How long I have to stay abroad to re-enter Thailand

[Tomtomtom69]

Jaakko, you did not mention your home country or your nationality, but generally I see no reason why you should not be given a new tourist visa.

I'm from Sweden.

I believe embassies are very reluctant to issue tourist visas if you already had them recently. I thought I'd have best luck getting one fom Savannekhet. but if not, I can always go visit some other country. Plus Thailand is now denying entry from people with tourist visas too, so it guarantees nothing.

But the main question is. Is 5 months enough or am I still seen as a back to back "visa/visa exempt abuser" because of my history.

5 months is almost certainly OK. Even a month would have been long enough. I don't think anyone who has been out of country for 5 months could be considered to be a visa runner. Plenty of people arrive in Thailand once a month, but may only stay a couple of days for transit/short term business and they are OK. So why shouldn't you be. Unless you previously overstayed but I didn't read anything to that effect in your OP.

[thairookie]

5 months is almost certainly OK. Even a month would have been long enough. I don't think anyone who has been out of country for 5 months could be considered to be a visa runner. Plenty of people arrive in Thailand once a month, but may only stay a couple of days for transit/short term business and they are OK. So why shouldn't you be. Unless you previously overstayed but I didn't read anything to that effect in your OP.

I hope so. Then again with Thai immigration officers, nothing is cast in stone. The officer might look into the past visas and stamps and surmise the OP "was" a visa runner and therefore "is" a visa runner. And the problem is you cannot reason with immigration officer, especially if you have good reasons that will prove them wrong and cause them to lose face.

I have been away from 6 months, and I'm not taking chances. I will sit back and wait to see what happen after 12 August 2014.

Edited July 23, 2014 by thairookie

[Tomtomtom69]

5 months is almost certainly OK. Even a month would have been long enough. I don't think anyone who has been out of country for 5 months could be considered to be a visa runner. Plenty of people arrive in Thailand once a month, but may only stay a couple of days for transit/short term business and they are OK. So why shouldn't you be. Unless you previously overstayed but I didn't read anything to that effect in your OP.

I hope so. Then again with Thai immigration officers, nothing is cast in stone. The officer might look into the past visas and stamps and surmise the OP "was" a visa runner and therefore "is" a visa runner. And the problem is you cannot reason with immigration officer, especially if you have good reasons that will prove them wrong and cause them to lose face.

I have been away from 6 months, and I'm not taking chances. I will sit back and wait to see what happen after 12 August 2014.

You can reason with an immigration officer, especially if you speak fluent Thai. Just be nice and laugh a little and all will be OK. Have some itineraries, statements etc. to back up your story. What makes you feel otherwise. It's not about losing face - the IO has to have a legitimate reason not to allow you entry but if you can prove you are legitimate you'll most likely get in.

I think you are starting to let the fear-mongering get to you. Anyone that has been away for 6 months, especially if they have not previously overstayed is NOT likely to have any problems whatsoever. I have, since 2010 never been away from Thailand for more than about 2-3 months at a time, but have entered Thailand on 3 different passports (well I have 3 different nationalities and technically since I have renewed all 3 of these passports you could say my history since late 2010 is contained within 6 different passports). Out of these entries, I have some entries on a non-B and extension but also 3 tourist visas (1 double entry and 2 single entry contained in different passports, one of which I only stayed just over a month on) and the rest exempt entries. I have only ever made one back-to-back visa run, returning the same day but only 1. In many cases I've only spent a day or a week in Thailand per each entry, in other cases 2-3 weeks. Only this year have I spent more time in one go (on a double entry TV - just the one though). Note that I'm excluding periods when I was on a non-B or extension.

I have not had problems so far (I have been across land borders twice since June but I did spend 1-2 weeks outside of Thailand between entries) and don't expect any (although I entered and left on a TV). However, after an upcoming trip to Laos and China (both by air) I will only transit in Thailand for a few days before leaving for home. I have a job abroad and when I next return to Thailand after an upcoming trip back home, I will come back with a non-B multi entry, at least that's the plan. I don't anticipate spending most of my time in Thailand in future as it's just a place for me to do business since my work is mostly in other countries in the region. However, I feel that with the crackdown I'd be better off with a non-B because that will allow me more flexibility and less scrutiny. Should I start a business here or get another job I'll also be in a more advantageous position.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Tomtomtom69

[thairookie]

You can reason with an immigration officer, especially if you speak fluent Thai. Just be nice and laugh a little and all will be OK. Have some itineraries, statements etc. to back up your story. What makes you feel otherwise. It's not about losing face - the IO has to have a legitimate reason not to allow you entry but if you can prove you are legitimate you'll most likely get in.

I think you are starting to let the fear-mongering get to you.

It's hard not to be affected by the fear mongering when the guidelines are not at all clear or, worse still, no guidelines at all.

My biggest fear is when the Immigration conveniently shifts the burden of proof to me with nothing more than a mere suspicion.

Now anyone with a history of multiple tourist visas and visa exempts raises a suspicion. How am I to prove that I hadn't worked in Thailand during my stay? The irony of this whole thing is that the (very) evidence (as in legally obtained tourist visas and visa exempt stamps) that is supposed to prove the legitimacy of my stay is now used to raise a suspicion on the legitimacy of my stay. I wonder how many Thais can understand this statement. It's the root of all confusions going on at the moment.

Imagine you live in a condo and one of the units in the block caught fire. Now every tenant who was present in the block at the time when the fire broke out has to prove to the police that he or she did not set the fire. The very fact that the chanote or tenancy agreement shows your name makes you a prime suspect.

Edited July 23, 2014 by thairookie