Royal thai embassy, houston texas

[valley boy]

Somebody please give a clue of what to do.

I've got a Non Immigrant B visa courtesy of a visa agent in Bkk that was issued from Houston Texas. I have got however entry and exit stamps from Malaysia. Obviously not the states.

Will all the problems I'm reading and seeing at the moment with detentions of westerners for visa problems I don't know whether to risk it or not. The stamps I'm sure are legitimate but it's the lack of entry/exit stamps State side that giving me the squirts. Please advise me as to whether I should take a change of pants to the immigration checkpoints or not.

[Indo-Siam]

Although I have received entry stamps from US before (on maybe 15 out of 110 entries), it is not normal for US to stamp Americans in or out.   Thailand could care less about stamps from other countries, except as a way to match against matching stamps in or out of Thailand.

I am unclear as to where you are at the moment, but if you are outside Thailand, have a valid passport, and no illegal entry or exit stamps from Thailand in that passport, AND IF THE THAI VISA YOU HAVE IS GENUINE, then you have no potential problem that I can see.

If you are inside Thailand, and Thai visa was issued overseas since your last recorded entry (with no exit since), then you may potentially have a problem.   But - I do not know of a specific Thai law that you violated - so long as you have not overstayed your present entry permit.  It is perfectly legal to apply for a visa by mail, and Thailand has no real say over movement of foreign passports themselves.  What is likely is that you may be asked to explain how you obtained the TX visa while in Thailand - and if you lie, and are caught, then you have an immediate problem with making a false statement.  So - you may have to "give up" your source - but I'm not sure they even did anything wrong (Thailand does not "own" passports issued by another country).

Does anyone else know if Thailand rules it unlawful to have defacto evidence that a foreign passport was out of your possession for some period while you were inside Thailand - even though you have it in hand now?      

Good luck!

Steve

Indo-Siam

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Steve ..... he's in Thailand. If the passport went to Houston and he didn't an all important Thai exit stamp will be missing. If he is not a USA citizen,  there'll be no US arrival stamp at visa control entrypoint. The Thai MFA insists that mailing your passport to a Thai Embassy or Consulate abroad is illegal. The Embassy in Washington has instructed its Consulate's not to issue to applicants from abroad. The exception is where there is no Thai office in the country. Even then the MFA directs where to apply. Like Nigerians must sent their applications to the RTE London

[Indo-Siam]

Hi Dr.-

I have three US passports covering more than 100 entries into USA between 1980 and 2002, and only a handful of times did I receive a stamp upon arrival in USA - and I have entered at Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis, JFK, Miami, Atlanta, and (I think) Dulles.  I have not entered USA since summer of 2002, so there may be something new going on - but lack of a US Entry stamp has been routine over my adult lifetime.

Then again, my last passport had four extensions - over 100 pages total - so maybe they just decided it wasn't worth the effort!!!

The Thai MFA insists that mailing your passport to a Thai Embassy or Consulate abroad is illegal.

I suppose that you mean mailing it FROM THAILAND is illegal - because obtaining visa by mail from Thai Embassy in Washington was absolutely routine when I got my first Class O visa - but I was mailing from within USA.  They had a very specific mailing address just for mail-in passports with visa applications.

Original poster mentioned Malaysian entry and exit stamps, but no mention of Thai entry or exit stamps - I presume he understands that whatever is in the Thai immigration computer with respect to his last date of entry will determine the start of the "countdown" clock toward his required departure date.  I got a new passport six months back, such that I do not have ANY Thai entry stamps in my present passport - but I do have immigration stamp which defines the expiration of my present one-year extension.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

[Begs]

Steve what he is saying is this:  

At the time of his visa being issued from the United States the passport has an exit stamp for Malaysia, then after the Visa is issued he has a re-entry back into Thailand, via Malaysia, so to all intents and purposes, he applied for the Visa by post whilst in Malaysia, not Thailand.

He was not in Thailand when getting his visa from the States, also he was not in the States when the visa was issued. I have known many people go the same route, and if the passport office was 'el paso', then the same consulate also, i personally dont know of anybody that had a problem before, but as to the legality i am not sure, cos if they accepted his passport and issued a Legal visa at a Thai consulate, i cant see how he is breaking any laws, the Consulate maybe doing extra business like this, maybe they are breaking some immigration law, can they make up thier own rules at different consulates?

And if one of thier rules is that they accept postal applications from overseas, does that make the applicant a criminal?  

I have seen similar posts here before, and there was never a concrete answer, still seems the consulate accepts postal applications from overseas.

 Maybe the RTE should tell it to stop, and actually enforce any infringement of policy by the said consulate, but as to wether it makes the applicant a criminal, i am not sure.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

The rules are WITHIN JURISDICTION....while you are in America, you are perfectly entitled to post your application and passport. Ding it from abroad..EXx Jurisdiction is the no no. I am told the Embassy have fallen on the naughty Consulates and the practice has ceased. Foreigners seem to always get a stamp on first arrival in the US

[Begs]

I have asked a friend of mine in Thailand who i know has gone this route before, his brother has just had a visa issued from an overseas consulate whilst he was not in Thailand, also the brother was not in the issuing country.

So if that makes the Consul a criminal, or the applicant a criminal, or both criminals LIABLE to PROSECUTION in Thailand( although any wrongdoings would have taken place outside Thailand), i still dont know, if it's the case then the issuing consuls are in fact Criminals liable to prosecution, or is it just a grey area that the Thai Immigration police have no interest in. A visa is a visa, the issuing office has guidelines, if they stray from those and issue a visa, it is still a visa issued from an official consulate.

It is the consulates at fault, why do they still issue visa's?

Will they all be arrested entering Thailand for illegaly issuing visa's to postal applicants?

So in fact the original poster of this thread is an illegal, and he is in Thailand on a 'B' Visa obtained illegally, what should he do?

[Begs]

Any ideas from our forum as to this guys legal standing?

[Begs]

Valley Boy, did you have any problems?

[i-kwai!]

Thought you might like to know while on a run to poi pet yesterday a fellow traveller holding the same visa {houston,non b} was allowed to leave with no problem, however when reentering he was taken inside the office and his visa was revoked! he was then shown photcopies of several other non im b visas all of which the officer claimed to have been obtained illegaly! one of these was from birmingham uk.

After a few minutes he was given 30 days and allowed to re enter thailand!

Stranger still was the fact that another guy had same visa and had no problem!

This is the truth, so take it as u find it!

:

unsure:

Seems to me they are trying to keep us guessing!

[dr_Pat_Pong]

They might be after the mail order visa's ( from Thailand ) Houston, Hull and Birmingham have been doing them for a visa agent in Bangkok. Getting the visa while not in the jurisdiction of the post is illegal.

[DaveYo]

What Dr. PP is saying folks is this. As example, if in thailand and you need to get a new visa, you got to leave the country of Thailand. (American) You go to Guam or any of USA territories, and you can mail in your Visa to say houston. Remember you are out of thailand. You get the visa back from USA, and then you can leave with the proper exit and re-entry. Thailand cannot make any complaint or say anything is illegal.

Bottom line Thailand has only Jurisdiction within their borders, and anything done outside of their borders is out of their say so. If the Thai consulate abroad issues the visa to you while you are say in Guam, then it is legal. Plain black and white. If you are in Japan, then it more likely will be illegal, since you are not within the USA territory. Catch my point.

Hope this helps

Daveyo

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Border points are cancelling lotsa visa's obtained by mail illegally. Interestingly, the people that get a visa cancellation are being admitted on a 30 day basis. They look for evidence that the visa was obtained legally, any doubt, and they void it.

[DaveYo]

Dr. PP, did you say border points are looking at legal stamps and then voiding them. They are not supposed to do that. If that is the case then why get stamps supposingly to be legit?

Or did you thy mighty one typed this wrong on your last post.

Daveyo

[dr_Pat_Pong]

They are not legal visa's if obtained illegally. For instance, if you got a visa from the US while you were in LOS, it isn't legal.

[pimmel]

Dave Yo

You are right when you write:

They are not supposed to do that. But they do!

I have to go for a visa run within the next 10 days, I have also a Houston Texas non immigrant B visa and I was officially in Malaysia when I obtained the Houston visa. When I did my visa run in August, they gave me my 90 days, but I’m not sure about this time.

I think it makes no sense to start a discussion with them about legality, doing this you will be the second winner, or let me say you’ll be the looser.

Like i- kwai said, it is a game of chance, having a Houston non immigrant B visa.

Is there someone who did the visa run recently having a Houston Texas visa ?

Would like to know more about what happened to them?

Pimmel

[DaveYo]

Pimmel, I too have a Houston Visa. I obtained mine while in USA. In your case you obtained yours in Malaysia. As I mentioned before, if you are in some country other than in Thailand, and you send it to USA for the Visa Stamps technically no matter what you would be classified as being in that country illegally to get a Visa. Now if you were say in Malaysia, and went to a Thai counsulate there and got that visa, that is fine. There is no problem.

You see it is like this. Thai border guards or immigrations do take notice of this to some extent. They look at the date of that Visa of when it was issued, so then they cross check to see your exit out of Thailand. When they look at the exit they also look to see if there is any other stamps to show such journey to get this visa. In one particular case, Say you left thailand, went to taiwan and then to USA. Actually there is no record of your entry via thru taiwan, and neither to usa. Therefore like I said before they now question you on this regards, and if this is the case this is your answer. You being a usa citizen many countries do not stamp you while enroute, unless you stay for a day or leave the airport. Therefore if you stay inside the terminal, you did not see immigrations.

in your case they see you entered Malaysia, got a new stamp and then re-entered back into thailand. Catch the point here. They know you are in Malaysia and they see the date on that visa being new, and you re-enter thailand. This tells them you got this visa by sending it out.

Now if you went to Guam which is part of the usa territory, then they have no questions because they know in this case it is legal, since you are in a usa territory when you sent out for that visa. They cannot do anything to you in this particular regards.

So you do have a small dilemma, so if i were you shop around for another border point and hope this one does not take notice of it, dress sharp and smile. Takes the bite off of their bite, and do some yapping to the guy if you want in English say like a bit of distraction, to make this person not be that attentive to that visa stamp and its history.

Next time you need to get a visa, go to Guam or to the nearest USA pacific territory and then send it in. That way you will be on safe grounds.

It seems the border guards are getting snappy lately and my guess is they got the king crab biting them on their behind. Ouch

Daveyo