new visa rules for foreigners

[thequaife]

somchai,

dont you know what is going to happen to thai when there is no farang? if you still dont know the reason why you said something like that it simpy tell us all that you have a less space of mind that a buffalo.
Most of the farang who only has an arrival visa spends their money more than the one that actually has a working permit.
Whatever the immigration or the govt is doing..... i can assure you one thing; IT IS NOT WORKING. Fixing something that is not broken???? yeah..
FYI, i am thai.

[sherone]

Visa rules has been changed in Thailand. so go according to the new rules.

Best of luck

[roego]

My comment is about the 14 day land visa now.

I am an Australian and legally live in Malaysia.
It is so easy for me to go across to Thailand by road. I used to visit every 2-3 months and stay around 21 days. I put my golf clubs in the back and travel from golf club to golf club. In doing this at least 7 days is spent in travel and quite a few thousand Bath is spent also.

Now I do not visit as often. It would cost me quite a bit for excess air baggage, and is just too difficult.
I went to the trouble of faxing thai Immigration as i did not like my chance of getting an email reply.
Made no difference still no reply.
Ps Also a couple of immigration officers at Sungai Goloc are just so unfriendly also. You feel like a criminal.

[GlobalWalker]

Yes it feels like the Thai government (or the Thai immigrations officials) would like to se us "go away". I have been traveling Thailand almost every year since 1993, at first for about one or two months. Now when I am getting older I would like to spend the winter (October April) in Thailand but every year it have been more and more difficult to get the visa I would like to have. This year I got the one year visa (with more than 800 000 THB in a Thai bank) and I had to pay 1800 THB to get it. I like to get back to Sweden in the summertime and I like to be able to travel in the South East Asian region so I applied for a multiple entry addition to my one year visa and they charge me 3800 THB for that. I will go back to Sweden tomorrow 23-04-2009 and hopefully return to Thailand in October when the cold weather start in south of Sweden. But this Time I will only stay in Thailand for like one month and then I will go to Vietnam and check out the possibility to get a better treatment from the immigration and spend my money there instead. I believe Thailand has been taking the tourism for granted and that they can try to squeeze as much money as possible out of us. I heard that Malaysia can give you 12 year visa but I don’t know the conditions. I heard that Vietnam can grant you one year visa and no strings attached. If so the Thai people can have Thailand for themselves and hopefully solve the political turmoil they are going trough.
I am sorry because I used to love Thailand and the Thai people. I still love the Thai people but when the “officials don’t want you around” what can you do?

[Renaissance]

1. I don't know all the facts. I understand that the changes were made to a large extent because many foreigners were abusing the system in various ways, especially the criminal elements.

2. The situation in Vietnam and Malaysia is different and they can offer different visas. The criminal elements would not want to set up their bases in Vietnam for sure. They would not last long.

3. If you feel that Immigration officials are rude and unfriendly, perhaps this story will help you in future:

The House of 1000 Mirrors: Japanese Folktale

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was a place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the house, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

[Ian]

The 15 day visa only applies to land crossings, you still get 30 for air arrivals. So take a day trip to Penang with AirAsia.
Both Malaysia and the Philippines have 10 year plus retirement plans for westerners with lots of perks. Thailand is uninterested, or should I say antagonistic.

[Ian]

In contrast the Thai embassy in KL is rather demure, the visa section is staffed by Malays who cannot be bothered with the Thai red tape, you fill in a simple form forget about photos, hand over your passport and collect it the next afternoon. No fuss no bother

[bristolgeoff]

thailand is always changing the rules.if you know thailand and live nearby you should know.so you know how to get the most out of visa problem

[zorro33]

Mirrors differ

How come that I am met with a welcoming smile and a nice phrase of words when entering Malaysia. Three months tourist stay without filling in a form.

How come that I always feel a wall of xenophobia, greed and suspicion when entering Thailand. My fault?

Just asking

[jansen]

This morning very early I went for an extension of my retirement visa to the Immigration Office of Chiangmai.
I was the first in line but it took 2 hours to finish the paperwork including one re-entry permit.
Very friendly service, no complaints about that.
There was nothing unusual and all my papers were o.k.
I showed them also the declaration of my Embassy about my annual income,that is more than the obliged 800.000 baht for getting the retirement visa. But why I had to make copies of all the pages of the passbook of my bankaccount and I had to give them already the bankdeclaration that I had an account in that Bank?
Do they want to know my expenses for my use of electric, telefone, water and so on and why is that?
Because I applied for a visa beyond one month before the expiration of my last visa they wanted also copies of my airticket.
I have the feeling being scrutinised as a criminal to be.