Situation regarding POOts, 30 day visa exempt and re-entries

[kwilco]

Looking at various Thai embassy/consulate sites the information seems unclear. Airlines even more so.

 

Does anyone actually know the situation?

 

Will airlines refuse boarding to those who have booked tickets to fly back after 30 days?

e.g.

by leaving Thailand to visit neighbouring countries and than flying home from Thailand.

or

by getting an extension of stay at Thai immigration?

 

Are land and sea tickets valid as POOT?

 

How many re-entries can you do by land?

 

How many re-entries can you do by air?

 

Please if you have an answer can you back it up with some credible evidence?

 

 

 

[impulse]

I recently posted this about my experience, but that's all it is.  My experience:

 

Last week, I entered Thailand visa exempt for the 12th time in the past 12 months, and it was all smiles and less than a minute.  I fly in, stay a week and fly out.  It resets the 30 day clock on my China visa.   My buttcheeks always pucker up a little on both ends of the visa run, so I'm interested in what folks have done (if anything) to merit the extra scrutiny.

 

BTW, US citizen, 67 yo, worked in Thailand on BOI WP for 7 years and haven't had a Thai visa since.  Just exempt entries by air.  (One by land when I pursued a wild hair to take the train from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok- never again)

 

Most of the time, my airlines ask to see an onward ticket and I show them a flight booking within 10 days.  A few (maybe 3) times, they've asked me to show cash (20,000 baht equivalent) before issuing the boarding pass.  I've not been asked to show a hotel booking, though I always have one just in case.

 

Details like whether a sea or land booking is acceptable, I don't know.  I also don't know what would happen if I stayed longer, or accumulated more time in Thailand on each trip or in total.  Or if I had a different nationality.

 

Edited April 1 by impulse

[kwilco]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

I recently posted this about my experience, but that's all it is.  My experience:

 

Last week, I entered Thailand visa exempt for the 12th time in the past 12 months, and it was all smiles and less than a minute.  I fly in, stay a week and fly out.  It resets the 30 day clock on my China visa.   My buttcheeks always pucker up a little on both ends of the visa run, so I'm interested in what folks have done (if anything) to merit the extra scrutiny.

 

BTW, US citizen, 67 yo, worked in Thailand on BOI WP for 7 years and haven't had a Thai visa since.  Just exempt entries by air.  (One by land when I pursued a wild hair to take the train from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok- never again)

 

Most of the time, my airlines ask to see an onward ticket and I show them a flight booking within 10 days.  A few (maybe 3) times, they've asked me to show cash (20,000 baht equivalent) before issuing the boarding pass.  I've not been asked to show a hotel booking, though I always have one just in case.

 

Details like whether a sea or land booking is acceptable, I don't know.  I also don't know what would happen if I stayed longer, or accumulated more time in Thailand on each trip or in total.  Or if I had a different nationality.

 

So 12 times - mostly flying - and you stayed for how many days each time?

[impulse]

10 hours ago, kwilco said:

So 12 times - mostly flying - and you stayed for how many days each time?

 I fly in, stay a week and fly out. 

 

My one land entry was pre-Covid, and it was visa exempt.

 

If I were to suggest a lesson from that, it's that the number of fly-in entries isn't the limit that's going to cause a problem. 

 

But that's just my experience.

 

Edited April 1 by impulse