6 months stay do I have things right? Visa exempt way

[0james0]

15 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

It will be for 45 days.

Okay, so do a border cross after a 30 day extension. 

Something I’m unclear about:
Is it possible to get another 30 day extension at the IO on the border crossing stamp? Or would one have fly out and return? 

[ubonjoe]

8 minutes ago, 0james0 said:

Is it possible to get another 30 day extension at the IO on the border crossing stamp? Or would one have fly out and return? 

You can apply for a 30 day extension of a visa exempt entry done at a border crossing.

[tomazbodner]

On 9/20/2022 at 5:44 PM, spambot said:

Hi parafareno,

You ask a great question.

I had the same concern on how the Visa exempt would work with multiple back to back Visa exemptions. However in my case I wanted to get a total of 4 back to back exemptions. 

The accepted rule seems to be that 2 visa exemptions are allowed per calendar year by land border crossing. Hence I wondered if a new calendar year opportunity might exist, doing 2 Visa exemptions in 2022 and 2 Visa exemptions in 2023. 

In my particular case I will be attempting the 6 month trip exiting from Thailand after a second Visa exemption and returning to Thailand in the new calendar year with two further Visa exemptions (without returning back to the UK). Hence my trip while being 6 months as your own would be different in the aspect of 4 Visa exemptions rather than 3.

My concern was exactly the same as your own, being while these rules might exist in theory, but what is the probability of being stranded at the border and not being granted entry with a new Visa exemption.

You can see the dates I will use to get these 4 Visa exemptions and also the responses I received here.

To summarise this response feedback I got from my post, the key highlights were as follows.

Ubonjoe: 

Gave a clear assurance that this would be possible.

DrJack54

Gave an emphatically clear assurance that this would be possible, emotional in that this should even be questioned.

sometimewoodworker

Gave a more nuanced response, “Immigration officers are quite prone to looking at numerous entries and deciding that people are “abusing” the system, even though you are within the rules, and giving you a hard time, giving a short (7 day) entry or even refusing entry.”

While some respondents were more certain than others, all three were clear that the border entry should not be attempted at Poipet/Aranyaprathet since this would reduce the probability of multiple back to back Visa exemptions being accepted.

If the 3 or 4 back to back Visa exemptions are possible because of the 2 per calendar year rule, then it might be worth considering timing the 3rd entry for Visa exemption to occur in 2023 to improve probability of success, if you can manage this.

Why would you not just apply for a visa to remove all this uncertainty and hassle?

[DrJack54]

10 minutes ago, 0james0 said:

Something I’m unclear about:
Is it possible to get another 30 day extension at the IO on the border crossing stamp? Or would one have fly out and return?

Each entry to Thailand via land or air with a visa exempt or tourist visa can be extended by 30 days. 

[DrJack54]

3 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

Why would you not just apply for a visa to remove all this uncertainty and hassle?

Back to back tourist visas ongoing is also risky.