Success or experience with 1 day / 1 overnight Visa Exempt trips to KL or Penang

[Grizboy]

Hello Hello

 

Whats peoples experience these days with 1 day / 1 overnight Visa Exempt trips to KL? or Penang?

 

I am in Phuket & did this previous to Covid

 

Has anyone had any problems entering on their 3rd or more consecutive entry with extensions?

 

Tks

 

 

 

[SteezyP]

I did it with 2 night stay in KL but I think I was lucky.  Its was my 4th consecutive visa exempt with extensions each time and a 2 month tourist visa prior.  Before that I had been on covid visa extensions with 3 months away in between. 

 

Honestly I wouldn't recommend it.  It was stressful. I got escalated to senior immigration and grilled for quite some time before finally allowed in after promising I'd leave on the flight I had already booked.

 

This was Krabi airport.

[DrJack54]

9 hours ago, Grizboy said:

Has anyone had any problems entering on their 3rd or more consecutive entry with extensions?

 

So how many visa exempt entries via land have you done this year

[Grizboy]

I dont have any land entrys...

Phuket a bit far .. 

 

Are land entrys easier than airport? 

I see only 2 allowed... 

Land Border Visa bounces almost always same day

 

Im not sure why same day airport visa runs not treated the same?

Can anyone explain why they seem to be treated differently

[BritTim]

5 hours ago, Grizboy said:

I dont have any land entrys...

Phuket a bit far .. 

 

Are land entrys easier than airport? 

I see only 2 allowed... 

Land Border Visa bounces almost always same day

 

Im not sure why same day airport visa runs not treated the same?

Can anyone explain why they seem to be treated differently

Years ago, Thailand decided to construct its immigration laws to limit the opportunities for corruption by officials. Part of this was creating firm rules for when you would be granted entry to the country and when you would be denied entry. However, visa exempt entry has long been an issue. Many attempts have been made to devise clear-cut rules that eliminate what the authorities perceive as misuse of visa exemptions by long stay tourists (for instance, limiting them to 90 days in each six month period). These all proved too complex or otherwise flawed and were promptly dropped.

 

The current rules, enforced for a few years now, is to have a firm rule of only two visa exempt entries per calendar year when entering by land (no discretion for officials that can be used to extort bribes) but give officials at airports discretion to decide if you are using visa exempt entries appropriately. The general guidelines they are told to follow is preventing back-to-back visa exemptions from being used to stay longer than is compatible with regular tourism. However, a former prime minister instructed that these guidelines should be enforced "flexibly".

 

The result, as far as long stay tourists is concerned, is that entering visa exempt by land is safe (as long as you only do this twice per year). Entering visa exempt by air is subject to the discretion of the immigration officials. Different airports and different officials vary in how strict they are in "preventing abuse".