Hi. After being on 2 different ED visa's, a few triple entry tourist visa's in the beginning of my 4.5 year stay here I got refused entry yesterday. I'm waiting for my plane back to my home country.

I understand I will get a denied stamp. Correct papers for a B visa are on its way already. However I worry a lot I will get refused again because of the denied stamp.


Its no problem for me to take 100.000+ with me and all the paperwork. The reason I got refused extension yesterday was that my thai was not good enough and I didnt have much cash on me. I did however have my kasikorn bank card with almost a million in it and the keys for my car parked at the airport. It did not help.

The entry denied stamp will probably lead to questioning when you try to enter again. Based on what answers you provide to their questions they will decide to let you enter or not.

Might be time to think about getting a fresh new passport.

Surely if your Thai is not good enough, that's a reason to study so as to improve it! Crazy situation, especially if you are genuinely studying.

Where are you from?

Where did you get denied?

How good is your Thai?

How much cash were you supposed to have on you?

I assume you had a re-entry permit for an extension of stay you got at immigration not a ED visa. How long had you been out of the country?

 If you have all the correct papers for a B visa why did you have an ED visa in the first place ?

 

 I don't think showing them how much money you have and a car will help to convince them you aren't working here.

This was a refused extension? or entry?

 

"The reason I got refused extension yesterday was that my thai was not good enough and I didnt have much cash on me."

 

The OP failed to convince the immigration officer that he is studying Thai. That is the grounds on which the extension is based. In the opinion of the immigration officer those grounds were not met.

 

 

Hi. After being on 2 different ED visa's, a few triple entry tourist visa's in the beginning of my 4.5 year stay here I got refused entry yesterday. I'm waiting for my plane back to my home country.

I understand I will get a denied stamp. Correct papers for a B visa are on its way already. However I worry a lot I will get refused again because of the denied stamp.


Its no problem for me to take 100.000+ with me and all the paperwork. The reason I got refused extension yesterday was that my thai was not good enough and I didnt have much cash on me. I did however have my kasikorn bank card with almost a million in it and the keys for my car parked at the airport. It did not help.

Was the purpose of your visit to Thailand to study Thai? If it was why did you have papers for a B visa? Based on what you have told us it seems immigration made the correct decision. I would be interested to know whether the OP agrees.

You could have asked to go to the ATM to withdraw some money. The mere presence of an ATM card does not mean you have satisfied the minimum funds requirement - there might not be any money in the account! Then again maybe it was just that your Thai wasn't good enough having been on ED visas for so long.

Do you know what they asked you in Thai, can you give us a clue as to how simplistic the test was or not ?? 

 

How long have you been in Thailand on an ED visa and to what level is your Thai ?? 

 

Trying to get a feel for how bad it needs to be to be denied.. 

Mods.. Did the OP post with an IP that fits the story.. Eg either a bangkok IP or or a mobile phone company IP ?? 

 

Just wondering if this is another 'bald eagle' or whatever he called himself. 

What did they ask you in Thai? I'm curious how in depth the test was.

What did they ask you in Thai? I'm curious how in depth the test was.

 

The OP admits he has been in Thailand for 4.5 years.

 

After all that time I would expect anyone to be able to respond to a pretty rigorous in-depth test ..... if he was really studying Thai for most of his time here!

 

Patrick

OP: are you still in country? 

 

If so, see if you can contact a Thai Lawyer and tell immigration that you want to appeal to the Ministry with his support.

 

Basically at this point it can't get worst than that, see if you can escalate to the point the decision is reconsidered. 

Surely if your Thai is not good enough, that's a reason to study so as to improve it! Crazy situation, especially if you are genuinely studying.

I think the point is he has probably been studying Thai for some time, so the tested him to see how much he understood and he fell short so they believed it was abuse of the visa system.

 

I suspect there are a lot of people doing this. To be honest I don't understand why they just don't attend the lessons anyway, its only about 5 or 6 hours a week. They have not much else to do, they learn to speak Thai which is obviously useful and they are sticking to the conditions of their visa.

I assume you had a re-entry permit for an extension of stay you got at immigration not a ED visa. How long had you been out of the country?

 

This should be answered. If you didn't have a re-entry permit you'd be coming in on visa exemption, which they don't like lately.

I got my 90 day extension in Chaeng Wattana yesterday with no problems. In the conversation with the officer I mentioned, that I can write and read Thai. After writing my name in Thai and showing to him he cheered up. It was the last extension of my 2nd year on ED.

But just one or two basic sentences in Thai for a conversation is enough, if they ask. And with most people, they don't even check it. They just make spot checks.

I guess they're just fed up of all the cheaters on ED visa?

An education VISA is for learning Thai. After two education visas and presumably two years of tuition, your Thai should be good enough to cope with questions asked by Immigration. I am not saying you are one of the guilty ones but there are many staying in Thailand on education visas who are abusing the system. I personally know of two such people, both over 70, who openly boast that they are only required to attend a single one hour lesson per week and that there is no test of knowledge of the language. Second and subsequent education visas should be issued only after the student has demonstrated a knowledge of Thai comparative to the length of study. In addition the establishments offering these visas should be monitored very closely for performance.

 

 

 I got refused extension yesterday was that my thai was not good enough 

 

After two years of study in Thailand? Perhaps this explains it.

 

Not being judgemental here -- you might have been in country doing something other than language study...but for an immigration officer looking for visa scams, they probably expect that Thai proficiency goes hand in hand with an ED visa. 

The problem here is that the OP is not very clear about what happened.

 

We are left assuming that he applied for an extension of stay for the and that that extension of stay was refused following an interview to see how his Thai is progressing.

 

We are assumming that the ED was for the purpose of learning Thai, yet the OP says nothing about taking Thai lessons at all so perhaps he thought that the lessons were optional.

 

Being refused an extension and being refused entry are very different really, a refusal gives you 7 days to leave Thailand, but you can come back for a different reason

Might be time to think about getting a fresh new passport.

 

...will this help?  You mean all anyone has to do is get a new passport and all traces of entries/stamps/warnings are erased from the database?  Sounds so simple !  Now everyone can clear their record !

 

 

Surely if your Thai is not good enough, that's a reason to study so as to improve it! Crazy situation, especially if you are genuinely studying.

Just so I am clear. The ED visa's are for one year. The OP has two, therefore he has been (supposedly) learning Thai for 2 years and cannot even have a simple conversation in Thai with an Immigration officer? 

This is why that ED visa will be the next on the chopping block since it seems many of you are here working illegally and NOT EVEN BOTHERING to learn the language of the country you reside in. Too bad for those that are actually here for study purposes because their lives are about messed with by Immigration officials due to cheats.

The problem here is that the OP is not very clear about what happened.

 

We are left assuming that he applied for an extension of stay for the and that that extension of stay was refused following an interview to see how his Thai is progressing.

 

We are assumming that the ED was for the purpose of learning Thai, yet the OP says nothing about taking Thai lessons at all so perhaps he thought that the lessons were optional.

 

Being refused an extension and being refused entry are very different really, a refusal gives you 7 days to leave Thailand, but you can come back for a different reason

He was tested by an Immigration Officer for his Thai language skills, not his calculus skills. It seems pretty clear to me. 

What if you are studying Muay Thai?

 

Do you get to demonstrate your new found skills in the immigration queue?

No replies from the OP maybe he is on the plain back home along with all the others that now have been caught in the overstayers and mega stamp runners. The sky is falling. Time to get legal.

The entry denied stamp will probably lead to questioning when you try to enter again. Based on what answers you provide to their questions they will decide to let you enter or not.

I suggest when you get back home apply for a brand new passport !

 

The entry denied stamp will probably lead to questioning when you try to enter again. Based on what answers you provide to their questions they will decide to let you enter or not.

I suggest when you get back home apply for a brand new passport !

 

 

The stamp might be in the passport, but the refusal and details are also recorded in the immigration database. A new passport doesn't solve that.

An education VISA is for learning Thai. After two education visas and presumably two years of tuition, your Thai should be good enough to cope with questions asked by Immigration. I am not saying you are one of the guilty ones but there are many staying in Thailand on education visas who are abusing the system. I personally know of two such people, both over 70, who openly boast that they are only required to attend a single one hour lesson per week and that there is no test of knowledge of the language. Second and subsequent education visas should be issued only after the student has demonstrated a knowledge of Thai comparative to the length of study. In addition the establishments offering these visas should be monitored very closely for performance.

There is no requirement to study Thai on an Ed Visa. Plenty of people are studying English, Japanese or another language, or cooking, Thai boxing etc. Some are taking a degree at a Thai university.
 
 

What if you are studying Muay Thai?

 

Do you get to demonstrate your new found skills in the immigration queue?

LOL, like that one.