After being warned about 4 visa extensions is it wise to keep coming and going to Thailand?

[TheSpade]

So as I detailed in an earlier thread here on a recent return to Bangkok I was mildly grilled at BKK Airport

As the system had alerted I had done 4 visa EXTENSIONS in a 12 month period (I have a triple entry tourist visa from the London Embassy and I spent a few months last year here too on a triple tourist visa)

And that i MIGHT not get a further extension if I tried next time and MAYBE wouldn't be allowed back into Thailand the next time I tried (nothing concrete lots of if, buts and maybe really) because of it.

It was all over in 5 minutes when I showed proof of flights from Thailand to Laos for next month and a flight home later in the year and explained how I have income from overseas and lots of free time to travel / spend in Thailand.

The thing they talked about was extensions not how much time I'd spent in Thailand or that I'd been here multiple times in a short period.

So I've decided I won't do any further visa extensions this year but I plan to go to fly to Laos later this month and then come to Bangkok a few days later to activate the 3rd and final part of my Thai tourist visa.

Then when the 60 days of that final tourist visa is up I would like to go spend a week in China before returning to Bangkok, by which time my visa will have expired.

So I'll hope to get 30 days on arrival and then spend a final week or two in Bangkok before flying home.

So basically I want to go out of Thailand and then return another twice before leaving for good for the year. There will be no more EXTENSIONS of visas which is what they seemed to take issue with.

Can you see there being any problem with this or is it just constantly extending visas that causes problems?

I'm confident I'll get back in to use the final part of my tourist visa but not 100% sure if they will be so happy to give me a 30 day on arrival stamp after China, thoughts?

(I can always provide proof of funds, onward flights, and income sources from abroad + the fact I have a registered and taxable business in my home country if need be)

Thanks

Edited March 11, 2016 by TheSpade

[jacksam]

I don't get it. You had a mixture of visas and stamps. You leave often. Even your last planned entry your only staying a couple of weeks. Also your well organized, demonstrated funds and plans. Make sure you carry your flight printouts.

Clearly your not working in los. I would be astounded if you were not admitted. Especially as your flying in. My opinion zero problem. The experts will be along with definitive advice

[sunnyjim5]

I am surprised by your story.

Unless you have multiple back to back tourist visas/extensions which made the Immigration officer believe you were using tourist visa as means of living/working illegally in Thailand.

If you are a tourist with a visa and are able to show adequate funds (from abroad) there will not be a problem and you can apply for extensions if you wish.

[elviajero]

• People aren't reporting that extensions of stay are being declined due to having too many, and as it stands there has been no official public announcement about any limits. Unless you have been flagged on the system not to receive any more extensions, which I doubt, you would probably get another.

You should have no problem getting a visa exempt entry. Make sure you have at least 10k in cash on entry.

[Dave12345678910]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

[jacksam]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Sure about that?

[sunnyjim5]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Wrong !

The immigration computers will link "old" visa history with a new passport .

[ubonjoe]

I am not sure about the flag at 4 extension and have that opinion from the OP's first topic about it. I think it was false info from the immigration officer. There have been no other reports of it happening.

[BritTim]

I am not sure about the flag at 4 extension and have that opinion from the OP's first topic about it. I think it was false info from the immigration officer. There have been no other reports of it happening.

Actually, I do remember one other post about immigration highlighting the number of extensions (though I believe that was on visa exempt).

For the OP, you might be questioned again on entry, but I cannot imagine you run any risk of being refused entry, whether you do extensions or not.

[Dave12345678910]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Wrong !

The immigration computers will link "old" visa history with a new passport .

No you are wrong. I seen it just the other day and I have 10 years ERP experience. Yes they can look it up but don't there's simple too many tourist to do full check. Under staffed uneducated then if you speak English quickly you lose them. And passports aren't linked. Worst case go apply in different country. No visa link

[BritTim]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Wrong !

The immigration computers will link "old" visa history with a new passport .

No you are wrong. I seen it just the other day and I have 10 years ERP experience. Yes they can look it up but don't there's simple too many tourist to do full check. Under staffed uneducated then if you speak English quickly you lose them. And passports aren't linked. Worst case go apply in different country. No visa link

As someone with significantly more than 10 years IT experience, I consider automatic linking of old and new passports based on full name, nationality and date of birth to be fairly simple, and require no special effort on the part of the immigration official.

[ubonjoe]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Wrong !

The immigration computers will link "old" visa history with a new passport .

No you are wrong. I seen it just the other day and I have 10 years ERP experience. Yes they can look it up but don't there's simple too many tourist to do full check. Under staffed uneducated then if you speak English quickly you lose them. And passports aren't linked. Worst case go apply in different country. No visa link

You are wrong. It seems to be only something you think and not based upon facts. This has been discussed many times and has been confirmed by people that were shown there history on a previous passport.

[lkv]

As someone with significantly more than 10 years IT experience, I consider automatic linking of old and new passports based on full name, nationality and date of birth to be fairly simple, and require no special effort on the part of the immigration official.

Is that doable on Windows 95?

[BangkokKen]

Think!

Would anyone bother to pay 500K if the tourist visa was still no limit and hassle free?

[BritTim]

As someone with significantly more than 10 years IT experience, I consider automatic linking of old and new passports based on full name, nationality and date of birth to be fairly simple, and require no special effort on the part of the immigration official.

Is that doable on Windows 95?

I can state with confidence that immigration's server will not be running Windows 95, though Windows NT Server 4.0 would not be totally mind blowing based on some of the other systems I have seen!

Regardless, matching data between different records in the database is not dependent on the operating system. Modern database software will make the matching more efficient, and any implemented functionality will need adequate hardware. However, with proper design, this is not a particularly hardware hungry task.

[smartpant]

they probably believe you stay all year in Thailand and you go work illegally. how old are you?

[FritsSikkink]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

nonsense

[FritsSikkink]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Wrong !

The immigration computers will link "old" visa history with a new passport .

No you are wrong. I seen it just the other day and I have 10 years ERP experience. Yes they can look it up but don't there's simple too many tourist to do full check. Under staffed uneducated then if you speak English quickly you lose them. And passports aren't linked. Worst case go apply in different country. No visa link

your talking absolute rubbish, it takes less than a minute to link.

[TheSpade]

So would be good if we didn't argue about whether immigration has Windows 95 or not and stick to the topic.

I got a new passport about a year ago not getting another one now. And really doesn't make sense / isn't possible seeing as I'm leaving Thailand in June and only need to come and go until then,

I'm confident that any old visa history DOES show on their system if they go looking for it. Might not be automatically on their screen but it's there somewhere. If it isn't available to Bangkok immigration then who does have it?

Unless you have multiple back to back tourist visas/extensions which made the Immigration officer believe you were using tourist visa as means of living/working illegally in Thailand.

I have spent a lot of time in Thailand, on and off, over the past 3 years. I come and go. Sometimes I'm here for the best part of 6-9 months with the odd trip of a few days to a neighboring country when a visa has expired then back again.

Other times I've left for 4-6 months at a time before coming back.

So yeah they may have suspected I'm working here but proving otherwise shouldn't be an issue. I have documents showing I have a registered and taxed business in my home country and can easily provide proof of regular income from abroad. So not too worried about that aspect.

Just don't want to book a trip to China if there's a danger of not getting back in on a 30 day arrival stamp afterwards.

General consensus is that it should be OK despite questioning as there are no set rules saying otherwise, right?

[mngmn]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Wrong !

The immigration computers will link "old" visa history with a new passport .

No you are wrong. I seen it just the other day and I have 10 years ERP experience. Yes they can look it up but don't there's simple too many tourist to do full check. Under staffed uneducated then if you speak English quickly you lose them. And passports aren't linked. Worst case go apply in different country. No visa link

As someone with significantly more than 10 years IT experience, I consider automatic linking of old and new passports based on full name, nationality and date of birth to be fairly simple, and require no special effort on the part of the immigration official.

It a miss conception that full name and date of birth is a unique identifier. In a large population of English names there will definitely be some duplicates. The situation gets much worse with Chinese, Indian and Muslim names for example.

Many years ago (1970s) this wrong assumption brought the UK's new vehicle licencing system to its knees and is one of the reasons why UK licenses are valid until age 70 with no renewals required.

Yes! I have considerably more than 10 years working in IT.

[alh]

To answer the OP's question, and not have a debate on computer systems, I think you should have no problem. This sounds to me like the usual bollocking of the immigration officer on duty. If it would be a problem, why would you be given the 4 extensions to begin with. I'm pretty sure I also have at least 4 of them within a 12 month time span. I also doubt that it showed up on their computer, the clerk probably just happened to count the stamps in your passport. The only issue would be if you have to many visa exempts in a short period of time, but since are on a tourist visa now, that shouldn't be a problem either.

[BritTim]

No you are wrong. I seen it just the other day and I have 10 years ERP experience. Yes they can look it up but don't there's simple too many tourist to do full check. Under staffed uneducated then if you speak English quickly you lose them. And passports aren't linked. Worst case go apply in different country. No visa link

As someone with significantly more than 10 years IT experience, I consider automatic linking of old and new passports based on full name, nationality and date of birth to be fairly simple, and require no special effort on the part of the immigration official.

It a miss conception that full name and date of birth is a unique identifier. In a large population of English names there will definitely be some duplicates. The situation gets much worse with Chinese, Indian and Muslim names for example.

Many years ago (1970s) this wrong assumption brought the UK's new vehicle licencing system to its knees and is one of the reasons why UK licenses are valid until age 70 with no renewals required.

Yes! I have considerably more than 10 years working in IT.

You are correct up to a point.

The combination of full name, nationality and date of birth is not always (or even overwhelmingly) unique in the country of origin. There will be a large number of individuals in the UK called John Edward Smith, and a few of them will have been born on exactly the same day. Out of the handful that fall into that category, probably zero or one will have visited Thailand. Furthermore, an occasional false match in the immigration computer is not the end of the world.

Most people only visit Thailand once or twice and any invalid match would be irrelevant. If (and this would be very rare) an Englishman called John Edward Smith born January 1, 1970 stayed for a long period in Thailand on tourist visas/visa exempt entries, and a different English John Edward Smith born January 1, 1970 subsequently visited Thailand, this second individual could be flagged and questioned. This would cause some minor inconvenience, but the mistaken identity would be sorted out and the blameless John Edward Smith wished a pleasant stay in Thailand.

[FritsSikkink]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Wrong !

The immigration computers will link "old" visa history with a new passport .

No you are wrong. I seen it just the other day and I have 10 years ERP experience. Yes they can look it up but don't there's simple too many tourist to do full check. Under staffed uneducated then if you speak English quickly you lose them. And passports aren't linked. Worst case go apply in different country. No visa link

As someone with significantly more than 10 years IT experience, I consider automatic linking of old and new passports based on full name, nationality and date of birth to be fairly simple, and require no special effort on the part of the immigration official.

It a miss conception that full name and date of birth is a unique identifier. In a large population of English names there will definitely be some duplicates. The situation gets much worse with Chinese, Indian and Muslim names for example.

Many years ago (1970s) this wrong assumption brought the UK's new vehicle licencing system to its knees and is one of the reasons why UK licenses are valid until age 70 with no renewals required.

Yes! I have considerably more than 10 years working in IT.

don't need to, your old passport number is in your new passport

[jacksam]

alh post couple back is good advice. As for an example of threads getting sidetracked this is a ripper. All the chit chat about data base etc is worthless sidetrack

[Suradit69]

Get a new passport. Systems cannot track it and its too much effort for them

Of course they can. Embassies and consulates wouldn't have access to that sort of information, but immigrations at borders, the airport and offices can easily bring up your record even if you have a new passport.

[mngmn]

No you are wrong. I seen it just the other day and I have 10 years ERP experience. Yes they can look it up but don't there's simple too many tourist to do full check. Under staffed uneducated then if you speak English quickly you lose them. And passports aren't linked. Worst case go apply in different country. No visa link

As someone with significantly more than 10 years IT experience, I consider automatic linking of old and new passports based on full name, nationality and date of birth to be fairly simple, and require no special effort on the part of the immigration official.

It a miss conception that full name and date of birth is a unique identifier. In a large population of English names there will definitely be some duplicates. The situation gets much worse with Chinese, Indian and Muslim names for example.

Many years ago (1970s) this wrong assumption brought the UK's new vehicle licencing system to its knees and is one of the reasons why UK licenses are valid until age 70 with no renewals required.

Yes! I have considerably more than 10 years working in IT.

You are correct up to a point.

The combination of full name, nationality and date of birth is not always (or even overwhelmingly) unique in the country of origin. There will be a large number of individuals in the UK called John Edward Smith, and a few of them will have been born on exactly the same day. Out of the handful that fall into that category, probably zero or one will have visited Thailand. Furthermore, an occasional false match in the immigration computer is not the end of the world.

Most people only visit Thailand once or twice and any invalid match would be irrelevant. If (and this would be very rare) an Englishman called John Edward Smith born January 1, 1970 stayed for a long period in Thailand on tourist visas/visa exempt entries, and a different English John Edward Smith born January 1, 1970 subsequently visited Thailand, this second individual could be flagged and questioned. This would cause some minor inconvenience, but the mistaken identity would be sorted out and the blameless John Edward Smith wished a pleasant stay in Thailand.

With 25 million visits a year - do we limit how far back we attempt to match or are we happy to process 250 million entries to get our match since a passport lasts for 10 years.

Also not all entries are from the UK. Does your argument still hold for Rahul Patel or Imad bin Id? Or do we only target western names?

Don't want to side track the thread but feel the need to respond to potentially inaccurate advice given to OP.

Has anyone on this forum ever had an old passport matched to a new one? Let's hear some concrete evidence.

[sunnyjim5]

mngmn

The last time I renewed my extension of stay the IO showed me a print out of my "visa" history. A period of time which spanned two now expired passports and included detail of exits/entry's made using a current third passport!

Concrete evidence ?

[JackThompson]

Think!

Would anyone bother to pay 500K if the tourist visa was still no limit and hassle free?

People in my condo building pay close to double what I do, to rent comperable units. I guess it was "hassle free" to take the first option they found, or the difference in cost does not matter, given their wealth/income. I shopped until I got a good deal. Traveling for SETVs vs going Elite is similar in both aspects. There is no limit on them - even after the recent rule changes.

But, yes, have your "papers in order" plus 20K Baht in hand, when coming in. My bank book shows all my income transferred from overseas and a nice total balance, but failure to have the cash-in-hand is an easy disqualifier for an IO having a bad day, according to others' reports.

And for those staying here most of the time, I personally would not use airports anymore, for fear of being forced "home" (accident of birth) if an issue arose. Much better, in a worst-case scenario, to be booted back across a land-border to Cambodia or Malaysia, and re-group from there.

[Thaidream]

If one is coming into Thailand and there is a large queue the IO has no reason nor time to do the link between passports, especially if you have a valid visa. Their only clue at this point would be to count the number of Visas or extensions in the current passport. Yes, it is all there in the computer- but it takes time for the link- adding 30 seconds onto a huge queue backs up the visitors exponentially. It is the same for the Interpol list. They have to go to a different screen. When the queue is non existent- I have noticed that extra screening takes place. This information is from personal observation only but it is logical and explains why people with an outstanding warrant can get in.

[lkv]

If one is coming into Thailand and there is a large queue the IO has no reason nor time to do the link between passports, especially if you have a valid visa. Their only clue at this point would be to count the number of Visas or extensions in the current passport. Yes, it is all there in the computer- but it takes time for the link- adding 30 seconds onto a huge queue backs up the visitors exponentially. It is the same for the Interpol list. They have to go to a different screen. When the queue is non existent- I have noticed that extra screening takes place. This information is from personal observation only but it is logical and explains why people with an outstanding warrant can get in.

Yeah exactly which is why they made these computers turn red at what appeared to be 6 visa exempts. Now there appears to be a red flag on extensions as well.

But as of now, to the best of my knowledge, there is no red flag on tourist visas obtained in Embassies/consulates.