Immigration Confirms The End Of Border Runs From Oct 1, 2006

[zeusbheld]

This will not affect many people now, and I am sure the Thai Authorities are worried about an explosion of Chinese doing the same thing. Most of you would not like to be mixing with the Chinese criminal element I am sure, and remember, they don't stand out in a crowd like we do so will be harder to stop.

This measure, whilst maybe not stopping them, will at least criminalise them making them subject to immediate deportation.

I am surprised more people have not focused on the Chinese. When you look at the rate of economic expansion I would imagine they will soon have designs and ambitions in other areas.

With its rich farmland and other interesting pickings I believe the Chinese have long thought that Thailand is rather a nice cherry to pluck in more ways than one ?

Perhaps the new regulations are not so anti-farang as some of you believe.

Look at the wider picture ?

if your 'wider picture' includes chinese military adventurism, then that is a silly, xenophobic thought.

if your 'wider picture' means the heaps of chinese (and indians) coming here on tourist visas, then spot on..

[sleepyjohn]

I have not yet reached the age of 50 (retirement visa). But if/when I do I won't be depositing 800,000 baht in a Thai bank, or whatever the figure will be then. I will pay the 'under the table' going rate for my retirement visa. It was 7,000 baht three years ago when a friend of mine 'arranged' it at immigration. Of course I won't say which office: but it does go on.

When you pay that 7000 baht I hope you realise immigration officials are more likely to expect this as the norm. Meaning they are more likely to make stupid objections so more farangs are likely to pay them bribes and spoil things for the rest of us.

There should be no problem just sticking to the rules, never has been for me. No problem at all.

By the way in an interview with a senior immigration official I read today he explained the whole point of the new VOA rules was to keep undesirables out. This would seem to have no bearing on retirement visas being changed as suggested.

[sleepyjohn]

you can NOT get a retirement EXTENSION , (it is not a visa) on a tourist visa. U must get the extension on top of a current extisting non immmigrant visa if your applyin gfor it here in thailand.

You can get the visa in the states as he said. You need to show 800,000 in the bank or a letter from where you will be receiving your 65,000/month.

The following year you will need to show the 800,000 in a thai bank for the next 1 year extension.

My experience is that it is better to show nothing about retirement whilst applying for your non immigrant visa. I went through all this in the UK paid money to doctor for health cert, money to Scotland Yard for no criminal record letter, proof of income etc etc only to find I got exactly the same O visa as if i said I was visiting friends the year before. It took a month to get the no criminal record thing.

The evidence needed to get the retirement EXTENSION (exactly) in Chiangmai seemed to require only an O visa, a local medical cert 50 baht, and proof of income or 800k.

Think nothing of it

[John K]

John K, some interesting points, lets see how it all pans out.

I guess the wait is very short for the coup. Sometimes I hate when I am right, perhaps I should charge for my predictions.

John K,

Yes, the uncanny accuracy of your insights is legendary here on ThaiVisa. Could you take the time to provide some more details and bring us up to date on this insight which you revealed to us about one week ago when you were replying to some speculation about the likelihood that a rumored coup would come to pass:

The fact is a coup makes no sense at all because of timing. If it was just after an election that was viewed as rigged by the public, then would be the time. Any word of coup is simply Thaksin generated. He is deliberately out of town to give the appearance that he is not involved as it is simply his style. Expect more diversions while the real plan is being hatched. I am even wondering if the October 1 visa thing is just another diversion for non Thais as we have been hitting the nail on the head quite often with our “call it as we see it” remarks.

Yes you are right that was about a week ago. But like any puzzle the more pieces in place the clearer the picture. The post I made yesterday just before the coup reflected the opposite, however I still did not have enough information to see the army was planning to make a preemptive strike about the coup I predicted. If that information was generally known by the media, I suspect there would be grieving widows tonight. That information was very secret known only by a handful of people, so it never got entered for logical consideration.

Edited September 20, 2006 by John K

[sabaijai]

There have been rumours of a Thaksin-mounted coup for weeks. From the 14 Sep BKK Post:

Panlop warns of coup by 'Thaksin's officers'

Bangkok Post, Thailand - Sep 14, 2006

Former deputy chief of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Panlop Pinmanee has warned a coup d'etat may be staged by government-loyalist soldiers bent on ''setting up a new order'' in the armed forces. Gen Panlop, dismissed from the Isoc reportedly in connection with the alleged car bomb against caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said no soldiers, except those favouring Mr Thaksin, have the power to bring about change militarily.

He said if there was anyone to be wary of who was capable of a revolt, it was probably Mr Thaksin's own officers.

[Basil B]

Just read the following...

Even the new international airport was slow. Many aircraft arrived in Bangkok with empty seats to spare. A government official waved arriving foreigners past a kiosk, saying there was no need for a visa. "Not today," he said. "Thailand is celebrating."

From the L. A. Times reporting on yessterday in LOS.

BB

[King Dong]

Today my wife ring some immigration office near the border of Cambodia and them tell her no problems ad all after you can do the visa run but every 15 day.

Sounds about rite to me, there not just going to start turning people from the "41 countrys" away & leaving them stranded where ever they were trying to enter from

Seems to me that its just a way to milk another 1900 baht a month from the 30 day runners, after all how many of them are going to be bothered with doing a run every 2 weeks.

[silverhawk_usa]

you can NOT get a retirement EXTENSION , (it is not a visa) on a tourist visa. U must get the extension on top of a current extisting non immmigrant visa if your applyin gfor it here in thailand.

You can get the visa in the states as he said. You need to show 800,000 in the bank or a letter from where you will be receiving your 65,000/month.

The following year you will need to show the 800,000 in a thai bank for the next 1 year extension.

My experience is that it is better to show nothing about retirement whilst applying for your non immigrant visa. I went through all this in the UK paid money to doctor for health cert, money to Scotland Yard for no criminal record letter, proof of income etc etc only to find I got exactly the same O visa as if i said I was visiting friends the year before. It took a month to get the no criminal record thing.

The evidence needed to get the retirement EXTENSION (exactly) in Chiangmai seemed to require only an O visa, a local medical cert 50 baht, and proof of income or 800k.

Think nothing of it

This "800k IN a Thai bank" has been debated over and over. It is OR, OR, OR! I just renewed my retirement visa (15. Sept 06) for the 3rd consecutive time IN Chiang Mai. I had a total of 30,000 baht in a Thai Bank. Based on my pension which makes up the OR amount I had no difficulty what so ever. It was completed with the addition of a Multiple Entry Permit in just over 2 hours.

[krislarter]

This is from:

http://www.thaianxiety.com/news06c.asp

i felt it would clear up any visa confusion.(Especially the red sentence)

It is obvious that the present border runners will change into visa runners to other countries. What are the Department of Immigration's thoughts on this? From October 1st you can travel to the border and re-enter 3 times using the system of waiver of a visa. After that, if you get a single entry tourist visa from abroad you can stay here for 60 days, after that you can get a visa extension for 30 days, so it is already 6 months. Each time you leave the country you can come back with the visa extension again, so the tourist visa intervenes.

Question: So if we buy a tourist visa and extend it for 1 month can we leave buy another tourist visa and back, can we continue to do that?

Police Major Suppachai: Yes, you can do that. We don't want some people staying on visa extensions for ever. Some people stay for 10 years. The main thing at the moment is that now people that come to Thailand for 10 years are not getting screened. With the tourist visa the police now have a chance to check the people that are not on the blacklist. That is the main thing of this new law.

Question: When does the new rule effecting 90-day maximum wavered visas come into affect?

Police Major Suppachai: It means that the person who has been staying on visa extensions for years, you can depart. If your visa ends on the 30 September, you leave the country and come back on the 30th September, you still can use that 3 times. There was misinformation on the Internet, it doesn't count by stamps, it counts by days. This is very important, it counts by days not stamps. Yeah counts by days.

Question: This is going to effect the airlines. How is Immigration going to handle this? How does an airline know when a passenger comes to their stamp quota? The airline is responsible for their passenger?

Police Major Suppachai: Your question is a very good question. OK we know that from the first of October it counts from 90 days and the problems will come back. Many people will be stopped at the border, right. So within 90 days we will try to do something. Because we are thinking about the electronic visas. We will use that kind of visa where the airline will have to submit the name of the person to our office before to issue the ticket, similar system to the US. It needs at least 1 year.

We don't want people using that kind of system (visa waiver) to stay in our country forever, we have to use the tourist visa to intervene in that system to screen them, to screen the people who are staying in our country.

Question: We have heard that there will be a 3 month visa you can buy here in Bangkok. Is this a new rule, if so when is it in place, is it already in existence, can you explain?

Police Major Suppachai: It is not a new visa, it is a new regulation for foreigners who don't have a visa, but visa extension, it means you can apply for a non immigration type B and O at the Immigration Bureau.

Question: In Thailand right?

Police Major Suppachai: Yes. But it means that you have to have at least 3 weeks, I mean visa. It means when you come in right, you have 4 weeks. In the first week you have to contact immigration, in Bangkok in Suan Phlu and submit the papers that you want to change your visa. You have to have a visa. Before we could change the category of visa from tourist to non-immigrant, but this time we can issue the visa as well.

[Lacoste]

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QUOTE(Basil B @ 2006-09-21 02:01:35) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A government official waved arriving foreigners past a kiosk, saying there was no need for a visa. "Not today," he said. "Thailand is celebrating."

From the L. A. Times reporting on yessterday in LOS.

BB

Sure

[John K]

I don’t know if this is anything related but I just tried to bring up the Thai consulate in New York website and it appears to be not there.

[Axel]

I don’t know if this is anything related but I just tried to bring up the Thai consulate in New York website and it appears to be not there.

Try here:

http://www.thaiconsulnewyork.com/english/index.php

[dr_Pat_Pong]

I don’t know if this is anything related but I just tried to bring up the Thai consulate in New York website and it appears to be not there.

Try here:

http://www.thaiconsulnewyork.com/english/index.php

It is quite OK now

[astral]

My experience is that it is better to show nothing about retirement whilst applying for your non immigrant visa. I went through all this in the UK paid money to doctor for health cert, money to Scotland Yard for no criminal record letter, proof of income etc etc only to find I got exactly the same O visa as if i said I was visiting friends the year before. It took a month to get the no criminal record thing.

The evidence needed to get the retirement EXTENSION (exactly) in Chiangmai seemed to require only an O visa, a local medical cert 50 baht, and proof of income or 800k.

Think nothing of it

Application for the retirement visa inside Thailand has always been the recommended procedure.

[John K]

Pol. Gen Kowit Watthana was the person who signed this order. Is he the one who got sacked?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Pol. Gen Kowit Watthana was the person who signed this order. Is he the one who got sacked?

Nope

[chownah]

I went to the hospital and told the doctor I had no illnesses and let him listen to the sounds my body makes....he filled out a paper and signed it saying I was healthy..........60 baht...half hour.

I went to my bank and got them to fill in a form saying how much money I had in it (more than 800,000 baht).......100 baht...half hour.

I went to a store and got 6 pictures (same price for one or for six).....80 baht...half hour.

I went to MaeSai immigration office taking these items and some old bank statements copies of fax requests to transfer money showing that I have been bringing money in large chunks into Thailand for about 4 years....they only wanted to look at the last 3 months.

They told me the copies I needed to make so I went outside to the copy kiosk and had them made.........22 baht.

I went back inside and I filled out a form requesting the visa.....they filled out some forms....I paid the fee...........2000 baht.

They paperclipped a paper in my visa saying to come back on a certain date....about 15 days from the date this all happened.

They said that if all was successful (and it almost assuredly would be) then when I come back they will issue me a 90 day visa and after having this visa for awhile I should apply for an extension which will give me one year....the fee for that extension will be 1900 baht....it all took about one hour at the immigration office....all of this was done with me only having an immigration stamp.....and having had nothing but immigration stamps for the last 2 years.

All of this was done in one day....at reasonable cost....a pleasant experience all in all.

Chownah

Edited September 28, 2006 by chownah