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

[threelegcowboy]

My friend who does back to back tourist visas for years and is from UK has been warned about 2 months ago. His Tourist Visa(2+1) obtained in Vienchen had a "red stamp" along side visa sticker. It stated something like "Upon exiting Thailand admitance back to Thailand may not be allowed."

I look for this red stamp to be used as a flag for these visa runners. They have no intention of stranding anybody but will warn them. You will then have to get your things in order. I bet this starts on Oct 1st.

It might not be so difficult to thumb through your passport and see how many entrys have been made over the last three months. If you are a tourist then you will have multiple stamps out of the country with some lenght of stay.

I am a tourist and I do travel so I am interested on how they will treat me. If there is too much of a problem then I will just spend my tourist dollars some place else.

LLL

Edited September 11, 2006 by threelegcowboy

[lecter]

Wanna live here get a VISA

Otherwise go home.

How simple is that?

Or be an illegal.

Same as any country where you're not a national.

Cannot see the angst.

Thailand could care less about the illegals here spending their money, and I'd guess the illegals (VISA run junkies) are the chepskates anyway, don't own any land etc.

boo hoo, they are cracking down.

Get a life chaps, or a VISA.

[fingers]

I'm here on a Non-Immigrant O Visa - I assume this all doesn't affect me?

[COBBER]

okay here is a hypothetical situation:

an american comes to thailand to live. but he has a job in america. he can do the work from his house in thailand, everything works over the internet. the money is deposited in his US account, nothing passes over thailand's borders. this american has a house and family in thailand, and takes nothing from thai society, in fact he is ONLY contributing by spending his US-made money here. he stays on a tourist visa- triple entry from penang. no point in trying to get a non-imm, as he does not have en employer in thailand to write the letter to get the visa. it should be perfectly alright for him to live on a tourist visa.

what happens to this person now? when he has used up his first 90 days of the triple entry visa (60 days + extension), if after Oct. 1, would they make him leave the country for 90 days before he could come back in, or would they just renew for another 90 days (60 days + extension) as usual?

Thanks for any input.

They way i see it is that there only targeting the visa on arival visa runners. As long as the nearby Thai consulates keep issueing Tourist visas as they have been there should not be a problem. The other option is to go to a friendly Thai consulate (in U.S, U.K , Australia) every 15 months and get a Non-Imm multy entry visa.

[tracer0]

George wrote a lot of true stuff here

Well, what the hel_l! LOS makes it very easy to stay, just stick to the rules.

I had a company here and my proper work permit, and I was paying taxes. Now I am retired, and I got my proper retirement visa. Where is the problem? If anyone wants to stay here, (s)he should read the rules and decide if (s)he can accept it. If not, (s)he should stay where (s)he is. You always have the option to spend your holidays here.

Thank you for your attention,

a happy guy from Phuket, who got no visa problems.

I see no problem for those staying and working (or being retired) legally.

Personally I wouldnt mind if they get rid of those obnoxious drunken crim-share artists in Phuket as nobody in Patong seems to be able to want to boot them out. Some have been here 15 years as they were telling...

However it should be realised that for many foreigners there are several problems. Ie the Thai wife not understanding that one honestly has allowed oneself to be cheated on tax... I donot mind but instead I have more complaints from here then from the taxoffice.....

Secondly many foreigners who sold their house in Europe will be incapable of returning after 15 years or whatever due to price increases. Very few farangs understand that if you stay here long time you are on a one way tour and as the Thai side of the equation isnt stable you have no idea if in 10 years you can still stay here...

In this case you may not have visum problems now but what about the future..

Whatever whats said above , ie find other place and spend some time there is not a bad idea. Friends are telling me Vietnam is a nice place...

[ramidin]

The message is clear

FARANG GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nam Kao, I think the real message is ferang observe the proper procedures, and get a visa.

This is not to target genuine tourists, it is to target the 'perpetual visa run' community.

In the UK, fill in the form, provide a reason for travel, pay the fee (now GBP90/6300THB), and provide a guarantee of repatriation. How hard is that for a year of hassle free travel, one year non-immigrant visa, multiple entry - simple. When it comes time for renewal, go home for a week.Conveniently my visa is renewed in December, so Xmas visit. Does not take much planning.

When you work out the cost of going to the UK once a year, then doing four border runs/exits (which actually lets you stay for 15 months), instead of twelve, there is little difference in cost.

Sorry to say, I think the people that are complaining are just making excuses, getting a visa really is no big deal.

Posted by a happy ferang with a UK issued multiple entry non-immigrant 'B' issued annually, with a Thai business, work permit and 30 happy Thai employees.

Also, it is a myth that you need a Thai company to get a non-IMM 'B', you can be sponsord by an overseas company.

Time for all the complaining to stop, urban legends and myths to cease, and if you want to live/work/extended tourist in LOS - GET A LEGAL VISA!

[apalink_thailand]

Just a precision : I am not happy with the real problems that some people will have, following this last gvt's move.

I just say that we need to understand, and aknowledge, that something real is happening, that Thailand is changing, and this is part of a large plan.

This much is apparent

In the same way that Thaksin is cheating his own people, that we have corruption on an industrial scale... there is clearly a will to push Thailand toward the First World, on an economic, social and politic ground as well.

Erm, you have some proof to back up these statements of "corruption on an industrial scale"?

His dream is to change Thailand into a corporation-republic, like Singapore.

Singapore is more than happy to have foreigners working there and living there. Your comment makes no sense. He IS trying to clean out the filth and lets face it, there are a LOT of foriegners here that come under that category. Most seem to reside in Pattaya. I believe one such filthy foreigner was just shipped back to the USA? If you are not eligible for a B visa, then you are a TOURIST. You cannot work here so dont get upset. Get qualified and come back

At this stage, only the defeat of Thaksin could change this and allow a status quo ante (but it's unlikely).

Its unlikely to change even if Taksin gets blown out. Your dreaming. Unless you know something the rest of us dont?

With this man, Thailand that we knew and loved (and hated too sometimes) will be history, quickly.

Better get your ticket home.

Write on a paper all what happened since 2001, and the first election of Thaksin, and you will see all the dots, and eventually the big picture.

Do you recall what it was like prior to Taksin? Corrupt governments that changed twice a year, nothing progressed at all. Taksin did manage to get the 30 Bht heath scheme up and running (sort of) and he improved tax collections at the Revenue Dept and the Customs Dept by amounts far greater than previously collected. I am not supporting Taksin here but I do recall how useless and ineffective the previous governments were. I like the Demoncrat Party but....they are useless.

[dogblower]

Talk about your storm in a teacup! So they've finally closed off a loophole. I can't imagine any other country in the world that would have allowed such blatant abuse of their immigration laws to have gone on for so long. Yes, I have used and abused it myself in the past and I'm sad to see it go, but I can't say I'm surprised and I can't see any reason to be pissed off about it.

[Japhrodisiac]

It'll be against the law to chew gum next! I am offshore working outside of Thailand going home (Thailand) 6th of Oct. I have 3 30 day chops in my passport already. A wife and 3 kids waiting for me to come home. All my documents for applying for a visa are at my home in LOS. This is going to be real convenient. What a load of ****!!! Maybe I'll just pack up the wifey and kids and go back to Falangland. I wish they would have done this in the springtime.

I'm ready to beam you up and out. You have a THAI wife and kids? If that is so, then why didn't you just do the 1 year extension to a proper non-immigrant visa for supporting your wife and kids?

If you are outside the country, get off your lazy ass and visit a Thai Embassy to get the proper visa.

Jesus.

"Lazy Ass" Did you not read the part about WORKING!!! I would and have done several times. Some of us lazy asses are to busy working and and raising our children to run off and get visa's. Especially when you have the option to get a tourist visa. Thanks for your insightfull and helpfull coment though.

Heard of mail? Fedex? No excuse - go visit an embassy or send your passport to one.

Have you not got better things to do then antagonise people who are trying to work through a crisis

To me, it is sheer madness to be working illegally in another country, and have wife and kids in same, risking all for the sake of a little convenience. If your employer cannot or will not provide you with the correct documentation for visas, then you must form your own company, do your own visas and work permit etc. I spent my first months here working for a company that promised visa, work permit etc. and of course never came through. I will never again trust my own legal status with someone who has no investment in it. If I go to jail, they simply find a replacement for the foriegn "criminal" who used to work for them. No thanks. I'll buck up, pay my fees, file my taxes and be left alone please.

[enuff said]

.

lecter you are SO correct.

With typical "money money MONEY is the most important thing in the world (especially MY money" Western ethics, the whingers and whiners now have something to whinge and whine about.

I bid them good riddance.

Sure, go to Cambodia where the power goes out three times a day for a couple hours. Where the most modern medical facility doesn't have an ICU.

Ta ta

'nuff said

~

[tracer0]

okay here is a hypothetical situation:

an american comes to thailand to live. but he has a job in america. he can do the work from his house in thailand, everything works over the internet. the money is deposited in his US account, nothing passes over thailand's borders. this american has a house and family in thailand, and takes nothing from thai society, in fact he is ONLY contributing by spending his US-made money here. he stays on a tourist visa- triple entry from penang. no point in trying to get a non-imm, as he does not have en employer in thailand to write the letter to get the visa. it should be perfectly alright for him to live on a tourist visa.

what happens to this person now? when he has used up his first 90 days of the triple entry visa (60 days + extension), if after Oct. 1, would they make him leave the country for 90 days before he could come back in, or would they just renew for another 90 days (60 days + extension) as usual?

Thanks for any input.

They way i see it is that there only targeting the visa on arival visa runners. As long as the nearby Thai consulates keep issueing Tourist visas as they have been there should not be a problem. The other option is to go to a friendly Thai consulate (in U.S, U.K , Australia) every 15 months and get a Non-Imm multy entry visa.

as far as I know they can consider you are working here via internet and need workpermit, pay taxes and VAT on internet income. Several guys/companies got done this way and had to pay fines.

You work here, pay tax etc.... Anyway you pay maybe a 3500 baht tax per month, 2500 social security, get an insurance for Thailand(!) and donot have to go out. As far as I am concerned similar price then making border trips!

[reddevil_06510]

Farang kap baan

Pratep Thai som rob khon Thai!!!!!!

I all seriousness, what are the loop holes, this is a big money maker for the country, so what are the new requirements?? Does this mean we have to go to central imigration and pay B 2,500 for the stamp.

I know the government here can be quite Byzantine but I think this is just an opportunity for the governement to stop sharing this revenue with its neighbors.

Cheers

[number6]

George wrote a lot of true stuff here

Well, what the hel_l! LOS makes it very easy to stay, just stick to the rules.

I had a company here and my proper work permit, and I was paying taxes. Now I am retired, and I got my proper retirement visa. Where is the problem? If anyone wants to stay here, (s)he should read the rules and decide if (s)he can accept it. If not, (s)he should stay where (s)he is. You always have the option to spend your holidays here.

Thank you for your attention,

a happy guy from Phuket, who got no visa problems.

Fully agree

me too I think its over due please people tell me any countries europe western let so called tourists live there simply by skipping over border every month - the guys doing this are not tourists - proper tourists even those wanting to stay 1 year or so I think will have no problem getting 1yr muti entry visas as i did before i went over to retirement visa - if they cant afford fees or prove they have funds to support thmeselves then they cant argue they and likes of them support thai economy and dont quote Thailand is a third world country - thats another argument - it up to them its their country - dont like it go please i for one dont want you here - its time to get rid of riff raf and if later they decide they dont want me up to them but i consider that very very unlikely given i can prove a lot of income married to thai and we have a child here

my 1p worth

[Meerkat]

What about getting an "Elite Card"?

Are they easy to obtain if you have 1 million baht to pay?

Yes, as long as you don't have a criminal record. The background check took less than a week.

Are they good for 5 years or just 1 year?

5 years rolling. This means that after the initial 5 year visa is up, you automatically get another 5 years and so on. Also, if for instance you get a new passport, you will get a new 5 year visa from scratch (ie a full 5 years, not just up to the original end-date).

Do they eliminate the need to do 30 and/or 90 day border runs?

Yes. You get a 90 day stamp on entry. After 90 days, instead of having to leave the country, you can get another 90 day stamp at any immigration office except Don Muang (and I expect Suvarnabhumi by extension) for the usual THB 1,900. Thailand Elite will set up the appointment for you so there's no waiting. Obviously if you leave the country within 90 days and come back, you get another full 90 day stamp.

Don't know the answer to these questions, but hoping maybe you do.

Downsides. Who knows how long the scheme will last after Thaksin/TRT goes? I doubt they'd rescind your existing 5 year visa if TE gets binned, but you might only get the one.

TE and Permanent Residency (or becoming a Thai National) are mutually exclusive. If you attain PR, you have to either give the card back (no idea if you get any money back), or sell it to someone else (there's a transfer fee of 10% of the current list price when you sell).

You can, however, get a work permit tacked onto the visa if you wish, and TE claim they'll help you with the application process.

Anyway, so far so good.

[Big Dogster]

George wrote a lot of true stuff here

Well, what the hel_l! LOS makes it very easy to stay, just stick to the rules.

I had a company here and my proper work permit, and I was paying taxes. Now I am retired, and I got my proper retirement visa. Where is the problem? If anyone wants to stay here, (s)he should read the rules and decide if (s)he can accept it. If not, (s)he should stay where (s)he is. You always have the option to spend your holidays here.

Thank you for your attention,

a happy guy from Phuket, who got no visa problems.

Yeah Jack, you got no problems now. They'll stick it to you soon enough by changing your financial requirements or some other way. Perhaps you own a condo here and its value plummets. It don't affect you does it? A lot of cocky moronic asses will get the shaft one way or another

[rocky]

Have you not got better things to do then antagonise people who are trying to work through a crisis

Crisis? Very melodramatic. A crisis is when you find out you have cancer.

Or

No gas in your flying airplane.

Getting a legal visa is not a crisis. Stop being a baby about it and do the right thing.

This is a crisis, some people maynot be able to get the correct visa for many reasons, The long term implication of this new ruling are very serious and will be far felt, like the butterfly effect. It is easy to get on a high horse and look down at people that cannot get the same visa's as others, The thought of having to return to country of origin for some people is unthinkable. Yo may find that this butterfly effect includes a return to people checking out of the high rises via the 18th floor.

Every farang regardless of visa will feel the long term effect of this ruling, (friends wil be gone, social scecens will change, the feel of the place will alter) All societies require people from every rung of the ladder. This ladder is about to be altered in Thailand.

A crisis this is,

(I have a 12 month visa and will easily be able to renew it when it expires, but that is easy for me to say and do. Just becasue you can achiecve something dosent mean other will)

[Backpack_thailand]

I'm here on a Non-Immigrant O Visa - I assume this all doesn't affect me?

Won't affect you at all. I'm on a Non Imm 'O' as well and spoke with my local immigration peeps last week. This is aimed at stopping the perpetual "border hoppers". If you have all the legal paperwork to live and work here then you are OK.

This new rule should ween out a few trouble makers but there are plenty of people here who genuinely have enough money to stay. They will all need to apply for proper visas from now on.

The corruption at Aranya Phrathet will almost stop now and Penang will be a boom-town!!!

[tracer0]

It'll be against the law to chew gum next! I am offshore working outside of Thailand going home (Thailand) 6th of Oct. I have 3 30 day chops in my passport already. A wife and 3 kids waiting for me to come home. All my documents for applying for a visa are at my home in LOS. This is going to be real convenient. What a load of ****!!! Maybe I'll just pack up the wifey and kids and go back to Falangland. I wish they would have done this in the springtime.

I'm ready to beam you up and out. You have a THAI wife and kids? If that is so, then why didn't you just do the 1 year extension to a proper non-immigrant visa for supporting your wife and kids?

If you are outside the country, get off your lazy ass and visit a Thai Embassy to get the proper visa.

Jesus.

"Lazy Ass" Did you not read the part about WORKING!!! I would and have done several times. Some of us lazy asses are to busy working and and raising our children to run off and get visa's. Especially when you have the option to get a tourist visa. Thanks for your insightfull and helpfull coment though.

Heard of mail? Fedex? No excuse - go visit an embassy or send your passport to one.

Have you not got better things to do then antagonise people who are trying to work through a crisis

To me, it is sheer madness to be working illegally in another country, and have wife and kids in same, risking all for the sake of a little convenience. If your employer cannot or will not provide you with the correct documentation for visas, then you must form your own company, do your own visas and work permit etc. I spent my first months here working for a company that promised visa, work permit etc. and of course never came through. I will never again trust my own legal status with someone who has no investment in it. If I go to jail, they simply find a replacement for the foriegn "criminal" who used to work for them. No thanks. I'll buck up, pay my fees, file my taxes and be left alone please.

1. He says he is working offshore and that could be offshore anywhere. Doesnt have to be Thailand. Is even unlikely as there is much more business elsewhere.

2. As you never know when/where you go you cannot send passports off as sure when you have done it you may have to go elsewhere...

Same going through that application, if married and not just aq girlfriend like most of use.

3. Personally I would check with an immigration office, not the one where you might want to apply and find out what you really need to do it with a visum, to make it into a Yearvisum and not loose passport during the application period or have it cancelled to start all over again!!

Also if your work is in Thailand if near Malaysia no way to go via Malaysia as then you have a one month Malaysia stamp....

[Arkady]

Is it 3 back to back visas and out for 90 days no mater how long you have stayed for on the visas. Example 1st one lets say 2 weeks then the next 3 weeks and the last the full 30 days. This is not staying in thailand for 90 days but it is 3 back to back visas

I don't see that as a problem.

It is the 30+30+30 with no breaks that they are targeting.

However we will have to see once it starts.

I'm in the same position as a few others in that I go to visit Thailand very frequently, at least once or twice a month to see my wife. I work outside of Thailand but spend on average 7 days or more a month in Thailand. Will I be affected by this new rule? You say they are targeting the back-to-back entries without breaks, but obviously there is at least a small break in there for even the visa runners, even if it's only a few hours or a day, or maybe a few days. Where's the cutoff? If it's a person making a judgement call, then it should be obvious to them that I'm not in the same boat as the visa runners. But if it's just a computer program spitting out that I have 3 entries in the past 90 days, then I'm in big trouble.

As you say, we'll have to wait and see once it starts. But if they prohibit me from entering it'll mean a major change to the lives of me and my wife.

Thats the thing.. Real rules cannot be left up to the discresion of the mood of the guy in immigration..

So what defines back to back.. What defines fully using a stamp.. What defines a break between stamps..

Poorly written.. Poorly thought out.. Tough to execute.

My little brother is in a situation much like you.. Has a TGF and lives in Indo.. They are usually back here every months or two.. Sometimes then touring from here as a base.. I would guess that he has had 3 stamps in every 90 days for the last year but is a genuine tourist with no home of his own here.. Will he now not be welcome as a real tourist ??

Seems likely that regular visitors arriving by air who have sufficient breaks between visits to indicate they don't live here permanently will not be targetted. They are more likely to go after people doing back to back visits overland and staying for nearly 30 days each time. The problem is that it will be unclear and the threat of being refused admission will hanging for a while. Recently some Filipinos were refused readmission from Cambodia after gambling in the casino just over the border on the grounds that they were not in possession of tickets out of Thailand. In this situation you obviously have to travel to Phnom Penh and find your way to a third country from there and then try and get back to Thailand, maybe after losing your passport and coming back with a blank one. A couple more cases like this involving farangs will probably incentivise long term stayers to get a proper visa. Anyway, it is becoming more of a police state for Thais as well as foreigners, so this should not be surprise. I think we have to bear in mind that the people coming up with this stuff are super wealthy Chinese-Thais who despise poor people and farangs alike. Poor Thais-Thais supported by farangs on tourist visas clearly fall into the despised category and will get no sympathy.

[A_Traveller]

Whilst acknowledging the country's sovereign rights, it's a little worrying that there is no formal announcement, we are after all reacting to a poorly written piece in the Bangkok Post and a news report from AFX picked up by Forbes.

Thoughts/Questions

The implication of the translated paperwork for visas issued outside the country is that the applicant must apply at their country of origin, i.e. A Brit in the UK, New Zealander, in NZ, and that other Thai consulates and embassy's may {should?} decline to provide the visa, anyone know what the position is on this? I wonder if there will be a concomitant rigour in the application of the rules in this area as well.

Will this be retrospectively active, in other words if an individual has 90 days + consecutive visa waiver entries in the passport will they be effectively barred from returning to the Kingdom for 90 days the first time they present themselves at immigration after October 1?

Regards

[cyborgx]

I heard about the Elite Card a while aqo, but dimissed it as too expensive, perhaps it's now more appropriate.

Where can we get EXACT details on the Elite Card?

[jumpinjiminycricket]

the story we are responding to here is dated yesterday (sun sept 10) and does not come from a thai newspaper. rather, it comes from herald tribune, down the wire from reuters, ap and the rest.

none of the thais at my school have heard of any such policy, and all the border-run companies i just called said the news, as usual, is crap....mmm. that's what we always say.

guess i'll wait before making firm alternate plans. and i won't wait to cover my butt. hello korea?

too bad the place i work, in conjunction with immigration bureaucrats, have already taken more than a few months to help out and process a work permit for me....still haven't got anything helpful...and getting pushy just seems to delay everything

anyhoo, if anyone has an analysis on what will happen to those who get mulitple entry-visa before oct first....? like the one that you could get in penang....

hope the boys in the passport-stamping office won't be inclined to change their minds when they see a multiple-entry after oct 1 .....

or maybe they'd be happy seeing as one would've had to pay a bunch of baht...

or maybe, or maybe

ororororor. i think i will try for a job as a seal-impersonator at the aquarium.

[A_Traveller]

I heard about the Elite Card a while aqo, but dimissed it as too expensive, perhaps it's now more appropriate.

Where can we get EXACT details on the Elite Card?

Links

Elite Card

http://www.thailandelites.com/

Immigration Bureau

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/base.php

Regards

/edit link//

Edited September 11, 2006 by A_Traveller

[Greer]

Wanna live here get a VISA

Otherwise go home.

How simple is that?

Or be an illegal.

Same as any country where you're not a national.

Cannot see the angst.

Thailand could care less about the illegals here spending their money, and I'd guess the illegals (VISA run junkies) are the chepskates anyway, don't own any land etc.

boo hoo, they are cracking down.

Get a life chaps, or a VISA.

I think it is a little unfair and unbalanced to call people doing visa runs cheapskates - the two issues are separate in any case.

The comment that they are cheapskates for not owning land is rather silly from an expat - I am sure you temporarily forgot that it is illegal for a foreigner to own land here.

There are positive and negative aspects to this new ruling, we really should try to consider things in a balanced way. It could easily affect some tourism of course, and I don't really see how it will help stamp out illegal workers - many illegal workers are so called because they live here and don't leave - so why would they be risking detection by doing a border run in the first place?

To the very early poster who said he was worried about it although he is married to a Thai - if you are supporting a Thai family (your own presumably, if you are married) you simply get a non-immigrant "O" visa and you may stay for a year at a time but must extend the visa or leave the country every 90 days - this is nothing to do with tourism visas and border runs, and I doubt the authorities would apply the same rule in this case.

Also, with the non-imm "O" if you extend it 3 times in a row from within Thailand, you can apply for resident status.

The back to back tourist visa was simply a way of avoiding the painful process of visa extension, and although I have not done it (I travel a lot anyway so it is not necessary) I am sure a huge proportion of expats here have, so lets not all get into the "holier than thou" attitude.

If you have a Thai wife and/or family, then the best idea is to get to an embassy outside of Thailand, have copies of all the marriage certificates, birth certificates of kids etc, copy of wifes ID card, letter from the wife (in Thai is OK, but you best also have a certified translation from a recognised translation facility), and all the other bits of "supporting" evidence, along with bank statements to prove you have sufficient income and funds in the bank. Once you can do this, it is a big load off your mind believe me.

Edited September 11, 2006 by Greer

[ding]

It kind of seems that they don't want westerners. Why else would they make us leave, rather than make it easier to stay?

The Philipines is trying to make it easy to retire there if you're a westerner;

PHILIPINES RETIREMENT AUTHORITY

The Special Resident Retiree’s Visa (SRRVisa) is a special non-immigrant resident visa that provides its holders with multiple-entry and indefinite stay status in the Philippines.

It also grants Tax-Free incentives and privileges as well as value-added services and benefits that they can avail of from our partner establishments such as hotels, resorts, retirement facilities, and restaurants.

It is a “lifestyle” visa for those who enjoy perks and privileges, a “hassle-free” visa for the frequent business traveler, and a “retirement visa” for the elderly who need special care for their special needs.

Edited September 11, 2006 by ding

[Big Dogster]

I have no understanding of this whatever rule that is. I am EU citizen and have furniture designing company in Hong Kong, and do not spend much time in my office because my manager take care everything.

I come to Thailand for pleasure each month. Sometimes 1 week sometimes up to several weeks depend on my schedule. According to what I read here, people like me can come for pleasure 3 times only and cannot come for 90 days?? This policy is just too rediculous, must be out of some monkey brain. Because I know many friends, European expats in HK, Singapore, Taiwan, Brunei, ect, come Thailand for pleasure every month, some people only work a few days a month, and spend their big chunks of money in Thailand for pleasure. Are we in this group also affected??

If Thailand don't want our business, we can always go on to nearby Fillippines to spend our leisure money.

I know many many people in your situation and they will take those dollars elsewhere as you will do. I see a condo market meltdown coming. Big time

[lingyai]

I'm not in the same boat(Thai passport/NZ passport), but do take a great interest in this topic as even though there may be ways around this new development, the amount of people affected is huge, and little thought has been put into the amount of money this will cost the country long term.

I would have thought that if the real reason wa to crack donw on illegal workers, they would just apply greater restrictions to schools, and enforce them.

As many have pointed out, there seems to be a bigger plan at work, judging by Toxins moves over the last couple of years. Although this may not be a shock to many.. closing off such a massive part of the tourisim market without first adding other options just makes the whole thing sound very ill prepared and spur of the moment.

The other lot that will be effected are those <50, not married and not working for a Thai company. I was in this boat for many years, while living here but working for a foreign company without a Thai presence. The only options for these poeple is to get married, or invest 3M+ Baht they don't have, or if they do have it, into a market that they just don't/can't understand. I feel for them, because it could have been me had I not finally met someone I wanted to marry.

Those postulating that this new law just won't work are probably very right. The way I see it, in order to make this truly work, Thailand will need to do the following:

1. Decrease the salary requirement for teachers to 20K/Month - the same as journos.

2. Introduce a visa for singles under 50 that works.

Without at least these changes, this new law is probably going to be a disaster.

Bingo. For those under 50 and single who don't need to work and don't want (can't) to transfer 3mil here there there is no visa to get. There is no way for them to get legal.

What is the cost/benefit of this move for Thailand?

How does this benefit Thailand overall? Please explain this to me?

[DerringDo]

Not all banks give interest on "farang" deposits. I have never received 1 baht in my savings account here. AND that was with varying amounts from 10k to 789k Thai Baht. It pays to check with a particular bank.

The BKK post carried a letter last week about someone upcountry who had been receiving interest without problems for a while and then just a complete change of policy.

[george]

The best visa recommendation for border hoppers is the Multiple entry Non-Immigrant Visa:

http://www.thaivisa.com/422.0.html

[bangkokeddy]

"Falang on doomed tourist visa want wife quick quick! Fat, old OK no ploblem for me, must have good heart and preferably have a relative working in Pattaya Immiglation Department. Me love you long time! (or at least until the visa laws are changed again)".

Look forward to seeing more ads like this in the not too distant future.