Advice On My Situation Re Visa?

[sanchez]

I have spent the morning looking at info on this website & I would appreciate any advice on my situation.

I am UK passport holder with a Singaporean employment pass, i live in Singapore.

I travel regularly to Thailand for business & vacation, in the last 12 months I have made 22 visits to Thailand. Each visit is around 4 days durartion, so i am approaching 90 days in Thialand in last 12 months.

The purpose of my visits are vacation & business, the business is usually attending a conference or visiting my customers, i do not undertake any actual work in Thailand nor do i get paid in Thailand.

I expect that i will visit Thailand around 10 times in the next 6 months, staying about 30 days more.

Every time i enter immigration, they spend 10 minutes counting the stamps in my passport before they give me entry.

What i am trying to understand is, do i need to obtain a multi entry visa for my passport?

I can get support from my Thia business partner, i just want to understand if this is necessary?

Thanks for any help on this question.

[Maestro]

The reason why Thai Immigration officials have a detailed look at your visa-exempt entry stamps is that effective 1 October 2007 tourist are allowed to spend a maximum of 90 visa-exempt days in Thailand within 6 months. From your description you have not reached this limit in the past 6 months, nor would you reach it in future 6-month periods based on your travel plans.

A multiple-entry non-B visa would indeed eliminate the delay at Immigration, the official would no longer add up your past stays in Thailand, but Thai consulates in the region have become very restrictive in issuing the multiple-entry non B. You would have to explain your situation to the Thai consulate in Singapore and see what they say.

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Maestro

[sanchez]

The reason why Thai Immigration officials have a detailed look at your visa-exempt entry stamps is that effective 1 October 2007 tourist are allowed to spend a maximum of 90 visa-exempt days in Thailand within 6 months. From your description you have not reached this limit in the past 6 months, nor would you reach it in future 6-month periods based on your travel plans.

A multiple-entry non-B visa would indeed eliminate the delay at Immigration, the official would no longer add up your past stays in Thailand, but Thai consulates in the region have become very restrictive in issuing the multiple-entry non B. You would have to explain your situation to the Thai consulate in Singapore and see what they say.

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Maestro

Thank you for the advice, i'll try the local Thai consulate.

[Prakanong]

Hi Sanchez - I am in a pretty similar situation to you as are many of my colleagues including Senior VP's who work as I do for a very large MNC.

British Citizen on a EP in Singapore with an office in Ihailand

I am pretty certain the Royal Thai Embassy DO NOT issue multiple entry visa's but only single entry which means a page and a bit used each trip = please check on this but this is what our Visa Consultant has told us and they get me visa's for all places I travel to which require them.

I am going to thailand less now than I did when I was in Europe though and in fact we just enter on tourist Visa's for workshops and conferences.

I need to do some actual work there in May so will probably get a single entry Non-Imm B for the 3 days I will be there.

I was going back to the UK this summer for a holiday and would have got a multi-entry B but the trip is off so will jsut have to put up with silly rules and not spend as much time in Thailandl

I have had the 15 minute wait for the counting of days entered since October 1st as well but as my passport is almost full with Thai, Indian, Indonesian and other stamps its funny to watch the pain on the Imm Officers face s they try to work it out ;-))

Edited March 27, 2007 by Prakanong

[Prakanong]

Its 90 days in any 180 days so you might be OK - I think i will as well as I am cutting my time down.

[Javeld]

Well, my recent experience is that the 90 days is nothing u can rely on!

My last visitations to the Kingdom after October 01.2006 were as followed and stamped in my passport :

October 02. until October 15. (13 days),

December 31. until January 26. (26 days),

and now arrived March 24. and got only admitted until April 01. !

Went to Immigration Bureau yesterday where the "boss" said, I have to get a tourist visa outside the country!

So what is right and wrong?? Nobody can tell!

[Prakanong]

Well, my recent experience is that the 90 days is nothing u can rely on!

My last visitations to the Kingdom after October 01.2006 were as followed and stamped in my passport :

October 02. until October 15. (13 days),

December 31. until January 26. (26 days),

and now arrived March 24. and got only admitted until April 01. !

Went to Immigration Bureau yesterday where the "boss" said, I have to get a tourist visa outside the country!

So what is right and wrong?? Nobody can tell!

Hmm - I will have to be careful - mine are as follows since October 1st

October 6th till 7th - counts as 1 or 2 days?

December 11th till 19th

December 23rd till Jan 2nd

Feb 16th till 21st

I did ask Immigration at Airport and they said I was OK

[Thai-Spy]

Well, my recent experience is that the 90 days is nothing u can rely on!

My last visitations to the Kingdom after October 01.2006 were as followed and stamped in my passport :

October 02. until October 15. (13 days),

December 31. until January 26. (26 days),

and now arrived March 24. and got only admitted until April 01. !

Went to Immigration Bureau yesterday where the "boss" said, I have to get a tourist visa outside the country!

So what is right and wrong?? Nobody can tell!

The day of your arrival and departure both count as full days:

October 02. until October 15. (14 days),

December 31. until January 26. (27 days),

and now arrived March 24. and got only admitted until April 01. ! (9 days)

This total of 50 days makes no sense at all.

Go back and find a "different boss", and remind him that stamps you may have prior to 1 October 2006 don't count.

[hereforgood]

Hope they let you back in Mark

[Javeld]

Go back and find a "different boss", and remind him that stamps you may have prior to 1 October 2006 don't count.

I leave as planned to Singapore tomorrow, want to come back to Thailand on April 9 and want to stay until April 22!

So what should I do, get a Visa in Singapore or not ?

[Maestro]

So what is right and wrong?? Nobody can tell!

In your case, it is clear that the Immigration officer got it wrong. There have been many other reports in this forum where Immigration got it wrong, mostly to the disadvantage of the tourist, and I am sure it will happen many more times. It is a highly unsatisfactory situation into which the Immigration Bureau maneuvered itself with this Police Order 608/2549.

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Maestro

[Maestro]

Hope they let you back in Mark

Who is Mark? I see no post of any Mark in this topic, nor any reference to any Mark.

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Maestro

[hereforgood]

Hope they let you back in Mark

Who is Mark? I see no post of any Mark in this topic, nor any reference to any Mark.

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Maestro

The OP

[sanchez]

Me too Larry

[Maestro]

Hope they let you back in Mark

With his history of Thai entry stamps I originally had no doubt about his being allowed back on a visa-exempt entry but after reading about the experience of Javel I suddenly don’t know what to think anymore. It looks like we have to be more careful with saying “no problem” and instead say “nobody knows”. What a mess! How are people like Sanchez/Mark, Javel, etc. supposed to plan their travels!?

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Maestro

[Prakanong]

Go back and find a "different boss", and remind him that stamps you may have prior to 1 October 2006 don't count.

I leave as planned to Singapore tomorrow, want to come back to Thailand on April 9 and want to stay until April 22!

So what should I do, get a Visa in Singapore or not ?

If I was you I would get a visa in Singapore just for peace of mind and small cost.

Then you are 100%

You have certainly made me think that I will get a visa next time.

My pal is going up this weekend - I wonder if he has any hassle? - If so I will let the board know

[sanchez]

Brief update for any interested parties...

I arrive back in LOS Friday evening, i waltzed through BKK immigration & the officer spent less than ONE minute looking at my passport, felt just like the good old days....