Real tourist - multiple visa exempt entries

[canerandagio]

I'm a real tourist... I have been in Thailand since April 1st:

3 weeks

1 week away in HK

3 weeks

1 month away in China

4 weeks

1 week break in UK

now I am planning to go for 1 month, take a few days break in Myanmar and return for another 2-3 weeks.

The break in Myanmar is scheduled on August 18...

I fly out tomorrow, have no visa but have a return ticket back to the UK at the end of the overall stay...

I can see a few possible problems:

1 - The total number of days on visa exempt is going to be over 90 days at the end, which is in breach of a rule.

2 - The number of in-outs is maybe suspicious, and the last one is after the 12 august deadline.

On the plus side, I have been a real tourist, and took real breaks, including a flight back to the UK.

I also have a flight back to the UK booked which should prove I have no bad intentions...

My questions:

1 - I know that this is a shot in the dark, but what is the general view on whether I am at risk?

2 - My break in Myanmar is scheduled exclusively to renew my stay I must admit... I booked my flight out of UK stupidly without allowing myself time to get the visa... so I have to go out somewhere.

It's the cheapest flight available but maybe someone has better ideas for a real-tourist visa run like mine...

Thanks.

[Kopitiam]

What ever replies you get will be speculative.

[Suradit69]

What ever replies you get will be speculative.

" I know that this is a shot in the dark, but what is the general view on whether I am at risk?"

Yes, of course in the current environment you are at risk, but as Kopitiam has said, it's impossible for anyone here to say whether you have minimal risk or 50/50 or that you stand no chance of being readmitted. No one can have any basis for realistically assessing the risk.

When you are leaving Thailand for Myanmar, ask the immigrations officer if you will be allowed back in on a visa exempt entry. His answer may also be speculative, but probably better informed than anything you get here.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Suradit69

[skills32]

Note if you are refused entry to Thailand you will have to return to the country of your passport before you will be allowed to enter another country.

[Suradit69]

Note if you are refused entry to Thailand you will have to return to the country of your passport before you will be allowed to enter another country.

I don't see this as being true. If someone flies into Bangkok and has already booked an onward flight to another country but is refused entry to Thailand, he certainly can't be stopped from using the ticket he has (and any other visas he may already have) to continue his journey.

There is a difference between being refused entry or being deported or being extradited.

Simply being refused entry doesn't affect your options, although having something unpleasant stamped in your passport by Thai immigrations might raise some red flags along the way.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Suradit69

[canerandagio]

Thanks all, I decided to reduce risk and go to Myanmar for 4 days before the 12th August... finger crossed...

I also don't think that I will be repatriated to my home country from Myanmar when I have a perfectly valid ticket back to the UK. a few weeks later.. in a worst case scenario I can buy an Air Asia flight out of BKK for the same day and spend my time in HK or Penang, or even stay in Myanmar longer...

Cheers,

[TerryLH]

"I can see a few possible problems:

1 - The total number of days on visa exempt is going to be over 90 days at the end, which is in breach of a rule."

What rule would that be?

[larsjohnsson]

I don't belive you will have any problem. The only possible problem would be if your passport is full of visa exemptions and tourist visas before this trip

[Sortapundit]

I addressed your repost on the other thread, but here it is again in case anyone is concerned by your claim:

I have posted this on another thread but it might be better here.

It has not been mentioned that if you are refused entry into a country then you will not be admitted to any other country until you have returned to the country of your passport.

This could have huge implications for a visa runner because once you try to enter Thailand and are refused admittance you are in no man's land having signed out of the previous country- they will not readmit you; rather they will put you in detention until you can return to your home country.

So beware. If you are in danger of being refused entry then make sure you have the funds to return home other wise you might spend the rest of your life in detention.

This is a concern, but it isn't entirely true. I've been detained in no-man's-land between several countries in Central Asia, and in most cases you'll eventually be allowed either forward or back. The alternatives would be to 1) hold a person indefinitely in no-man's-land, which would be logistically impossible, or 2) arrest and hold a person in detention until they can be repatriated, which is both impractical and legally questionable, if they haven't committed a crime that warrants detention (and arriving at a border with a valid visa isn't a crime, even if the receiving country doesn't want to honour the visa).

As for the rule you mentioned about not being admitted to any other country until you have returned to the country of your passport, that isn't accurate. If you're refused entry into a country (let's take the example of an airport arrival rather than a land border), you must return to a country in which you're free to arrive without requiring a visa, or offers a visa on arrival.

In 2010 I flew into Mongolia from the UK, via Frankfurt and Beijing. On arrival in Ulaanbaatar it emerged that I had been blacklisted for a year (though I had not been informed, and I held a valid tourist visa). After much back and forth I was put on a plane back to Beijing and held in airport detention for 12 hours, at which point I was put on a plane back to Frankfurt, where I was handed my passport and allowed to go on my way. The reason for this is that I didn't have a visa for China, so I would not be permitted entry, and the procedure called for me to be returned in the reverse of my incoming itinerary to the first country I could legally enter (Germany).

So, in the case of Thailand if you arrive at a land border with a valid visa (or the hope of an exemption) and you're not allowed in you can simply cross back into the previous country (as Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia (not sure about Myanmar) all offer visa on arrival). If you arrive at an international airport and you're not allowed in, by default you will be returned to the last country in your travel itinerary for which you don't need a visa (and your ticket will be paid by you or the airline, depending on whatever international laws the airline feels like following that day). In the case of Thailand it should be possible to choose to book a new ticket to a neighbouring country and simply fly back out, since the priority of the immigration officers is to just get rid of you with the least hassle possible.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Sortapundit

[canerandagio]

"I can see a few possible problems:

1 - The total number of days on visa exempt is going to be over 90 days at the end, which is in breach of a rule."

What rule would that be?

This is the rule which I believe is still valid that says that you are not allowed to stay more than 90 days on visa-exempt basis within the past six months.

I doubt this is strictly enforced, but if some official wants to be difficult and they go and count the number of days, they'll find that at the end of my stay I'd have about 110 days... well over the allowance.

From various readings it seems that this rule is not really enforced and that it does not apply to stays supported by a proper visa, although in a weird case the thai embassy in Singapore refused to issue a visa to someone who had already been 90 days in the country in a 90 days period.

[stevenl]

"I can see a few possible problems:

1 - The total number of days on visa exempt is going to be over 90 days at the end, which is in breach of a rule."

What rule would that be?

This is the rule which I believe is still valid that says that you are not allowed to stay more than 90 days on visa-exempt basis within the past six months.

I doubt this is strictly enforced, but if some official wants to be difficult and they go and count the number of days, they'll find that at the end of my stay I'd have about 110 days... well over the allowance.

From various readings it seems that this rule is not really enforced and that it does not apply to stays supported by a proper visa, although in a weird case the thai embassy in Singapore refused to issue a visa to someone who had already been 90 days in the country in a 90 days period.

That rule was abandoned about 5 years ago or so.

[enuff said]

.

Fer Allah's sake! There have been at least 500 posts confirming that the crackdown is about BACK TO BACK visa exempt and tourist visa abusers.

If you spend reasonable amounts of time in other countries and have a flight back to your home country already booked, you should have no problem.

'nuff said

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