How difficult is Poipet for visa free entry

[habss]

So, I was admitted at Poipet.  Was grilled a little on plans, asked to provide a hotel booking receipt, she (all officers were female, lines were long early in the morning, desks were closed, priority group queue did not seem to have a wait) checked to see if that matched what I wrote on my form.  I leave tomorrow, day 4 , as planned.

 

many whites seemed to have difficulties, many were even sent back.

 

 

i notice that I currently have five or six plane tickets into Thailand in 2019, no border crossings currently contemplated .   Virtually all with be Visa free as I will be coming from Siem Reap, no local travel agents deal with Phnom Penh thai embassy as some have said they had trouble getting passports back and bribes were asked for.   My appropriate visa for the longer stays are health  care visa, but they are said to be impossible in Phnom Penh, especially when a public hospital is involved.

 

i can only hope that I will be ok in Dmk and probably should cancel the fun trips or  shopping and tourism trips — usually three days — so that the medical and travel to Europe ones get less scrutiny.  Thailand pays a financial price for this , as do I.

[JackThompson]

16 hours ago, habss said:

i notice that I currently have five or six plane tickets into Thailand in 2019, no border crossings currently contemplated .   Virtually all with be Visa free as I will be coming from Siem Reap, no local travel agents deal with Phnom Penh thai embassy as some have said they had trouble getting passports back and bribes were asked for.   My appropriate visa for the longer stays are health  care visa, but they are said to be impossible in Phnom Penh, especially when a public hospital is involved. 

If those visits are short stays (a week or so), you will be unlikely to have problems at the airports which, as bad as they are, seem less troublesome than the Poipet entry-point. 

 

But, I would carry evidence of your past hospital visits (receipts, medical-reports, etc), plus anything you have referencing the then-current visit (appointment-card)  - so you can show these to any IO to explain your past and current visit reasons.  Be sure and have phone-contact info for your doctor and the hospital switchboard.  I'd even have a little binder with dividers for each visit's receipts, ordered by visit-date - that way, if they start rattling off dates like some sort of "rap sheet" / criminal history, you can explain each and every one of them, to prove your innocence.

 

And, of course, always have the 20K Baht worth of cash or travelers checks.

[habss]

On 1/3/2019 at 3:07 PM, JackThompson said:

If those visits are short stays (a week or so), you will be unlikely to have problems at the airports which, as bad as they are, seem less troublesome than the Poipet entry-point. 

 

But, I would carry evidence of your past hospital visits (receipts, medical-reports, etc), plus anything you have referencing the then-current visit (appointment-card)  - so you can show these to any IO to explain your past and current visit reasons.  Be sure and have phone-contact info for your doctor and the hospital switchboard.  I'd even have a little binder with dividers for each visit's receipts, ordered by visit-date - that way, if they start rattling off dates like some sort of "rap sheet" / criminal history, you can explain each and every one of them, to prove your innocence.

 

And, of course, always have the 20K Baht worth of cash or travelers checks.

I appreciate the advice, but I am not sure that the medical history is the way to go.  When we go to Thailand for treatment, we always say that it is just a shopping trip.

 

a long time ago, we brought my then infant son for what we thought was just going to be diagnosis.  We ended up in the most expensive private hospital, had a procedure, were told take your son home to die, he doesn’t have much time, we can’t help him.  We then tried a public hospital, had major surgery, which he survived and now thrives despite chronic heart disease and other life threatening conditions.  This all took a long time, including an overstay for my wife and  two sons .  Four trips to the immigration department, a lot of abuse from them, them yelling at us for coming to Thailand and abusing the visa process by coming on non medical visas.  Ultimately a large fee to a fixer, who bowed and scraped and I am not sure what else (I was invariably polite) solved the problem.

 

so we never mention medical any more.   We don’t try for medical visas as we don’t see how we could possibly satisfy all the requirements, especially  applying through Phnom Penh.

 

thank you for the reminder of the 20000 baht.  Do you know if it is per person , or per family?   We keep a lot more than that with our passports in case we ever need to get an ambulance or car to the border, or get on the next commercial flight.  

[JackThompson]

3 hours ago, habss said:

I appreciate the advice, but I am not sure that the medical history is the way to go.  When we go to Thailand for treatment, we always say that it is just a shopping trip.

 

a long time ago, we brought my then infant son for what we thought was just going to be diagnosis.  We ended up in the most expensive private hospital, had a procedure, were told take your son home to die, he doesn’t have much time, we can’t help him.  We then tried a public hospital, had major surgery, which he survived and now thrives despite chronic heart disease and other life threatening conditions.  This all took a long time, including an overstay for my wife and  two sons .  Four trips to the immigration department, a lot of abuse from them, them yelling at us for coming to Thailand and abusing the visa process by coming on non medical visas.  Ultimately a large fee to a fixer, who bowed and scraped and I am not sure what else (I was invariably polite) solved the problem.

 

so we never mention medical any more.   We don’t try for medical visas as we don’t see how we could possibly satisfy all the requirements, especially  applying through Phnom Penh.

 

thank you for the reminder of the 20000 baht.  Do you know if it is per person , or per family?   We keep a lot more than that with our passports in case we ever need to get an ambulance or car to the border, or get on the next commercial flight.  

That is an amazing story - and I wish your son the best.  The official rule is 40K Baht per family for entries with a visa - which I assume includes husband + wife + their children.  It may be 1/2 that for Visa-Exempt (is for VOA), but I would carry the 40K, if possible.

 

Overstays are hated now - so if you are approaching overstay for any reason, get to an immigration-office with doc's paperwork, etc.  A medical-extension is not contingent upon entering the country with a certain type of visa, to my knowledge - it is something one gets in cooperation with the treating hospital and immigration. 

 

Of course, anyone could understand that visa/stay issues would not be foremost in your mind in such circumstances, and would be shocked to encounter immigration officers who seemed to have not an ounce of compassion - but do enjoy that "fixer" money they extract.

Edited January 4, 2019 by JackThompson

[habss]

On 12/26/2018 at 9:57 PM, JackThompson said:

Coming from Phnom Penh, not much further (just divert at Battambang) - but from Siam Reap, it is well out of the way.

 

One small scam on the Thai side, entering at Ban Laem - the "sale" of TM-6 forms for 100 Baht next to the entry-point.  One needs to go ask an IO for a form, if not buying one.  Maybe some good-will comes from buying into this little racket - so if entering visa-exempt, might be worth it.

Would you think that if one had an extra TM-6 form that one had from a trip a month earlier at DMK, or that air Asia gave , it obviously would be out of sequence from the forms at the other border at a different time — that one could use that form?    I don’t know if anyone will know the answer to that, hope that someone does.

 

[ubonjoe]

29 minutes ago, habss said:

Would you think that if one had an extra TM-6 form that one had from a trip a month earlier at DMK, or that air Asia gave , it obviously would be out of sequence from the forms at the other border at a different time — that one could use that form?

You can use a blank TM6 form you got anywhere when you enter the country as long as it is the new version that came out last year.