Tourist Visa Limit

[dbrenn]

first i would like to thank you for all the good advises you provide.

I just would like to share my experience :

I use to make a lot of trip in thailand, at the beginning with visa run and after with tourist visa. When i took the decision to live in thailand i asked for a tourist visa in a western embassy as it was a multiple i was able to stay 60 + 30 (extension) + 60 without any problem.

I found a job in bangkok but couldn't begin it before the end of my last 60 days so i decided with my thai GF (now wife) that we will go to cambodia (PP)and i will apply for a new tourist visa in order to stay in thailand and to apply for a 1 year visa (witch i have now) as soon as i have all the required document.

Believe me, i was really a surprise when the lady in the ambassy told me that she will not give me any visa as she considered that after already 150 days in thailand i was not a tourist anymore .

I always think that it was unlimited

I had to ask for appointment with the consul in order to plead my case. My GF has to make a statement that we were living together, that she was working in thailand and in the process to get married, I had to show my bankbook and at the end fortunately he give me this visa and he told me that he was doing me a favor.

Maybe i'm not lucky but it seems that the rules for a tourist visa are really different depending on where we go and the mood of the personne we talk to.

BTW when i went to this ambassy I wore normal clothe (trouser, shirt) i don't have red hairs and i spoke correctly to this lady.

Another example of just how precarious resident tourism is. You never know when the official on the other side of the counter will knock you back. Not recommended for people who are thinking of investing their futures in Thailand.

Good for you on getting the one year visa - welcome to the legally resident club and enjoy your time in Thailand . In three years time you can apply for Permanent Residence, then visa worries will be a thing of the past.

[isanb]

Another example of just how precarious resident tourism is. You never know when the official on the other side of the counter will knock you back. Not recommended for people who are thinking of investing their futures in Thailand.

Good for you on getting the one year visa - welcome to the legally resident club and enjoy your time in Thailand . In three years time you can apply for Permanent Residence, then visa worries will be a thing of the past.

Thank you

[tropo]

Well, now you mention it, I did tell you so, and here is an example of further tightening up - the OP went to Kota Baru to get a tourist visa and was refused. That's the problem with resident tourism, you never know what will happen next - it's a constant run around.

We always know exactly what is going on because we have this forum to keep us up to date with the latest developments. It's pretty hard to go wrong when you read this forum regularly.

Many people staying in Thailand on tourist visas don't mind hitting different locations to make their applications. I look at visa runs as mini-holidays.

[isanb]

Well, now you mention it, I did tell you so, and here is an example of further tightening up - the OP went to Kota Baru to get a tourist visa and was refused. That's the problem with resident tourism, you never know what will happen next - it's a constant run around.

We always know exactly what is going on because we have this forum to keep us up to date with the latest developments. It's pretty hard to go wrong when you read this forum regularly.

Many people staying in Thailand on tourist visas don't mind hitting different locations to make their applications. I look at visa runs as mini-holidays.

yes but we have to be honest, of course a lot of people stay in thailand on tourist visa and i wish them all the best.

However we have to inform all the newbies that it may be a gamble and it's not because some people are living in thailand since many years with tourist visa that you will be able to do the same and it's certainely not because someone was able to have a new tourist visa somewhere that you are assured to have it.

If you want to live in thailand under tourist visa you must be prepared maybe one day to face a problem even with the best advises in the world.

as you said it's pretty hard to go wrong BUT IT CAN HAPPEN

[tropo]

Well, now you mention it, I did tell you so, and here is an example of further tightening up - the OP went to Kota Baru to get a tourist visa and was refused. That's the problem with resident tourism, you never know what will happen next - it's a constant run around.

We always know exactly what is going on because we have this forum to keep us up to date with the latest developments. It's pretty hard to go wrong when you read this forum regularly.

Many people staying in Thailand on tourist visas don't mind hitting different locations to make their applications. I look at visa runs as mini-holidays.

yes but we have to be honest, of course a lot of people stay in thailand on tourist visa and i wish them all the best.

However we have to inform all the newbies that it may be a gamble and it's not because some people are living in thailand since many years with tourist visa that you will be able to do the same and it's certainely not because someone was able to have a new tourist visa somewhere that you are assured to have it.

If you want to live in thailand under tourist visa you must be prepared maybe one day to face a problem even with the best advises in the world.

as you said it's pretty hard to go wrong BUT IT CAN HAPPEN

I have never been under the delusion that things will always stay the same. Any regular reader of this forum will be well aware of the problem of constant change in Thailand Immigration rules and policies.

Having said that, in my time here there, although there have been many changes, tourist visas are still easier now than at anytime since October 2006.

[dbrenn]

Well, now you mention it, I did tell you so, and here is an example of further tightening up - the OP went to Kota Baru to get a tourist visa and was refused. That's the problem with resident tourism, you never know what will happen next - it's a constant run around.

We always know exactly what is going on because we have this forum to keep us up to date with the latest developments. It's pretty hard to go wrong when you read this forum regularly.

Many people staying in Thailand on tourist visas don't mind hitting different locations to make their applications. I look at visa runs as mini-holidays.

A forum like this can only tell us, retrospectively, what has been going on. Only the Immigration Bureau knows what will be going on in the future. It's only when people staart getting knocked back, having made wasted journeys, that a forum like this one is updated, as we have seen from the OP and also the poster who recently had a hardd time getting a visa in Phnom Penh.

For people like you who treat visa runs ass mini-holidays, that's fine, and it can indeed be a lot of fun visiting neighbouring countries. Not everyone may look at visa runs in the same way as you do though. Some people reading this forum might be lulled into a false sense of security, incorrectly equating tourist visas as residency, as an instrumental part of maintaining a life that they have committed to in Thailand financially and otherwise. It is those people who need to be made aware of the risks as Isanb has stated.

[rch1023]

Go someplace else. You can not undo what has been done. We have no other such reports so it does not appear to be general policy. Did he have many tourist visas in succession?

Specifics

1) A covering letter

The Announcement of the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Kota Bharu

It is appeared that some of applicants for tourist visa for working in Thailand is not a real tourist.

To be informed that such doing is illegal, therefore, if the fact appears that the applicant who ever applied for tourist visa and enter to Thailand for working in the period of three consecutive years, comes to apply for tourist visa at the Royal Thai Embassies and the Royal Thai Consulate-General in the neighbpouring countries of Thailand after the period of stay in Thailand expired. Itr would be held that the said applicant doesn't have the purpose of visit to Thailand as a Real Tourist. The Royal Thai Consulate-General in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, will deny the receipt of the said person's visa application.

The Announcement will be effective from the 1st June 2009.

Given... etc. 28 May 2009.

*****

2)

Excuse my errors, please: the following in Thai script was written on the visa stamp in the passport

ไดิแลิงปราศสกสลาวจพดรงใทิทราบแล้า

I will try for a better transcription.

3)

Yes, he had five in succession

Regards

- Roger -

The Thai script, I am assured, reads

ไดีแลีวประกาศสกญลว /ึ พค ถ/ ใหีทรามแลิว

ข ฑนเำพ ข

[rch1023]

Right now it's obvious you're just looking for an excuse to say: "I told you so" to back up your endless drivel and wave your new flag around in tourist visa threads.

Well, now you mention it, I did tell you so, and here is an example of further tightening up - the OP went to Kota Baru to get a tourist visa and was refused. That's the problem with resident tourism, you never know what will happen next - it's a constant run around.

In your case, you are eligible for a retirement visa, so your position is more secure than others here. The nice sense of security that you enjoy doesn't apply to everyone, so it is worth warning people for their own benefit not to rely on resident tousism as a way of staying.

Better to get the right kind of visa than bend the rules by fibbing on official documents that you are a tourist when you are not one.

Excuse me if I created a misunderstanding. My son was issued a tourist visa, but in effect was told this would be that last one he would get. - Roger -

[rch1023]

Go someplace else. You can not undo what has been done. We have no other such reports so it does not appear to be general policy. Did he have many tourist visas in succession?

Specifics

1) A covering letter

The Announcement of the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Kota Bharu

It is appeared that some of applicants for tourist visa for working in Thailand is not a real tourist.

To be informed that such doing is illegal, therefore, if the fact appears that the applicant who ever applied for tourist visa and enter to Thailand for working in the period of three consecutive years, comes to apply for tourist visa at the Royal Thai Embassies and the Royal Thai Consulate-General in the neighbpouring countries of Thailand after the period of stay in Thailand expired. Itr would be held that the said applicant doesn't have the purpose of visit to Thailand as a Real Tourist. The Royal Thai Consulate-General in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, will deny the receipt of the said person's visa application.

The Announcement will be effective from the 1st June 2009.

Given... etc. 28 May 2009.

*****

2)

Excuse my errors, please: the following in Thai script was written on the visa stamp in the passport

ไดิแลิงปราศสกสลาวจพดรงใทิทราบแล้า

I will try for a better transcription.

3)

Yes, he had five in succession

Regards

- Roger -

The Thai script, I am assured, reads

ไดีแลีวประกาศสกญลว 27 พค 52 ใหีทรามแลิว

- Roger -