Refusal of Single entry (60 day) visa in Taipei

[grahamsg1]

A word of warning to anyone planning on going to Taipei (Taiwan) to apply for a 60 day single entry visa for Thailand. Having visited the visa offices this morning with all the correct paperwork including onward flight ticket for 55 days later, the application was refused. I had arrived in Taipei on 1 January 2017 from Thailand after visiting Thailand from October 15 to 1 January 2017 on a 60 day single entry visa.  I had obtained one 30 day extension on that single entry visa. The officer's explanation was that I had 'too many stamps' in my passport. He refused to comment any further, only saying 'I cannot help you'. I am a 46 year old UK citizen with a long term leased property in Thailand. My passport is quite full with visas from countries all over the world, notably with five 60 day Single Entry visas for Thailand spanning 4 years (all with 30 day extensions). The previous visas were all obtained from the London embassy. There is only one visa exemption stamp in my passport from 3 years ago. This is an expensive development, so be warned! I am not sure what my next option is, so any suggestions would be most welcome. 

 

[elviajero]

You should have no problem getting a SETV from the countries bordering Thailand. Vientiane or Savannakhet, Laos or Penang, Malaysia are recommended.

[grahamsg1]

My girlfriend lives in Taiwan, so I chose to visit her instead of visiting one of the usual suspects. But people should know that Taiwan is denying legitimate applications for no apparent reason

[elviajero]

13 minutes ago, grahamsg1 said:

My girlfriend lives in Taiwan, so I chose to visit her instead of visiting one of the usual suspects. But people should know that Taiwan is denying legitimate applications for no apparent reason

Suspicion that you are living in Thailand as a 'tourist' is a legitimate reason to deny a new tourist visa.

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, elviajero said:

Suspicion that you are living in Thailand as a 'tourist' is a legitimate reason to deny a new tourist visa.

 

Agreed, but taking the OP's account as accurate, his previous Thai tourist visas (over a 4-year period) were all issued in London (home country) with a single visa exempt entry. That implies, perhaps, 25% of the time in Thailand which most would not define as living there. A handful of consulates seem to refuse to issue a tourist visa to someone who has just left Thailand (essentially imposing a rule of no back-to-back visas) and I wonder if that is the case here.

[IMA_FARANG]

You had too many previous SETV visas with associated extensions and they suspected you of working in Thailand.

It MIGHT have helped if you could show a pension or amotht income xource from outside of Thailand and a Thai bank account showeing a monthly imcome from outside of Thailand.

Or maybe not.

Having a Thai Bank book and a monthly record of foriegn source income MAY sometimes help.

Your Thai Bank book shows each funds deposit wth the date, the amount deposited, and a code which indicates the souece of funds.

FTT is often the code that indicates a Foriegn Funds Transfer from outside of Thailand.

Sometimes showing a monthly FTT transfer into Thailand  helps  as immigration supervisors know what that code means and can read the code.

But even this may not allways be enough.

Someone made a decision above him to reject you and the officer you talked to had no choice but to follow his superivisor's  decision.

 

 

[BuckBee]

Taiwan super fussy and blunt in service , shame as nice place visit and grab visa. we have had people working with us in singapore who been unable get a setv even when only had one previous old thai entry .

[JackThompson]

2 hours ago, IMA_FARANG said:

You had too many previous SETV visas with associated extensions and they suspected you of working in Thailand.

It MIGHT have helped if you could show a pension or amotht income xource from outside of Thailand and a Thai bank account showeing a monthly imcome from outside of Thailand.

Or maybe not.

Having a Thai Bank book and a monthly record of foriegn source income MAY sometimes help.

Your Thai Bank book shows each funds deposit wth the date, the amount deposited, and a code which indicates the souece of funds.

FTT is often the code that indicates a Foriegn Funds Transfer from outside of Thailand.

Sometimes showing a monthly FTT transfer into Thailand  helps  as immigration supervisors know what that code means and can read the code.

But even this may not allways be enough.

Someone made a decision above him to reject you and the officer you talked to had no choice but to follow his superivisor's  decision.

 

5 visas in 4 years is not enough to hold down any job - and no way it is "too many visas" to issue another.   I also use my Thai the Bank Book as you describe - but this would only help at consulates that are actually interested in discerning if the applicant might be working illegally or not.  I do not see evidence this consulate's personnel was doing anything of the sort - just making up an excuse to avoid doing their job.

[grahamsg1]

8 hours ago, JackThompson said:

 

5 visas in 4 years is not enough to hold down any job - and no way it is "too many visas" to issue another.   I also use my Thai the Bank Book as you describe - but this would only help at consulates that are actually interested in discerning if the applicant might be working illegally or not.  I do not see evidence this consulate's personnel was doing anything of the sort - just making up an excuse to avoid doing their job.

 I think this is the real issue. I stood in line for 3 solid hours yesterday owing to the current 'free visa' window, and was number 417 to get to the window. The visa office was literally swamped. The official did go to the back room for 3 or 4 minutes before emerging with his rejection. They did not ask for any further evidence. I have a Thai Bank account showing regular monthly payments into thailand from my uk account to fund my winter months in Thailand. They did not ask any questions. It was a lazy point blank refusal.