Does this belong here?





BANGKOK: -- The Immigration Bureau has announced that of August 29. 2014 you will be able to extend your visa exemption period whilst you're in Thailand by 30 days, instead of the current 7 days, giving a total visa-exemption stay of 60 days. The fee for extension of stay is 1,900 Baht (unchanged).

Currently, a visa exemption entry can be extended by 7 days at your nearest Immigration office. From August 29th, it can be extended by 30 days. In effect, you can be in the country without a visa for 60 days.

Also - the Commander of Immigration has removed the proposed lifetime ban for overstaying 10 years. Thaivisa will publish the new, more lenient rules shortly.

The Immigration Commander has also stated that immigration are working to ensure that the new rules are being standardized at both immigration checkpoints and immigration offices nationwide.

If you are traveling on visa-exempt or with a tourist visa, bring these documents for your extension:

1. Your onward flight ticket or eTicket out of Thailand within the 30 days
2. Minimum 10,000 Baht, or rather 20,000 Baht
3. Hotel booking confirmation - and if you have it, your itinerary
4. One photo, passport sized.
5. Application fee, 1,900 Baht

It is not clear whether after 29th August this will still be an automatic refusal stamp with 30 days to leave, or whether the procedure will be changed and you will instead be granted an extension of 30 days.

Thaivisa News thanks the Immigration HQ in Bangkok for these updates. We are expecting more updates in the coming days and weeks. Thaivisa News is due to meet up with the Immigration Commander and his staff next week for a longer interview. Watch this space and subscribe to our newsletter for the latest Immigration updates.

...click link for video too...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/744 ... paign=news

lol, aaaannnnddd the crackdown starts melting.

That didn't take long, and worked out even better for westerners.

right, just overstay until you're busted... which likely won't be for a while.

Sorry guys but where does it say you will be able to reside permanently in the country on back to back visa exempt entries ?

It works out better for what they regard as genuine tourists which is the intention of the crackdown, note the mention of tickets, hotel bookings and itinerary. I'm all for the clear laying down of documentary requirements and the standardised implementation across the board, if only as a means of minimising the scope for graft by immigration officers.

I'd actually be in favour of a lifetime ban for someone that overstays longer than a year, so disappointed in that concession

Cowshed Cowboy wrote:Sorry guys but where does it say you will be able to reside permanently in the country on back to back visa exempt entries ?

It's never "said" that, but people have been doing it since I've been living out here in SEasia.

Almost all these countries out here have to bend the rules as they are. If they all seriously enforced their immigration policies, almost all of them would be very lacking on their work force.

There are some people that actually believe that come October, everyone in Cambodia will have to have work permits. Ha! That's as comical as it gets.

So while they all might be making small efforts to decrease their illegal foreign work force, it's silly to think they'll ever actually enforce them all strictly.

This step, making tourist visas 60 days now, is proof they are already backing down a little. Time will tell.

The day it happens across the board, we can expect 1,000 new registrations on CEO a day.

Hell, it was only about a month or 2 ago that PhuketRichard was ready to back his backs because he thought he might have ZERO internet access from Thailand.

Baby steps, baby steps.....

General Mackevili wrote:

Cowshed Cowboy wrote:Sorry guys but where does it say you will be able to reside permanently in the country on back to back visa exempt entries ?

It's never "said" that, but people have been doing it since I've been living out here in SEasia.

Almost all these countries out here have to bend the rules as they are. If they all seriously enforced their immigration policies, almost all of them would be very lacking on their work force.

There are some people that actually believe that come October, everyone in Cambodia will have to have work permits. Ha! That's as comical as it gets.

So while they all might be making small efforts to decrease their illegal foreign work force, it's silly to think they'll ever actually enforce them all strictly.

This step, making tourist visas 60 days now, is proof they are already backing down a little. Time will tell.

The day it happens across the board, we can expect 1,000 new registrations on CEO a day.

Hell, it was only about a month or 2 ago that PhuketRichard was ready to back his backs because he thought he might have ZERO internet access from Thailand.

Baby steps, baby steps.....

Regarding Thailand I personally don't believe just because a lack of enforcement has been happening for years its going to continue to happen. It hasn't been said yet they are not going to implement their stated enforcement plans and I don't see that announcement as watering down their intention to go after a specific target group.

I've read what their intention is and who they are targeting, and I'm as much a sceptic/cynic as the next person when it comes to believing Thai govt initiatives, however in this case I have a feeling they are serious. What concerns me is where they are going to draw the line.

Cowshed Cowboy wrote: It hasn't been said yet they are not going to implement their stated enforcement plans and I don't see that announcement as watering down their intention to go after a specific target group.

That's the thing. They don't come out after a week of making all this noise and say, "Oh, you can disregard everything we've been saying lately, welcome back!"

What they do is let the hype stay out there in the open.

While everyone is looking at the one hand that's telling the rabbit he can't go back in the hat, the other hand is nonchalantly hammering a new notice on the wall, extending a tourist visa to 60 days.

Now, you don't even know which hand you should be watching and out of nowhere he lights a piece of paper on fire... FLASH! Now it's a rose! How did he do that? Was it up his sleeve? Was it in the paper?

Now nobody gives a fuck about the visas, they all still want to know where the God damned rose came from.

Now everyone's confused at the borders. He's crying, trying to leave to head to Cambodia, and they accidentally hand him a 60-day tourist visa for Thailand. He's still thinking so much about the rose trick, and crying that he almost doesn't notice the godsend they just handed him. Finally. He sees it. Stops crying. Forgets all about the stupid fucking rose, and walks right back into Thailand to teach again for 2 months. Then another 2 months. By now, he forgets there were ever any visa changes, because all he knows and cares about is that he's STILL BEEN TEACHING IN THAILAND FOR THE PAST 7 YEARS AND HAS NO FUCKING CLUE ABOUT ANY OF THE VISAS HE'S EVER USED! ! !



Wow, now while I promise you i haven't been smoking ice, I still need to get to sleep. Now. Goodnight.

I'll agree to differ with you on this one