Personally I am not affected anymore, moved to Vietnam 2 years ago just before the current crackdown on visa runs. But before that I did visa runs for decades, and  Phnom Penh was, in spite of that it was often referred to as an 'unfriendly destination', my favorite place for applying for a new TV. By going through the right agent (always stuck to the same one) it was possible to accumulate up to 7 or 8 TVs without the red stamp which I got several times both in Penang and Vientiane sometimes after only 3 or 4 visas. (in the same passport) 

So when I was in PP last week on a Vietnamese visa run I popped into that agency to, just out of curiosity, get the latest:He said he recently stopped accepting Thai Visa application for all but those with a 'squeaky clean passport'. It got so bad that half of the passports he sent in got rejected in a way that smacks of a scam :The clerk would put in the sticker and send them to the consul for the signature, who would cancel half of them with the voided without prejudice stamp, and no refund would be given, something Penang and Vientiane always did. Also, if you reject on a daily basis half of the application, the fair thing to do would scan the passport first before you put in the sticker. Accept applications and visa fee that you are certain to reject, is pretty dodgy way of handling things, almost bordering on a scam. 

PP yes is very bad for this. However occurs elsewhere e.g Saigon especially if pp has previous ED visa and quick turn around for setv application.

7 minutes ago, gimo said:

Is that not the case in most countries ?

No.

Yes, it's a scam. They take your money and deny a massive percentage of people, it's the percentage that makes it a scam or not in my opinion.

 

If a tiny fraction are denied for some well defined set of rules then that's fine but when they're denying a lot of them it becomes criminal behaviour.

OMG...The Cambodians are following the Thai visa scams...more bad news to follow...

3 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Yes, it's a scam. They take your money and deny a massive percentage of people, it's the percentage that makes it a scam or not in my opinion.

 

If a tiny fraction are denied for some well defined set of rules then that's fine but when they're denying a lot of them it becomes criminal behaviour.

I have somewhat different take on it. First up the CLERK at consulate is just to flick through your paperwork. More often than not helpful to advise on such things as something missing from docs. Perhaps flight in/out etc.

The vast majority of folk having pp handed back with Void are in the main stupid. They most likely have obtained couple setv from various consulates then come to Thaivisa and cry wrong done by. 

Read current updates and plan accordingly.

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

Yes, it's a scam. They take your money and deny a massive percentage of people, it's the percentage that makes it a scam or not in my opinion.

Which kind of scam would that be? The embassy/consulate get the same amount of money, if they approve the applications or deniy them.

Removed off-topic posts and the replies to them.

Part of the reason for the voided visas is actually to help the agents. While the agents' customers will doubtless be unhappy, they can see that an application was attempted. If the application is rejected without anything in the passport to show this, agents then get into arguments with their customers over whether they are attempting a scam. IMHO, as long as they warn customers in advance of the possible denials, they ought to return the visa fee if not taken by the embassy. However, agents are entitled to the agent fee if they made a normal attempt, but some customers will make a fuss.

8 hours ago, BritTim said:

Part of the reason for the voided visas is actually to help the agents. While the agents' customers will doubtless be unhappy, they can see that an application was attempted. If the application is rejected without anything in the passport to show this, agents then get into arguments with their customers over whether they are attempting a scam. IMHO, as long as they warn customers in advance of the possible denials, they ought to return the visa fee if not taken by the embassy. However, agents are entitled to the agent fee if they made a normal attempt, but some customers will make a fuss.

The embassy is only interested in helping the agents if it gets a cut. The reason why even before the Crackdown on visa runs it was inadvisable to apply at the PP embassy in person was because the embassy wasn't 'profiting' from it and tended to deny more often than  with applications made through agents. My agent some time ago confirmed that the embassy gets a cut. So before they were profiting from issuing visas, while now they cash in on voided stickers. 

14 hours ago, JustAnotherHun said:

Which kind of scam would that be? The embassy/consulate get the same amount of money, if they approve the applications or deniy them.

People who get rejected always claim it's a scam, never their fault. 

2 hours ago, thecyclist said:

The embassy is only interested in helping the agents if it gets a cut. The reason why even before the Crackdown on visa runs it was inadvisable to apply at the PP embassy in person was because the embassy wasn't 'profiting' from it and tended to deny more often than  with applications made through agents. My agent some time ago confirmed that the embassy gets a cut. So before they were profiting from issuing visas, while now they cash in on voided stickers. 

 

Are you saying that the consular staff are putting the money collected for the voided visas into their own pockets instead of registering it on the accounts?

5 hours ago, Maestro said:

 

Are you saying that the consular staff are putting the money collected for the voided visas into their own pockets instead of registering it on the accounts?

No, that's not what I am talking about in this reply (although in my original post I was wondering if this why they keep putting stickers in passports and then voiding them in such high numbers :if it is just disorganization it wouldn't be a scam, just incompetence) 

In this reply I was reporting what my agent told me years ago: that, lets say the agent charges you 50 $, of which 40$ is for the visa and 10$ the agent's fee, that of those 10$, a few dollars go 'unofficially' to the embassy. 

11 minutes ago, thecyclist said:

No, that's not what I am talking about in this reply (although in my original post I was wondering if this why they keep putting stickers in passports and then voiding them in such high numbers :if it is just disorganization it wouldn't be a scam, just incompetence) 

In this reply I was reporting what my agent told me years ago: that, lets say the agent charges you 50 $, of which 40$ is for the visa and 10$ the agent's fee, that of those 10$, a few dollars go 'unofficially' to the embassy. 

Reports for sometime now that some agents telling customers not to apply with certain history as most likely visa page returned with void. 

So Mel Gibson conspiracy theory I'm not buying. 

23 hours ago, JustAnotherHun said:

Which kind of scam would that be? The embassy/consulate get the same amount of money, if they approve the applications or deniy them.

Hmm, let me guess, those who get denied apply again on a later date.......and pay again.

I don't think it's a scam as such. If they reject an application "invisibly", the applicant would likely just try elsewhere and that other embassy wouldn't know about the previous rejection. That more embassies and consulates use "void" stamps nowadays seems to be a deliberate effort to deface an applicant's passport to make that kind of "shopping around" harder. Yet another Thailand 0.4 solution for a problem that Thailand 4.0 plans to solve with a - much delayed - centralized database.

When they rejected my SETV application last month, they put nothing in my passport.

I was told by several agents that Thai embassy did not allow agents to act for applicants.

By not putting a big fat denied stamp in your passport they are doing you a favor...And by keeping the money they are doing themselves a favor....lol 

On 1/30/2020 at 7:15 AM, thecyclist said:

In this reply I was reporting what my agent told me years ago: that, lets say the agent charges you 50 $, of which 40$ is for the visa and 10$ the agent's fee, that of those 10$, a few dollars go 'unofficially' to the embassy. 

Of course the IO's are getting a cut from the agent.  Do you really think an IO is going to accept 10-15 passports from an agent and not get paid to process them?  

51 minutes ago, ericthai said:

Of course the IO's are getting a cut from the agent.  Do you really think an IO is going to accept 10-15 passports from an agent and not get paid to process them?  

I would even go one step further and say that the agents are owned by IO's

 

I know an immigration officer in Pattaya, and by simply looking at the extension in your passport he can tell which agent did it.

The Thai Embassy in PP from my experience is certainly very unfriendly and the worst place to go to get a Visa. The woman taking the applications is simply horrible. She will refuse applications purely by counting how many Visa stamps you have. If you have to go to this embassy always have a clean passport or minimal visa stamps!