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Tourist Visa - Any Recent Experience ?


gobbledonk

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Thanks for all the feedback, guys - I'll keep the travel agents/hotels in mind, but the prospect of getting a fake stamp is worrying - didnt even consider that on my last trip to Penang.

 

Flash, you make a good point re Malaysia : the down side is that its more expensive than most parts of LOS, unless you are one of the board's high rollers and stay at 5-star hotels snorting champagne from your guests belly button. The '3 tourist visas in 6 months' are actually the 3 'visa exemptions' given to most Farang - Stick meant actual 90-day (60-day visa/30 day extension) TVs per Mekongs post. I dont know how many people are working illegally in Malaysia (other than my girlfriends from the Jungle Club), but that seems to be the fear in Thailand. Would dearly love to see what stamps our Eastern European and African friends from that nebulous Soi-3-to-Soi-7/1 area have in their passports ....

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I have a colleague on a marriage visa who has just broken up with his Thai Mrs. Now he has the fun of trying to get another visa on his own. That's one reason to stick with a non-immig B, if you have one.

 

I was on non-imm B for a few years until the contract in Thailand was not renewed late 08 so I lost my sponsor. That is when we registered at city hall so I could get non-imm O, even though we had the wedding ceremony, family over from UK etc, 3 years before we actually registered the marriage.

 

It was subsequent to this I set up EU and BVI Companies which has now allowed me to set up the Thai subsidruary for the WP and non-imm B.

 

It used to be easy up until about 2004, even if divorced but still had Marriage Certificate one was able to go to Penang (in my case) and get a 12 month non-imm O, then they changed the rules and only issued 90 day non-imm O's then requirement to apply for extension to stay by visiting Immigration with "The Wife" .... Shit I was divorced from my first Thai wife for 5 years and kept my non-imm O on that basis, those were the days.

 

Good luck to your colleague he will need it, if he is a Brit he should visit the Thai Consulate in Hull, they are still giving out 12 month tourist visa's no questions asked for about 100 Quid, I know a few guys who have lived here for years on consecutive 12 month tourist visa's from Hull.

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He's from London and I've told him about Hull. Long way to go for a visa from Bangkok, but good to know about. The reason for the change may have been because some people were abusing the marriage visa. (BGs would register a marriage for around 100,000 baht!) Or it could be just because Thaksin is such an SOB. He made things harder for all Farangs. :(

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The good old days of "Marriage of Convenience" making me feel like an old timer now, those were the days, you forgot to add the 500 Baht fee payable to City Hall for the divorce registration.

 

Hull is a bit of a trek but if combined with a yearly trip to blighty total costs including flights and visa fee's work out at less than 1.000 Baht / week with a family visit thrown in.

 

Setting up company has initial investments and then overheads of approx 1,500 Baht / Week but since there is a slight probability I may get more contract work in Thailand having my own company and WP puts me in a slightly advantageous position, plus its all tax deductible from my non-Thai companies anyway.

 

Visa wise it really is a grey area in this situation and something that most of us do not even consider until confronted with such a predicament.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I thought the govmt limited tourists visas several years ago - not more than 3 one-month visas within a six month period.

 

The Malaysian government has a very sensible policy - 3 month visa free on arrival, plus unlimited (as I understand it) renewals without even having to leave the country. As a Malaysian explained it to me, "You come here, rent an apartment, eat here, go shopping here ... you spend your money here. We want you to stay." The Thai government for whatever paranoid reason seems to view foreigners with suspicion. Wonder why. :hmmm:

 

Backtracking a bit here I know but...

 

Malaysia has a very variable policy on this idea. Essentially affluent, money generators, and spenders (the likes of the majority here I'd say) get a whole different deal to many others. Not many Thai, Indonesian, Philippine, Vietnamese or others getting endless free visas on arrival to stay as long they like in country. Thailand seems to take a more 'one for all' approach, too lazy to make it more complex no doubt, so we get the same deal as just about everyone else.

 

Long before my time but maybe clearing up after a long train of hippies drop outs and various associated weirdos, some of whom are still here, might have soured Thai society toward granting us anything like 'special' status. Was there ever a policy in Thailand of refusing people entry at the border for excessive hair length as in Singapore and Malaysia?

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Saw a weird doco last night which claimed that southern Thais (ie Muslims) and Malays from the north of Malaysia are able to cross the Thai-Malaysia border virtually at will. It looked a bit dated - this might have changed in recent years.

 

I think I saw something similar when I did the Cambo visa run, where the Thais who worked in the casino/restaurant on the Cambo side just had a pass and they were waved through for their shift. Anyone who has seen the elaborate interchange at places like Hong Kong/Shenzhen or Sillypore/Johor might find that a bit hard to swallow, but the immigration police at the Cambo checkpoint clearly knew each of the workers by sight. Probably a bit tougher first day on the job, but they looked happy enough to have a cushy gig in an aircon casino - Cambodia's share undoubtedly goes to some of Hun Sen's mates back in PP.

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I'm posting this for myself - make of it what you will. Its from Stick's latest weekly column, and it confirms something which I thought might be coming. I dont condone ANYONE living (and working) in Thailand fulltime on a tourist visa, but its not hard to imagine this 'hard line' inadvertently messing with more than a few people who are simply trying to enjoy 6 months in Thailand.

 

Bolding is mine. Those of you who know Stick might like to raise this with him when you next run into him - or not. At this point in time, its the most current and most credible info I am aware of.

 

It seems like only a few weeks ago that I predicted a crackdown on those existing in Thailand on tourist visa after tourist visa, year after year and guess what, that is exactly what has happened! Reports are coming in that Thai embassies and consulates in neighbouring countries are not giving away tourist visas like candy as they used to. Anyone applying for a tourist visa at a Thai embassy or consulate in a neighbouring country with one in their passport already will face a lot of questions and may not be issued with one.

 

The most popular visa run firms here in Bangkok who seem to have connections cannot get tourist visas for those who have just finished a stay in Thailand on the same type of visa. Probably the best known such firm, Jack Golf, is currently telling people that they only provide a border run service and cannot actually assist with the procurement of visas. Even visa agents in Phnom Penh, which until very recently was considered a soft touch, report that the embassy have got tough on anyone who is obviously residing in Thailand on back to back tourist visas.

 

It has been said that this crackdown has come about due to the inordinate number of foreigners living in Thailand on tourist visas. The scapegoats seem to be, somewhat surprisingly, Filipinos who are working in Thailand in increasing numbers. What seems to have people concerned is that this is in fact not a crackdown, but a permanent tightening up in policy at the latest Thai embassy in the region to be known as a softSunrise Tacos touch. Several years ago things got hard at the consulate in Penang which was for a long time the most popular place to get a new visa. Vientiane followed with the Thai embassy there cracking down and declining applications by those who already had a number of tourist visas in their passport.

 

Phnom Penh has seen a surge in applications for tourist visas from those who don't appear to be bona fide tourists and they too have cracked down. The Phnom Penh embassy now asks applicants who seem to exist in Thailand year after year on such visas to provide details of their condo rental contract and Thai bank account. Some people may have inadvertently incriminated themselves by furnishing said documents, the latter of which could very likely show deposits into their account which prove that they are employed!

 

Gotta love that last section - some seriously bright visa applicants there.

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<< Jack Golf >> :surprised:

 

That name immediately raises my suspicion.

 

Also, years ago I met a rather cute Canuck gal who was teaching here on one month tourist visas. She did a visa run to Aranyaprathet every 30 days! (Seems masochistic to me. Reason was she only had 3 years of university, hadn't graduated yet. Teachers need a BA/BEd to get a WP, but she was teaching 4th graders, so WTF.) Anyway, she told me she was paid in CASH. Without a WP, she couldn't even open a bank account.

 

So with that WP requirement to open a bank account (the Bank of Thailand dropped it years ago, though most banks still follow it), how do folks here on tourist visas even have a Thai bank account? :hmmm:

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