Fees Levied at Southern Thai land borders for Visa-Exempt tourists?

[Isaanman]

A recent update on thaiembassy.com says, "A fee may be levied on persons entering Thailand under the VISA EXEMPTION RULE especially when entering through a land border in Southern Thailand." -- http://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand/changes-visa-exempt.php 

 

Has anyone recently experienced this returning to Thailand at any of the three land border crossings in Songkhla or Satun Provinces? If so, how expensive were these fees? 

 

A related but slightly different question: has anyone (re)entered Thailand via the 30-day visa exempt rule and were allowed to enter after merely showing an ATM receipt or bank statement of sufficient funds currently in a US (or Thai) bank? I hate the thought of transferring and withdrawing ฿40,000 baht cash money for my wife and two kids to show to the IOs at the border, when we will never use that much cash in the month prior to our return to the US. Has anyone ever successfully done that? Thanks.  

 

 

 

 

[KneeDeep]

Quote

This is NOT the official website of the Thai Embassy

...and the page has disappeared anyway.

[elviajero]

1 hour ago, Isaanman said:

A recent update on thaiembassy.com says, "A fee may be levied on persons entering Thailand under the VISA EXEMPTION RULE especially when entering through a land border in Southern Thailand." -- http://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand/changes-visa-exempt.php 

 

Has anyone recently experienced this returning to Thailand at any of the three land border crossings in Songkhla or Satun Provinces? If so, how expensive were these fees? 

That website is unreliable. It’s not an official site of any Thai embassy or authority.

 

There is no official entry fee. The southern border crossings have historically been known to extort a few baht, but I haven’t heard of anything recently. If would be a few hundred baht at most.

 

1 hour ago, Isaanman said:

A related but slightly different question: has anyone (re)entered Thailand via the 30-day visa exempt rule and were allowed to enter after merely showing an ATM receipt or bank statement of sufficient funds currently in a US (or Thai) bank?

The requirement is cash or travellers cheques. If they ask to see funds they almost certainly wouldn’t accept ATM receipts or bank statements. They only tend to ask if looking to deny entry or extort some cash from those that don’t have the money.

 

1 hour ago, Isaanman said:

I hate the thought of transferring and withdrawing ฿40,000 baht cash money for my wife and two kids to show to the IOs at the border, when we will never use that much cash in the month prior to our return to the US. Has anyone ever successfully done that?

You can show the equivalent in USD or other currencies.

 

[Isaanman]

My daughters are 12 and 14. I have simply assumed all along from replies by UbonJoe and others in other related posts that the requirement is ฿10,000 for each of them, as well, bringing the total to ฿40k for our family of four. This is correct? 

[billp]

The requirement is 20,000 baht per FAMILY. About $630 US.

[ubonjoe]

35 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

This is correct?

As said it is not correct. For visa exempt entries it 10k baht for an individual or 20k baht for a family.

The 40k baht number is for entries with a visa and for an individual it is 20k baht.

[Isaanman]

So, for our family of four requesting the 30-day visa exempt entry they will only want to see ฿20k cash in hand at the land-border crossing. Great! That is why I wanted to confirm this. UbonJoe had previously told me it would be ฿40k for a family of four; but, that is when I inquired about getting a 60-day tourist visa from Penang or KL, not the visa exempt entry. I thought the requirement might be different. This is good news, indeed. Thanks, guys! ????

[stevenl]

14 hours ago, KneeDeep said:

...and the page has disappeared anyway.

Just remove the ']' at the end of the link and the page is still there.

 

Not recent though as the OP said but last update was in 2017, and the fee information for visa exempt entries in Southern Thailand is incorrect.