According to the article here there are big changes planned for tourist visas. What I understand from the information in the article, coupled together with my knowledge of the current system and a little bit of guesswork
The current 3-month* single entry tourist visa which entitles you to a 60 day stay plus up to 30 days when extended at immigration will be replaced with a 6-month* double-entry tourist visa, enabling you to stay for two stints of 60 + 30 days
Every entry stamp on a tourist visa will automatically include a re-entry permit so that you can country-hop more easily
There will be theoretically unlimited border entries allowing you 30 days at a time**
*3-month and 6-month being the validity of the visa, not the permit to stay - that is the date that your last (or only) entry to Thailand must be made by
**The report says that the scheme will be piloted for two months first... the unlimited border re-entries is not therefore really relevant unless the scheme actually becomes permanently implemented
.........."The Interior Ministry regulation will be amended to allow foreigners who receive a visa waiver for 30 days and travel into Thailand via land immigration checkpoints or land border checkpoints to enter the country with an unlimited number of visa waivers per calendar year.".........
If the above actually happens, I can see it being a stop-gap for those who can't immediately come up with the 800,000 in the bank for a retirement extension, if indeed the 65,000 per month pension deposits won't qualify any longer.
At least it gives certain people breathing room and time to adjust.
However, The Nation article referenced doesn't make clear if the unlimited visa waivers per year are only for those who enter the country initially via a land border. If that's the case I imagine some already here will have to fly out to a close destination and come back through a border overland.
Early days concerning these new procedures so we'll have to stay tuned. Pete
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
I had a friend who had flown to Singapore on a visa run in September refused re-entry until he purchased an onward ticket to his home country. He was then given 13 days to leave Thailand.
OK, not necessarily relevant to this thread, but just pointing out if you get the wrong officer on entry, it doesn't matter whether the crossing is land or air.
The reason given was he wasn't living in a regular tourist town, so had no need to be there.
Seems a bit bizarre - they're effectively encouraging visitors to spend more of their time and cash in neighbouring countries. Not only that, they are favouring low spending tourists who take bus journeys across borders over high spenders who journey by air.
If they really wanted to boost revenues they could create a new class of 'trusted' visitor - people who regularly visit the LoS and have kept their noses clean - and give them a 90 day visa waiver each time they visit.
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly...
uncle tom wrote: ↑Sun Nov 18, 2018 5:40 pm
Seems a bit bizarre - they're effectively encouraging visitors to spend more of their time and cash in neighbouring countries. Not only that, they are favouring low spending tourists who take bus journeys across borders over high spenders who journey by air.
If they really wanted to boost revenues they could create a new class of 'trusted' visitor - people who regularly visit the LoS and have kept their noses clean - and give them a 90 day visa waiver each time they visit.
That would require thinking, sadly in short supply here. That idea could be done if you could convince the Thais that it was their idea.
uncle tom wrote: ↑Sun Nov 18, 2018 5:40 pmNot only that, they are favouring low spending tourists who take bus journeys across borders over high spenders who journey by air.
Not really... there's, as far as I know, currently no fixed restriction in place for the amount of exempt stamps you can have in a 12-month period when you come in by air, where as there's a hard limit of no more than two in the same period by land. They're just evening things up in this case - not preferring one over the other.
PeteC wrote: ↑Sat Nov 17, 2018 11:55 am
If the above actually happens, I can see it being a stop-gap for those who can't immediately come up with the 800,000 in the bank for a retirement extension, if indeed the 65,000 per month pension deposits won't qualify any longer.
At least it gives certain people breathing room and time to adjust.
While I find it hard to imagine that any kind of co-ordinated effort has taken place (which is one conspiracy theory out there), it's quite possible that whoever is in charge of plumping up tourist numbers got wind of whatever problems are currently being experienced by people trying to obtain retirement visas and pushed through this change to try and make the most of it.
Pleng wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 2:57 pm
Not really... there's, as far as I know, currently no fixed restriction in place for the amount of exempt stamps you can have in a 12-month period when you come in by air
Read my post above.
No fixed limit by air, but if your face doesn't fit.......................
That's why I said fixed restriction... Should have said "official", including the quotes. I'm sure they'll still be on the lookout for people who might be "abusing" the tourist visa/visa exempt rules.
