To many entries and denied entry

[scottiddled]

OP: You have my sympathy.

 

I'm not sure why you're mentioning VOA if you're a UK citizen, or what your full travel history looks like. If what you're describing is accurate (i.e. if you had the cash in hand and they stamped a denial for "insufficient means") and you wanted to you fight the IO's decision, you could have. But just as the IOs have shown a penchant for lawless behavior, I wouldn't count on the appeals process being any fairer.

[nong38]

I have heard of this "too many entries" story before and it seems to me that they want people to buy a "multi entry visa" rather than VOA, that seems to be the way things are going and of course its more money into the coffers of the Thai Government. It does make you wonder how visitor friendly Thailand really is there seems to have a been a steady raft of restrictions which might just end up with deterring possible tourists from coming and encourage them to look at pastures new. No doubt TAT will proclaim that even more people are coming than ever before probably on Thai Airways as well!

Take care of the tourists you have and make it easy for them come back multiple times and not look for alternatives would be a better approach I am sure business would agree.

[Max69xl]

17 hours ago, Timwin said:

It seems a repeat customer is now bad for business! Totally new, brave world tourist economy!

If you enter with a correct Visa, there won't be any problems. Read his history. 

[CH1961]

19 hours ago, Jss2019 said:

I entered Thailand in September 26 2018.... VOA

UK citizen with VOA? 

Never heard about ????

[Billpro785]

1 hour ago, RyanWalker said:

It's 100% up to the immigration officer. I have 7 SE TV's in my passport and never had a problem. I'm leaving for Thailand again next week. Never had any issue before. Get a study visa mate. 

I have now 7 visa exempts in my US passport in 2019. Usually stay 3 weeks than leave. Never had a issue, most of the time the officer never looks at me. 

[The Theory]

20 hours ago, Jss2019 said:

I am 48 years old without an official employer etc, any advice is greatly appreciated.

Come back after 2 years with 800,000 and peace of mind. 

[007 RED]

The so called ‘180 day’ rule

 

It  has indicated by at least one member that the Thai Immigration Act indicates that there is a rule whereby a person staying in the Kingdom for more than 180 days using visa on arrivals, or visa exempts, or tourist visas in a year period commencing 1st January through to 31 December will be denied entry.

 

This is totally incorrect.  There’s absolutely no mentions of any such 180 day rule within the Thai Immigration Act, or within any of the Police Orders/Regulations that Immigration Officers are supposed to work within.

 

As has been mentioned by elviajero in post #10, the 180 days is an unofficial figure used by some Immigration Officers to determine if the person is a genuine tourist or not and that this unofficial 180 day rule applies in any give year period and not just from the beginning to the end of the year.

 

I believe that the problem, if it can be called that, stems from the Immigration Bureau Guidelines 0029.1712076, dated 24 June 2014, "Guideline for inspection of citizen from certain countries that are not required to obtain a visa when entering the Kingdom of Thailand".

 

The Guidelines are as follows:

 

To keep permission of entering in compliance with immigration law and provision concerned, it is deemed expedient to impose additional procedures of inspecting and permitting ordinary passport holders from certain countries who are not required to obtain a visa when entering Thailand for tourism purposes,

 

1.      Information checking

 

1.1.    Purpose of entering the Kingdom.  The alien must enter the Kingdom with the sole purpose of tourism, and not for work.

 

1.2.    Record of entry and stay within the Kingdom.

 

1.2.1.  The number of entries into the Kingdom.

 

1.2.2  The alien must not enter the Kingdom by exploiting 30day visa exemptions undertaking method “inout” or called by foreigners as “Visa run”. Aliens use the advantage of Tourist Visa Exemption by leaving Thailand and returning immediately for the purpose of extending their stay, which is considered from the tourism point of view to be longer than necessary and not in line with the purpose permitted while entering country.

 

2.      Reason to believe that entry into Kingdom is not for the purpose of tourism.

 

2.1     Alien will be interviewed and requested to show evidence of the purpose of tourism such as tickets, pocket money, booking slip, traveling plan.

 

2.2     The criterion as in 2.1 if deemed necessary to record as an evidence, the alien may be required to fill out the form as attached in the annex hereto.

 

3.      Reason to reject or permit entry to Thailand

 

3.1     Upon complete evidence of entering the Kingdom for tourism purpose and not for

working purpose, alien shall be granted for permission to stay for 15, 30 or 90 days as set out in the bilateral agreements.

 

3.2    Without valid reason compiled to lack of evidence required by the immigration officer, the alien shall be refused to enter the Kingdom, pursuant to immigration law provision.

 

I firmly believe that Immigration Officers are using Section 1.2.2 of the above mentioned Guidelines as their leaver to deny entry and that they are using stays exceeding 180 days as a reference point again to deny entry.

Edited November 19, 2019 by 007 RED
typo

[madmen]

21 hours ago, Jss2019 said:

Passport stamped insufficient means.

Yet another I joined 5 minutes ago denied entry. Post a pic or it didnt happen, sorry to be blunt but so many trolls have been caught out recently

[007 RED]

2 hours ago, Billpro785 said:

I have now 7 visa exempts in my US passport in 2019. Usually stay 3 weeks than leave. Never had a issue, most of the time the officer never looks at me. 

Possible reason:

3 weeks = 21 days x 7 stays = 147 days total which is well below the so called 180 day limit.

Edited November 19, 2019 by 007 RED
typo

[Straight8]

Not disbelieving anything the OP has stated here, but wondering how/why is it always these stories by under "5 post" members??? 

 

I mean this happens and they sign up to TV or is a case of hiding your original identity for whatever reason????

 

Doesn't this happen to established / regular posting members ????

 

Strange!!

[from the home of CC]

8 hours ago, lkv said:

Any report that is coming from a new user, and does not have attached a picture of the rejection, I will consider trolling.

 

I am just stating my personal opinion.

 

To me, all these posts sound the same, what should I do, help, what are my chances.

 

I will take the chance of being wrong in a small minority of cases. Better that, than be naive.

I agree, more bs...

[lkv]

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

1 post, almost certainly a troll or clickbait.

Most likely the latter, because I'm seeing a pattern here. Every time we post something that questions the validity of a thread, other "users" pop up, with slightly aged usernames (but little posting history / community reputation), defending the OP. People that barely post, and all of the sudden become "talkative". To keep the thread up and going.

 

Like above, they end up talking to one another, generating content.

Edited November 19, 2019 by lkv

[madmen]

1 hour ago, mockingbird said:

555 Yes I think you're right. Another 1 post 'denied entry' troll. VOA from the UK?

 

This line in the OP's post did make me laugh though -

"I was smartly dressed with a trimmed beard. "

Yes its the little things that make the troll posts more beleivable, certainly sucked in a few regulars posters though. 

[FritsSikkink]

21 hours ago, Timwin said:

It seems a repeat customer is now bad for business! Totally new, brave world tourist economy!

Repeat customer? he lived here for more than a year.

[lkv]

1 hour ago, madmen said:

Yes its the little things that make the troll posts more beleivable, certainly sucked in a few regulars posters though. 

The award this year for the most succesful troll rejection post goes to a user called Zhanna.

 

 

This thread sucked almost everybody in, including a certain female moderator of TVF , that probably felt like empathising with the sad situation of another "woman" being in detention at Suvarnabhumi.

 

When "she" was busted (by me, thank you), "she" asked for the "thread to be closed".

 

The user I am talking about joined TVF on July 14 and last visited July 15.

 

Just a small example of what I am talking about. Many others out there.

 

Edited November 19, 2019 by lkv

[bbi1]

22 hours ago, elviajero said:

Get your girlfriend to write a letter confirming that you are visiting to get married. That should help if you get questioned again.

Will this really help when entering again on a METV even though being in the country previously for a few years over the supposed magical 180 days/year "rule"? Good to know if this is true that it will help. 

[bbi1]

11 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

Please don't take this as being argumentative - I'm just quoting what I was told when I went to the Immigration counter at BKK as I left a couple of weeks ago...........

 

180 days in a year and refreshing in January is exactly what I was told. It may not be part of the law but is appears to be what they are using - although you can't even rely on that. The I.O. I spoke to said, word for word, "It resets in January".

Good to know if this is true. Was this at BKK or DMK?

[bbi1]

6 hours ago, RyanWalker said:

It's 100% up to the immigration officer. I have 7 SE TV's in my passport and never had a problem. I'm leaving for Thailand again next week. Never had any issue before. Get a study visa mate. 

Have you stayed in Thailand over 180 days in 2019? What month are you returning to BKK? Please let us all know how you go when you enter BKK or DMK airport soon. We want to know if you have any issues or get in fine with a new SETV.

[ananda23]

5 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

Good to know if this is true. Was this at BKK or DMK?

I was told the same thing a few weeks ago at DMK. IO told me to get a different visa or come back next year. At CNX I was told to get a SETV in KL and come back.

[Max69xl]

7 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

Good to know if this is true. Was this at BKK or DMK?

Don Muang is also located in BKK.

[scottiddled]

1 hour ago, lkv said:

Most likely the latter, because I'm seeing a pattern here. Every time we post something that questions the validity of a thread, other "users" pop up, with slightly aged usernames (but little posting history / community reputation), defending the OP. People that barely post, and all of the sudden become "talkative". To keep the thread up and going.

 

Like above, they end up talking to one another, generating content.

I'm not saying you're wrong. But I find the "community reputation" attitude a bit offensive. A lot of people lurk here. I read these forums pretty religiously for a few weeks in early 2019 when I was thinking of relocating to Thailand. I saw the tenor of the forums (most notably how many "well aged" accounts treated others) and saw a chilling effect based on my perception of how the forums are...shepherded. 

 

And I was busy with major personal life changes, retraining, moving (twice, including to Thailand...four times if you count finding more permanent housing after arrival), starting a new job, etc... 

 

I only posted recently because an issue popped up involving banking and I was hoping to get some feedback (and maybe, just maybe, nudge things a bit with my bank). These issues effect me pretty significantly, but TVF isn't exactly a "community" I feel close to and therefore I'm not going to rack up a big post count. So I can totally see myself as someone who might run into an immigration issue and post about it with a low post count (or even a new account, if the banking thing didn't happen to me first). That's kind of the way these things work. Something odd happens and you look for help/vindication/or to publicize it, whether or not you're an established member of some forum community. For every regular here, there are hundreds or even thousands of other expats with similar connections to Thailand. And frankly, the folks with loads of experience who are more likely to be established on the forums are also more likely to know the ins and outs of immigration, etc., and less likely to run into a problem.

 

Does that make a "newbie's" perspective invalid? Does it make mine suspect? You're free to discount it because I haven't paid my dues, but frankly I see plenty of members of the salty squad whose views I would never respect, regardless of post count or signup date. 

 

All that said, I'll concede that--on some rare occasions--perhaps someone has posted a fabricated or exaggerated account for trollish reasons. But the allegations of that are way too frequent here.

[lkv]

5 minutes ago, scottiddled said:

Does it make mine suspect?

Actually, yes, it does. When you say "a lot of people lurk here", this exact keyword is being used by several "posters" with zero history that all get rejected.

 

And you're also a new account.

Edited November 19, 2019 by lkv

[bbi1]

3 minutes ago, Max69xl said:

Don Muang is also located in BKK.

To be more clear for those who are unsure, Swampy or DMK.

[bbi1]

7 minutes ago, ananda23 said:

I was told the same thing a few weeks ago at DMK. IO told me to get a different visa or come back next year. At CNX I was told to get a SETV in KL and come back.

That's great then. Can leave Dec 2019 after staying over 180+ days and come back Feb 2020 with no problems on a SETV/METV. Nice ????

Edited November 19, 2019 by bbi1

[scottiddled]

Just now, lkv said:

Actually, yes, it does.

I have some spare tin foil if that'll help?

 

Honestly...I'd be about as willing to call out some established posters here for trolling (maybe not permanently, but on occasion) than to discount someone's post merely because they're not dedicated keyboard warriors. But whatever floats your boat. I have no idea if the OP in this case is being 100% truthful or not, and even the tone of my first reply was somewhat suspicious (e.g., pointing out that a UK citizen doesn't need a VOA, prefacing my advice with an "if what you said about X and Y is completely accurate). But I guess my job is to come in here and troll by taking the middle ground? Hmm.

[lkv]

5 minutes ago, scottiddled said:

But I guess my job is to come in here and troll by taking the middle ground? Hmm.

I did not say it, you did.

[KhaoYai]

Just to clarify - a lot of people confuse VOA with Exempt Entry. That could be why the OP states VOA.

[RyanWalker]

2 hours ago, bbi1 said:

Have you stayed in Thailand over 180 days in 2019? What month are you returning to BKK? Please let us all know how you go when you enter BKK or DMK airport soon. We want to know if you have any issues or get in fine with a new SETV.

Yes mate I have stayed about 8 months this year in Thailand. I won't give all the inns & outs here but anyone should be prepared when they stand infront of an IO. Have the stuff worked out in your head when they ask you any question. They can never deny me to go in, as I know what to say after 10 years in Thailand. Btw I stay in Thailand for 10 years now. All SETV's. 

[RyanWalker]

7 hours ago, Billpro785 said:

I have now 7 visa exempts in my US passport in 2019. Usually stay 3 weeks than leave. Never had a issue, most of the time the officer never looks at me. 

Same for me, however, I always extend my SETV for another 30 days. So I stay 3 months then go to get new visa. 

[elviajero]

2 hours ago, bbi1 said:

Will this really help when entering again on a METV even though being in the country previously for a few years over the supposed magical 180 days/year "rule"? Good to know if this is true that it will help. 

It can’t do any harm. There’s no guarantee it will help, but it should — and has for some — as it demonstrates a need to visit the country.