The Rules About Getting Thai Visas

[sweetchariot]

Just buy an Elite card and you can stay in Thailand indefinitely - great for those under 50 who are not married but have 'retired'. If you are retired at 45, spending 1.5m baht should be easy for you?

The Elite card issue seems to be winding up a lot of people though - I think 1.5mb baht to be able to stay in a foreign country indefinitely for life is frankly a very sweet deal, and to avoid all the visa runs too.

Do you work for Thailand Elite? This is not the first time you have posted about the elite card, and not the first time you've got it wrong. The elite card will give you a 5 year stay, but there is much talk about doubling the price, reducing the stay, or just scrapping it altogether.

It will probably cost me 1.5 million over the next 5 years in border runs and trips home to get a new visa, but for now I would prefer to keep my money in my pocket, and see what transpires.

[samran]

Sounds like yet another rant from someone who cant satsify the current requirements that are in place. Do people like you actually think about this and plan you situation accordingly before immigrating or is it easier just to turn up and get "self-victimized" and then winge,cry and moan about it ?

poor bugger me-ism is alive and well.

[billshot64]

What's your point? This is not your country. Do you think you have a god-given right to be here?

Well, well looks like you my Mother she can say this is not your country but not you.

Only low class people use the name of the lord in a supject.

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I want see wat you do if you can't go to the border to make you visa run.

Every body can walk now but if you older and older and you can't walk anymore than all of you are criminals than you stay illegal here.

billshot64

[chevykanteve]

For sure it is my human right to make the choice where I want life.

I respect the law but a law that changes every week.

I’m 67 years and I life in Thailand for ten years but never in my live I have see a Gov. that have changes the law so many times.

Sorry how you can belief a Gov. that changes so many times.

Billshot64

Well billshot 64

I am 64 in about 6 weeks and I have been around the world working and the ONLY country that I have any human right to stay in without let or hindrance is the UK which is the country that I was born in and whose passport I carry.

If I should choose to live in any other country I am subject to the laws of that country whether I like it or not. I have the human right to ask if I can live there and that country also has the right to say yes or no.

What I do NOT have is the right to demand that the country change its laws to make it easy for me to live there.

The UK government even back in 1995 made it impossible for my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) to go to visit me in the UK. However she did get permission to go to Denmark as a tourist easily.

When we were getting married her old boss wanted to come to the wedding but the UK government through the British embassy in Bangkok said that she would have to wait until May of 2000 before applying as "there are too many Thai tourists coming to the UK at this time.

This despite having her own business, house and family and an independent income from the USA. She also got a visa to Germany easily and we met there.

I will repeat that NOBODY has the human right to decide to live in another country UNLESS they can meet the immigration requirements of that country, and why should they have that right anyway.

It is the choice of the government only of any country to permit or not the immigration to that particular country, not the choice of the individual to do so.

Totally spot on and agreed. And further examples of "they" would include (for instance) many Mexican nationals living without proper immigration/work documentation in America; some Chinese with fake Thai Ids living in Thailand and doing business here for many years; etc....

[micksterbs]

What's your point? This is not your country. Do you think you have a god-given right to be here?

Well, well looks like you my Mother she can say this is not your country but not you.

Only low class people use the name of the lord in a supject.

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I want see wat you do if you can't go to the border to make you visa run.

Every body can walk now but if you older and older and you can't walk anymore than all of you are criminals than you stay illegal here.

billshot64

Well, we're rapidly coming to the end of Page 2 and you still don't seem to be getting the message, do you? You are a GUEST here. Got that?

I never thought I'd say these words on TV, but if you don't like it here, you know what you can do...

[PeaceBlondie]

Just follow the rules and provide the documents required and it's a breeze....

Most of the farangs // qualify to live here under one rule or another and have no visa problems nor do they generally go on visa runs across the borders.

I agree with you play the game by the rules and life is easy.

I am tired to hear this kind of things again and again on TV forum...

Because for YOU it's easy to get a visa, you think that it's easy for everybody, but it's WRONG !

By example, think to all early retired guys (45 or even 40yo) : they have no solution to stay ; except to marry a Thai lady (no thanks, ), to create a company (no thanks, retired) or to use bogus Visa from Hull or "friendly" consulate (for how long?) ...

Pattaya46

True, Pattaya46. The rules do not apply to everybody, and are very difficult. But in fairness to one of the posters, he did say 'most of the farangs' and 'generally.' Similarly, not all folks with B or O visas can get work permits. A friend of mine, age 44 and retired USAF, has gone home to work in the USA, partly because it was too difficult to get visas year after year. But I am sure he will come back. But he will not marry a Thai lady, thanks , either.

[kiakaha]

Just follow the rules and provide the documents required and it's a breeze....

Most of the farangs // qualify to live here under one rule or another and have no visa problems nor do they generally go on visa runs across the borders.

I agree with you play the game by the rules and life is easy.

I am tired to hear this kind of things again and again on TV forum...

Because for YOU it's easy to get a visa, you think that it's easy for everybody, but it's WRONG !

By example, think to all early retired guys (45 or even 40yo) : they have no solution to stay ; except to marry a Thai lady (no thanks, ), to create a company (no thanks, retired) or to use bogus Visa from Hull or "friendly" consulate (for how long?) ...

Pattaya46

There are several schemes available for immigrating to Thailand, if your personal situation does not meet any of these schemes then bad luck.Whats next ? Complaining that they wont let you play in the US Masters golf tournament just because you own a set of golf clubs ?

Immigration criteria exists.I strongly suggest to anyone wishing to immigrate to Thailand to do you homework first, then make the move.Sadly enough, you'll probably find that most wingers and moaners find themselves already committed in some way to Thailand and then decide to immigrate without the slightest notion of foresight and planning.

[bendix]

What's your point? This is not your country. Do you think you have a god-given right to be here?

Well, well looks like you my Mother she can say this is not your country but not you.

Only low class people use the name of the lord in a supject.

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I want see wat you do if you can't go to the border to make you visa run.

Every body can walk now but if you older and older and you can't walk anymore than all of you are criminals than you stay illegal here.

billshot64

Huh?

It's incredibly difficult debating something sensibly when the other party just hasnt got a clue . . .

But to answer your points:

1) It's hardly relevant if I'm your mother or not. The fact remains. You are Dutch. This is Thailand. That means you must live by Thai laws if you want to stay here, including visa and immigration laws.

2) Yes, I'm lowclass. Guilty as charged.

3) I don't need to make border runs. Never have. Never will. I have decided to choose a different way of living her. I chose the legitimate way - non-immigrant B visa, work permit etc. And I've planned for the future too. I'm married to a Thai national and have enough income / capital to satisfy marriage visa requirements.

4) Ummmm. . . . I don't know what you're talking about.

[JetsetBkk]

4) Ummmm. . . . I don't know what you're talking about.

I think he's saying that when you're so old that you cannot walk, a visa run is too hard to do - so you must stay here illegally.

[Pepe']

Here in the USA we've got roughly 12 million illegal aliens.

There are plans for drivers license and full amnesty in the works.

Last month the BCIS (formally INS) reported losing 110,000 green card applications. Solution skip the final FBI screening and just give the green cards.

Sorry for the in convienience.

Seems like the USA has the most liberal poilicies in illegal immigration IMHO...

[Heng]

What is the Thai Gov doing to us Visa or border runners.

Well the Thai Gov make from us criminals, I must pay monthly the rent from the house, ji-net, a new motorbike and more. If I can’t make a new visa then I can’t pay. The Thai Gov ignores my human right the human right is that I can make the choice where I want life. But the countries a round the world makes rules against it. My advice the time that you in Thailand are save your money and spend it outside Thailand when you on the visa run.

Billshot64

It is not a human right to live wherever you want to live. If you want to live in a particular country of which you arent a citizen, you are obliged to follow the laws of that country, including immigration laws. You should think yourself lucky that you are able to exploit a loophole in the Thai immigration laws and do your visa runs.

Try pulling your head out of your a**e, and imagine how much harder it would be for a Thai citizen to just go and live in the your country. Have you never walked through Sathorn and seen queues of people waiting in line for something as simple as a tourist visa?

It's the old mentality. As farangs we are relatively wealthy here so they MUST change their laws to accomodate us.

Get real.

Well said. I think the above comments should be pinned to the top of the page right beneath the ThaiVisa logo.

[MrPaddy]

The problem I guess is that there are X number of people all in different situations.

So if the government wants to issue certain rules to exclude certain elemants, then it will in no doubt also exclude many others on the fringe.

Impossible to please all of the people all of the time.

However, when they change the goal posts mid stream, they should also have an avenue whereas certain cases can be judged independantly and approved or not.

My wife has permanent residency in my home country, she also now as the mother of these children, has the same rights at the end of the day as any citizen in my country. She can even own land outright there and when you turn around and look at the opposite view here, it sucks big time when you cannot get a visa to stay, let alone stay for more than 1 year at a time.

So many laws here just fail to make any common sense and that is the disappointing part.

As another example, permanent residency, you can only get it if you have a work permit etc and meet the other requirements for 3 visas in a row. It is very strange to me that a single guiy, on a work permit meeting these requirements can get permanent residency, but a long term resident, with Thai children cannot. Even if he has the same 1 year visa etc for several years without interuption. Very strange country.

In fact, is there any avenue at immigration for an 'appeal' type of process, or a complaint as to an outcome and have it re examined ?

[thaimania]

What is the Thai Gov doing to us Visa or border runners.

Well the Thai Gov make from us criminals, I must pay monthly the rent from the house, ji-net, a new motorbike and more. If I can't make a new visa then I can't pay. The Thai Gov ignores my human right the human right is that I can make the choice where I want life. But the countries a round the world makes rules against it. My advice the time that you in Thailand are save your money and spend it outside Thailand when you on the visa run.

Billshot64

Ehhhh?? Get real. Since when has it been a "Human Right" to live where you please? Every country sets conditions on who can stay and who can't, and Thailand is no exception. Count yourself lucky that Thailand allows you to visa run - most countries (your own included) don't allow that.

[Edonista]

It's the old mentality. As farangs we are relatively wealthy here so they MUST change their laws to accomodate us.

No one says they must, yet may I wonder why they try to keep out people just spending their money here ? The only possible explanation is that someone does not like our money going to the needy

[Heng]

^ They haven't outlawed SWIFT transfers. There's no need for you to be over here taking up space.

[buffcoat]

It's the old mentality. As farangs we are relatively wealthy here so they MUST change their laws to accomodate us.

No one says they must, yet may I wonder why they try to keep out people just spending their money here ? The only possible explanation is that someone does not like our money going to the needy

The only possible explanation??????

How about a simple desire to limit the numbers of non-Thai nationals living in Thailand on a longterm basis rather than as tourists.

[Pepe']

Pin this. I have Thai friends living here in the US who are stopped while driving with no license and no ID. They have ALL been let go.

The police do not have the authority to enforce laws for illegals?

Too much paper work?

No substantial cash to get from them?

From Arizona to California now (announced on CNN yesterday) if you are caught smuggling less than a 1/4 ton of drugs into the USA across the border, you are released and sent back to Mexico.

Hard to believe?

Google it.

"The West is the best, the West is the best. Get here and we'll do the rest" - Jim Morrison

[sjaak327]

I do have some sympathy for the OP. He is from the Netherlands, and he is not to blame for the xenofobic immigration policy that has been adopted about two years ago, where some nationalities (not all, US citizens for instance, are exluded) have to pass an exam that entails language skills amoung other things. Not so much for the benefit of the would be immigrant, it's purely a measure to make sure that not many people will actually have a decent chance of being admitted. Something I personally have to deal with as I have a Lao partner who will have to go this route.

I and the OP have some xenofobic, utterly stupid countrymen to thank for that. Instead of adopting a more fiar and realistic immigration policy, they have effectively closed the border, just at a time where the decreasing birht rates are starting to become apparent in the demographics of the country.

It is of course also a human rights issue, as I as tax paying citizen of the Netherlands, are not free to choose my partner, because any way you look at it, that's the bottom line of these immigration policies.

OP seems to be in the reverse situation, where on the one hand, his choosen country of residence has changed immigration laws, making it harder for him to stay, and on the other hand, his home country has made it extremely difficult to return together with his wife.

Of course, some of the sentiments (as it's their country and so on) are valid, it would also do me proud, if some people actually could find it in their hearts, to look beyond the rules and regulations, and maybe look more closely at the human suffering that is going on in cases like this.

[solent01]

What is the Thai Gov doing to us Visa or border runners.

Well the Thai Gov make from us criminals, I must pay monthly the rent from the house, ji-net, a new motorbike and more. If I can't make a new visa then I can't pay. The Thai Gov ignores my human right the human right is that I can make the choice where I want life. But the countries a round the world makes rules against it. My advice the time that you in Thailand are save your money and spend it outside Thailand when you on the visa run.

Billshot64

It is not a human right to live wherever you want to live. If you want to live in a particular country of which you arent a citizen, you are obliged to follow the laws of that country, including immigration laws. You should think yourself lucky that you are able to exploit a loophole in the Thai immigration laws and do your visa runs.

Try pulling your head out of your a**e, and imagine how much harder it would be for a Thai citizen to just go and live in the your country. Have you never walked through Sathorn and seen queues of people waiting in line for something as simple as a tourist visa?

It's the old mentality. As farangs we are relatively wealthy here so they MUST change their laws to accomodate us.

Get real.

I just hate these butt heads that won't let me travel the universe like the alien turist that I am

[billshot64]

For all that not want recognissed the humen right go to this website http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

and read article 13.

billshot64

[mrtoad]

For all that not want recognissed the humen right go to this website http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

and read article 13.

billshot64

It still means very little, pretty much like the UN, all words and no action.

[PeaceBlondie]

The UN Declaration of Human Rights is not really universal. I walked mountain trails in Mexico with an indigenous man who had to remind his own local politicians (in a meeting with the Intl. Red Cross) that he had read that declaration, and he knew what the duty of the politicians were under the national constitution. Yet, they stopped him at checkpoints in his own country and harassed him. Even people whose ancestors have been here in Thailand for centuries are sometimes denied their rights.

Lovely country, Thailand. FOREIGN country.

[distortedlink]

For security reasons and better controls on undesirable foreigners entering Thailand, I would like to see visa runs terminated altogether.

Foreigners wishing to live long term in Thailand should be imposed to go through the non-immigrant visa processes on inception of entering the country.

Thailand is under no obligation to let foreign undesirables and poor reside here, as they are the problems of their home country governments.

Edited April 9, 2008 by distortedlink

[Pepe']

For security reasons and better controls on undesirable foreigners entering Thailand, I would like to see visa runs terminated altogether.

Foreigners wishing to live long term in Thailand should be imposed to go through the non-immigrant visa processes on inception of entering the country.

Thailand is under no obligation to let foreign undesirables and poor reside here, as they are the problems of their home country governments.

---------------

That's OK. We'll take'em all here in the good old USA. No problem...

[garro]

I think that for many westerners in Thailand their belief is that immigration should be tough on anybody below whatever standard they have reached on the food chain. This idea feeds into their other beliefs about how they have a more special relationship with Thailand than other westerners. Sad and pathetic - yes, but human nature in these parts.

This type of 'milkman of human kindness' will spout such nonsense as westerners who earn less than they do should be deported as they are obviously below them and not deserving of a life in Thailand. Watch them whinge though when the day arrives when these people begin to find themselves on the wrong side of new visa legislation. Hear them bemoan the unfairness. These people are so predictable that it is sad.

[suiging]

When in Rome..................

Thais have elections, Thais vote for their representatives to make laws on their behalf. Thailand is a sovereign country. Would you let travelling Thais, decide which of your laws they choose to follow ?

Most of us love Thailand because it is different........Long may it be.

[bendix]

I think that for many westerners in Thailand their belief is that immigration should be tough on anybody below whatever standard they have reached on the food chain. This idea feeds into their other beliefs about how they have a more special relationship with Thailand than other westerners. Sad and pathetic - yes, but human nature in these parts.

This type of 'milkman of human kindness' will spout such nonsense as westerners who earn less than they do should be deported as they are obviously below them and not deserving of a life in Thailand. Watch them whinge though when the day arrives when these people begin to find themselves on the wrong side of new visa legislation. Hear them bemoan the unfairness. These people are so predictable that it is sad.

Slipping towards the wrong side of the visa legislation, garro? Ouch, that hurts.

dam_n that strong baht, huh?

[Scott]

One of the reasons I have never really 'settled' here, although I've been here many, many years is because it isn't my country and I have no right to stay. The day will likely come when I cannot work, or reasonably take care of myself and will either have to go home or be sent home. And where I go will be my home.

In the meantime, I am quite content to stay here and enjoy the things I enjoy about Thailand. If it becomes a major hassle, then I guess I will have to leave.

I find it a bit either sad or unrealistic for people to think they can just move here and stay forever and that it's somehow their right to do so. I realize a lot of people have deep roots here that have grown over the years--as mine have--but in the back of my mind, I know it isn't truly my home.

[garro]

I think that for many westerners in Thailand their belief is that immigration should be tough on anybody below whatever standard they have reached on the food chain. This idea feeds into their other beliefs about how they have a more special relationship with Thailand than other westerners. Sad and pathetic - yes, but human nature in these parts.

This type of 'milkman of human kindness' will spout such nonsense as westerners who earn less than they do should be deported as they are obviously below them and not deserving of a life in Thailand. Watch them whinge though when the day arrives when these people begin to find themselves on the wrong side of new visa legislation. Hear them bemoan the unfairness. These people are so predictable that it is sad.

Slipping towards the wrong side of the visa legislation, garro? Ouch, that hurts.

dam_n that strong baht, huh?

Nah, I'm safe as I legally work in Thailand.

It just irritates me the way others can't wait to put the boot into other westerners who they see as not as worthy as them to life in Thailand. It is the high and mighty attitude that gets to me. Lets face it, most of the people who end up in Thailand aren't going to make it on the list of the worlds success stories. Which is fair enough as there is more to life then being 'successful'. Anyway a lot of 'succesful' people, in a business sense, are failures as humans. Or maybe this is my own reverse snobery. Anyway live and let live and the man with the most toys at the end of the game doesn't win.

It is always the people who are the most insecure in their position in life who are the most petty minded and the most likely to shit on those lower down the trough. There seems to be a lot of these guys on Thai Visa at the moment. If they are not criticising a posters spelling and grammar, they are calling them scum for other reasons. These cretins seem to be appearing on every thread. Has it alwasy been like this here?

[bendix]

1) It's called irony, **flame removed***

2) You do know it's against forum rules to have two id's dont you?

3) It is completely up to Thailand how and when and to what extent it changes its visa laws. Good on it. I wouldnt want me living here either, frankly, if I was Thai. If the rules change to such a point that life becomes untenable, the solution is easy. Move on. Go home. Look at other options. The key is keeping options open - I think the tragedy is that it's the malcontents here in Thailand are exactly those who - for one reason or another - have closed down their options.

Tough luck.

Edited April 10, 2008 by sbk
no flaming! sbk