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Ways to stay 6 months in Thailand


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In light of possible health insurance requirement for retirement visa/extension etc. that I'm on now , I was thinking alternative solutions for myself that usually stay only about 6 months in Thailand every year.

 

I'm just not prepared to pay 50k baht a year for something I never use, and before you say but you might, I'm happy to pay out of my pocket if and when needed, anyways.... 

 

I think getting a METV also a pain in the back side, with lots of document requirement that I don't want to waste my time on. So that leaves SETV which is easy and quick for me to get with my UK pass in London. Or no visa at all...!

 

So option 1- I come with no visa, get 30 days, pay and extend another 30 days inside, then border run and repeat 2 more times,  total 6 months.

 

Or 2- Get SETV that gives 2 months, extend 30 days inside,  then border run for another 30 days plus 30, this gives 5 months, but that may be enough or another border run if needed. 

 

My question is, do they now permit this, I did option 2 couple of years ago for 5 months stay,  not sure it's okay now, also option 1 could be harder I guess...?

 

Anyone doing any of the aboves these days or any other suggestion...? 

 

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Right now, your plan of 5-6 months per year on SETV and visa exempts with the first entry each year through an airport and other entries by land should be OK. Whether it will be OK in another year or two is hard to say.

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It would be beneficial to many if someone knowledgeable on this subject could layout the options for those who can NOT now meet the long stay requirements. 
 
Best option are?
I stay for 6 month in Thailand. If I am unable to get a ling stay visa due to insurance or a yearly extension due to unavailability of agents, I would resort to a tourist visa + extension and a second tourist visa + extension. How easy it is to get a TV from Singapore now?

Sent from my JKM-LX2 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

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The requirements for METV aren't that different to SETV, and it does save hassle in the long run - the only real difference is you have to show 200,000 baht (equivalent) bank balance. I find it hard to believe you'd get any problems staying 6 months a year on a METV. On exemptions or SETVs you might get some raised eyebrows but not likely to get denied as long as you don't do blatant border runs (out-in same or next day). When you do the border run(s) stay at least a few nights out of Thailand and you'll be fine.

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How about getting a new Non-Imm OA visa in home country?  

Leave thailand and come back in before it expires, get another year and repeat?

Until the thai embassy/consulate in farangland makes this undoable, isn't it a better option?   

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8 minutes ago, Nowisee said:

How about getting a new Non-Imm OA visa in home country?  

Leave thailand and come back in before it expires, get another year and repeat?

Until the thai embassy/consulate in farangland makes this undoable, isn't it a better option?   

The assumption is that the mandatory health insurance for O-A will start in July so METV is going to be far better

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How easy it is to get SETV in the neighbouring countries for UK passport now,  I thought they no longer give this in the surrounding area...!?

 

METV requires other documents on top of bank statements, plus hotel booking, return flight booking and more expensive,  then you still have to exit Thailand and return, what's the point unless you want to go in and out 10 times ...!

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How about getting a new Non-Imm OA visa in home country?  
Leave thailand and come back in before it expires, get another year and repeat?

Until the thai embassy/consulate in farangland makes this undoable, isn't it a better option?   
That's what I am doing now for my 6-month stay in Thailand. But the looming insurance may be a show stopper unless they accept my catastrophic insurance. Otherwise, I will shop for an agent to get a new extension every year.

Sent from my JKM-LX2 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

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6 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

That's what I am doing now for my 6-month stay in Thailand. But the looming insurance may be a show stopper unless they accept my catastrophic insurance. Otherwise, I will shop for an agent to get a new extension every year.

Sent from my JKM-LX2 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

You could try Indonesia, it’s quiet there at the moment!!

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32 minutes ago, Agusts said:

How easy it is to get SETV in the neighbouring countries for UK passport now,  I thought they no longer give this in the surrounding area...!?


AFAIK, it was the METVs that got tricky, SETVs are still the bread and butter for most consulates. I generally don't have to show tickets and I have not once been asked to show bank statement printouts.

As you are British, would you happen to be of Irish descent or resident in Northern Ireland?

If so, getting an Irish passport is well worthwhile. Apart from being able to continue moving freely in Europe after Brexit, you can massively reduce your risk of problems with Thai immigration by alternating between your UK and Irish passport.

This is not illegal but, when visa running, it does obscure the fact that you were in Thailand a few days ago, and the consulates might be more relaxed about giving you an SETV if your passport does not already have a recent one.

Always good to have a backup passport anyway, and I always fill all the pages in my passports before the ten years is up, even though I get the ones with extra pages.

 

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Thanks for replies,  no Irish background I'm afraid, good idea though...lol

I see how it goes next year,  I just got my 1 year extension two weeks ago, as I said in my case it's not worth expensive health insurance for 6 months stay, others might have different circumstances, so everyone should find his own trick around Thai (Trump) lawmakers...! ????

 

 

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13 hours ago, onera1961 said:

What is so great about holidaying for 6-month in Thailand that you're ready to suffer humiliation at the the hands of IOs and subject yourself to inconvenience of border runs? You can go to Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, etc. 

You couldn't pay me enough to go to some of those places, in fact my company didn't, but I found out later!

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6 hours ago, donnacha said:

getting an Irish passport is well worthwhile. Apart from being able to continue moving freely in Europe after Brexit, you can massively reduce your risk of problems with Thai immigration by alternating between your UK and Irish passport.

For Immigration, the biometric scanners would put an end to this advantage - assuming the existing system doesn't tie your passports by name/DOB, anyway. 

 

But as far as obtaining additional SETVs at Consulates, yes, 2 passports are helpful, as they only (currently) look at what is visible in the passport submitted with the Visa-application.

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18 hours ago, JackThompson said:

For Immigration, the biometric scanners would put an end to this advantage


Sure. Given the renowned efficiency and technical acumen of the Thai government, it is amazing that no such system is already in place ????

I figure even just a fingerprint system would cost north of USD $10m, not including kickbacks, and then there is also the at least doubling of the time it takes to get through immigration. Even with no biometrics, videos of the ridiculously long waits at Don Muang, including Chinese women peeing on the floor, have already been all over social media. This is not a system that can handle any additional complexity.

 

18 hours ago, JackThompson said:

assuming the existing system doesn't tie your passports by name/DOB, anyway.


That assumption happens to be correct. My guess is that they have the basic ingredients for such system (networked computers listing the incoming passenger manifests and highlighting anything that matches a blacklist) in place already, but it appears that no-one has been motivated to write a script to fuzzy match the incoming passenger names with the millions of previous visitors to Thailand that year.

There was a compelling case to be made for the millions of dollars in computers, software, training and maintenance needed to enforce the blacklist of known offenders banned from Thailand, but I reckon no-one has been able to make a compelling case for paying the far higher cost necessary to prevent the far smaller problem of people (legally) using two passports, or to deal with the ensuing additional chaos in Thai airports when such a system starts puking up false hits, forcing the system to be shelved within about a week.

 

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2 hours ago, donnacha said:

 

20 hours ago, JackThompson said:

assuming the existing system doesn't tie your passports by name/DOB, anyway. 

 

2 hours ago, donnacha said:

My guess is that they have the basic ingredients for such system (networked computers listing the incoming passenger manifests and highlighting anything that matches a blacklist) in place already, but it appears that no-one has been motivated to write a script to fuzzy match the incoming passenger names with the millions of previous visitors to Thailand that year.

...

when such a system starts puking up false hits, forcing the system to be shelved within about a week.

My understanding, based on what some have said, is the IO sees a list of images from the previous passports with the name/dob matching, and finds your picture.  My old and new passports were linked, but I did a stamp-xfer in Thailand, so the link would have happened during that process.

 

 

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10 hours ago, JackThompson said:

My understanding, based on what some have said, is the IO sees a list of images from the previous passports with the name/dob matching, and finds your picture. 


I have not yet seen any indication of that. I reckon they are probably keeping records based on nationality+name+dob, so, the system considers that as one entity, and can pull up the history of that passport / series of passports, including photos to ensure there are not several people using the same passport - illegal Chinese workers in Singapore swap passports a lot to hide the fact that they are staying in the country longterm.   

However, John Smith, born on 01/01/1980, with an Israeli passport would not be treated as the same entity as John Smith, born on 01/01/1980, with a US passport.

Cross-referencing the 200+ types of passport, to catch name+dob matches, would be resource intensive and, if done in realtime while a queue of arrivals are waiting, would require a lot of skill for the IO to separate false from real hits. Yes, photos would make the job a lot easier but, again, I have not come across this yet.

As a rough rule-of-thumb, immigration's systems are about 5 years behind the airlines' systems, so, yes, they will get there eventually but not yet, and identifying dual passport holders will always be a lesser priority than catching people traveling on false passports or someone else's passport.

 

Edited by donnacha
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16 hours ago, donnacha said:

I figure even just a fingerprint system would cost north of USD $10m, not including kickbacks, and then there is also the at least doubling of the time it takes to get through immigration. Even with no biometrics, videos of the ridiculously long waits at Don Muang, including Chinese women peeing on the floor, have already been all over social media. This is not a system that can handle any additional complexity.

I do not think cost is going to be a significant barrier, as the US will probably be happy to pay (including the bribes) in return for data on all arrivals and departures.

The time consuming nature of fingerprint checks is certainly an issue. It might be mitigated by such measures as only fingerprinting people on their first entry into Thailand with a specific passport, and not bothering with minors.

A greater issue is that the difficulty of finding someone in a large fingerprint database is underrated. Generally, several potential matches are the best that can be done, and that requires a lot of computer time. A positive match requires a human expert to review the potential matches, and probably combine it with other information.

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