New Visa Run Rules Enforced June 1st

[PigDogg]

Immigration Crackdown on Border Runners

BANGKOK -- Thai Immigration Bureau has issued a new regulation to be enforced from today, June 1, 2009.

In a crackdown on foreigners who regularly abuse the tourist exemption rule of getting 15 days stay at border entry points, the Immigration Bureau has confirmed and informed thaivisa.com of the following new regulation:

A foreigner who has entered the kingdom four (4) consecutive times on 15 days tourist exemption stamps, will not be allowed to leave the country and reenter Thailand. The only option is to exit Thailand and re-enter via an international airport, which will allow a further 30 day stay.

Thaivisa.com has today confirmed the new regulations with the Immigration checkpoints in Pong Nam Ron and Aranyaprathet at the Cambodian border. We have also got confirmation from bus visa run companies that the new regulations are enforced from today June 1, 2009. Immigration checkpoints bordering Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia are expected to enforce the regulation shortly.

The new rules does not affect holders of visas issued abroad. Foreigners are advised to apply for a Tourist visas or Non-Immigrant visas at a Royal Thai Embassy or consulate outside Thailand instead of abusing the 15 day exemption rule.

As usual, holders of Tourist visas will be given 60 days stay while Non-Immigrant visa holders will be allowed 90 days stay.

[swaraj]

P.D. thanks for the info, wonder what they'll come up with next

[sukhumvitpoler]

i think the thai government want me to go home

[manarak]

I have just a question: what are they trying to achieve?

Is it that the foreigners staying that way are not profitable?
Do they cost more than they benefit to Thailand?


Are they trying to drive out illegal labor?
All the burmese and other lao/cambodians?

In this case, since governments are able to discriminate for Visa rules, why don't they give 15 days to burmese, lao, cambodian, vietnamese, malay, indonesian, philippines and chinese and 90 days to citizens of other countries?

What are they trying to achieve?


I couldn't stand doing a visa run every 15 days... that's already crazy.

[jadeite]

Simple reason. When you apply for a real visa of any kind, background checks are made. When you show up at a land border it bypasses that. That's why they want people staying a long time to have a visa.

This law cannot be a big deal to very many people. These border runs are already more expensive and time consuming than getting a tourist visa at a nearby consulate in almost every case.

[swaraj]

Agree 100% with jadeite. If you're not able to do just one visa run per year, should you need to, then I guess you you have a problem.

[Guest]

Yep....those doing mini bus visa runs to the border every 15 days are simply regarded as low life and of little benefit to the Thai economy.
Perhaps not crooks but certainly skinners  

[SamplerDoc]

Just arrive and get a stamp good for 30 days. Leave for a day or two to HKG and when you arrive back you get another stamp for another 30 days.

That seems to be the easy method allowing the longest amount of time and least effort and can be repeated many times.

[tim1212]

i think i'll wait for the changes on my countrys embassy-then i'll believe