Imigration - Arrival by air

[samii]

I have heard that there might be restrictions to this as well? I heard someone saying 6 entries by air in a year? I have flown about ten times in this year without any questions or problems...I guess another rumor...

 

 

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[ubonjoe]

24 minutes ago, samii said:

I heard someone saying 6 entries by air in a year?

There is no such rule.

There is a alert that the officer gets if you have 6 or more visa exempt entries. That probably got twisted around to what you heard.

[JackThompson]

More than 6 Visa-Exempt entries since 2015 could lead to a computer-alert, telling the IO you may be a good target for rejected-entry, but is not, by itself, an automatic cause for rejection.

 

If you only visit occasionally (spaced apart by months), and for short periods of time per-visit, rejected-entry is unlikely to occur. 

 

While almost all Thai entry-points follow actual Thai immigration law, reports indicate that both Bangkok airports are now prone to reject-entry by citing an unpublished rule with no basis in immigration-law or police-orders, about "too much time" in Thailand.  An alert is not necessary for this to occur.  "Too much time" is an undefined amount, and reports indicate it is modified per-person, to match how much time they have spent, so as to to claim they are "over" this arbitrary magic number. 

As a safety-precaution, be sure to have 20K Baht worth of cash or travelers checks when arriving, because IOs can ask to see this amount, per an archaic rule which pre-dates worldwide electronic banking.  The rule for Visa-Exempt entry is 10K Baht, but we have some reports of IOs claiming the visitor should have 20K Baht. 

 

One is unlikely to be asked to "show the cash" if an occasional short-term visitor, but best to be prepared.

 

Though "pocket cash" is totally useless in determining the financial well-being of a visitor, in this day and age, it is preserved as a "gotcha" rule to justify denying entry.  Visitors are not permitted to visit an ATM to retrieve the money, because determining that the visitor "really has" access to the funds is not at issue.  Some airlines are now wisely requiring passengers to have this amount in cash (can be any convertible currency), to board a Thai flight.