Monthly hopping between Phuket and Penang

[Promula]

Should I be unable to get a longstay visa when things return to normal or want a slightly more nomadic lifestyle, is there anything to stop me visa wise in Thailand from having a place in Phuket and another in Penang and spending 30 days at each alternately?

[ubonjoe]

If the 30 days are visa exempt entries to you could have problems doing them continuously over a period of time.

Even Malaysia have made problems for people using 90 day entries to stay there.

You might get away with it for a while but not for a long period of time.

[Promula]

Thanks.

There's also the 2 land border entries per year issue, so I'd fly of course.

[Caldera]

30 minutes ago, Promula said:

Thanks.

There's also the 2 land border entries per year issue, so I'd fly of course.

Phuket Airport immigration has been known to dislike people coming in visa exempt frequently and/or spending a lot of time in Thailand. So I would have said, expect to be questioned or even denied entry after doing that a number of times back and forth.

 

What they will be like after Covid is anyone's guess.

Edited September 29, 2020 by Caldera

[Promula]

Yeah I've scrapped that idea already. I'll either look at doing two month stays in each and apply for a tourist visa in Penang before each Phuket entry, or I'll do 30 Airbnb condo days in Phuket, Penang, Cebu, and Bali, then repeat. Surely they wouldn't deny me a visa exempt every four months.

[DrJack54]

No problem. It's the short turn arounds that are the issue.

[patman30]

you might want to consider adding Cambodia to your list,
as much easier to stay for longer periods than the other countries you mentioned

[Dart12]

52 minutes ago, Promula said:

Yeah I've scrapped that idea already. I'll either look at doing two month stays in each and apply for a tourist visa in Penang before each Phuket entry, or I'll do 30 Airbnb condo days in Phuket, Penang, Cebu, and Bali, then repeat. Surely they wouldn't deny me a visa exempt every four months.

How much are each airline ticket?  that's a lot of flying just to avoid getting a visa

[from the home of CC]

12 minutes ago, Dart12 said:

How much are each airline ticket?  that's a lot of flying just to avoid getting a visa

agreed, I'd rather get my teeth pulled at a funeral than get on a plane in these times..

[Promula]

33 minutes ago, Dart12 said:

How much are each airline ticket?  that's a lot of flying just to avoid getting a visa

It's a contingency plan in case I can't get a b or o visa or if I feel restless and don't want to be settled in one place for months on end. Lots of people are feeling restless after half a year of very limited travel opportunity.

[Promula]

50 minutes ago, patman30 said:

you might want to consider adding Cambodia to your list,
as much easier to stay for longer periods than the other countries you mentioned

Depends if there's anywhere that's developed enough for my tastes. After many years in Malaysia I find most of Thailand insufficiency developed for my needs, and I imagine Cambodia will be decades behind Thailand.

[sometimewoodworker]

17 hours ago, Promula said:

Surely they wouldn't deny me a visa exempt every four months.

There is no way to predict when visa exempt entry’s will be allowed, also the total number of visa exempt entries have caused people to be refused in the past.

[bjaz]

You could get a B211 social visa in Bali, which you (in normal times) apply for at the Indonesian embassy in Bangkok or in KL - This will give you (or used to, rules might change post Covid-19) an initial 60 days + four 30 day extensions (an agent can do them for you), which gives you 6 months in Indonesia to space things out, before hopping back to Thailand or Malaysia.

Philippines is supposed to be quite easy on tourist visas (apparently you can extend up to stay to 3 years in the country...).
 

If you qualify for some sort of long-stay visa in Thailand, there's a Thai consulate in Bali (Renon, Denpasar) and they're quite good and it's very quiet, got a few non-B for employment from them with no drama.
The Thai embassy in KL or Penang have their perks, I've found the KL embassy to be super efficient since they set up the online appointment booking system a couple of years ago.

Make sure you have enough pages in your passport, you'll burn through them quite fast...

And it might take a while before we can cross borders that easily though....

Edited September 30, 2020 by bjaz