring into the country.

2

I don't wish to sound elitist but what you say about expatriates is certainly true, though my experience is only from the early 1980's.I wouldn't say expatriates of that era were any better behaved but on the whole they were of a different type and often had decent jobs with all the extras in multinational companies.There were very few sex tourists in the expatriate community though much licentious activity. That era has gone. You are right to mention mass tourism but equally important is that Thailand has become a much more prosperous and better-educated country, with different expatriate requirements.As to the British contingent in the past one would very often meet ex-public school upper middle-class types (and as frequently those attempting to pass as "gentlemen").That era has passed too.