Thailand confirms new 6-month visas for tourists

[Pleng]

I suppose abuse could be possible, but a tad inconvenient. It has to be applied for in home country or country of permanent residence. Plus other financial proofs are required, such as bank account with specified deposits in country of application.

Do you have a source for any of this information??

[hhinner]

Sorry, I don't. I guess it's all just rumour and hearsay on various forums and blogs. However, here's what the Thai embassy in Helsinki has: http://www.thaiembassy.org/helsinki/en/ ... TV%29.html.

[bsdk1960]

From the Thai Embasy homepage in Denmark:

VISA FEES

Tourist Visa 250 DKK

Tourist Visa Double Entry 500 DKK (Not available after 12 November 2015)

Tourist Visa Triple Entry 750 DKK (Not available after 12 November 2015)

Multiple Entry Tourist Visa (METV) 1,200 DKK (Starting 13 November 2015)

Non-Immigrant Visa 500 DKK for single entry

Non-Immigrant Visa 1,200 DKK for multiple entries

[hhinner]

Thai visas available in Vientiane from 13th Nov: http://vientiane.thaiembassy.org/en/new ... php?ID=313.

[Pleng]

That's bad news. It appears that Vientiane are no longer issuing double entry visas. And the METV is only available to residents of Laos(not to mention being over double the cost of the double entry)

[tuktukmike]

As from today you can only get a single entry visa with the £35 charge.
The new multi entry visa now requires that you must show bank account in your name with at least £5000 in your account.

Not a real problem as most will have more than that if they are staying any length of time.

I got the notification but can't seem to download from images as it says too large.

Ttm

[Pleng]

£5000. Yea... pocket money

[Elena]

Hi,

How about a 3-month visa obtained after November, 13? Will we be able to stay 60 days+30 days' extension?

[Elena]

P.S. By the way in the Thai embassy in Russia they gonna take for a multi-entry visa a fee of USD200!!!! Not USD140+ as announced that I read between lines: Russians, go home and live in your country!

[jumusman]

I wonder how long it will before this new 'METV' visa gets abolished due to people 'abusing' it to stay in Thailand long term.
I give it 1 year, 2 years max.

Yeah the same Russians that screwed up the ED Visa in the first place by never going to class are probably going to screw this one up to by abusing it somehow. It is a good idea though! If I was still living here I would have gotten this instead of having to go to school then "prove myself" every time I flew back to BKK to the immigration officer that I actually spoke Thai. Hope they stick with this, just arrived back here 3 days ago and they need to do something to get tourism back on track, this place is like a friggin ghost town compared to 2 or 3 years ago!!

[Name Taken]

I wonder how long it will before this new 'METV' visa gets abolished due to people 'abusing' it to stay in Thailand long term.
I give it 1 year, 2 years max.

Yeah the same Russians that screwed up the ED Visa in the first place by never going to class are probably going to screw this one up to by abusing it somehow. It is a good idea though! If I was still living here I would have gotten this instead of having to go to school then "prove myself" every time I flew back to BKK to the immigration officer that I actually spoke Thai. Hope they stick with this, just arrived back here 3 days ago and they need to do something to get tourism back on track, this place is like a friggin ghost town compared to 2 or 3 years ago!!

How do you know that it was Russians that screwed up the 'ED Visa'?
I personally have never had any problems with Russians here in Thailand, they seem to mostly keep to themselves.

[jumusman]

I wonder how long it will before this new 'METV' visa gets abolished due to people 'abusing' it to stay in Thailand long term.
I give it 1 year, 2 years max.

Yeah the same Russians that screwed up the ED Visa in the first place by never going to class are probably going to screw this one up to by abusing it somehow. It is a good idea though! If I was still living here I would have gotten this instead of having to go to school then "prove myself" every time I flew back to BKK to the immigration officer that I actually spoke Thai. Hope they stick with this, just arrived back here 3 days ago and they need to do something to get tourism back on track, this place is like a friggin ghost town compared to 2 or 3 years ago!!

How do you know that it was Russians that screwed up the 'ED Visa'?
I personally have never had any problems with Russians here in Thailand, they seem to mostly keep to themselves.

Yeah I guess its just from my personal experience, just one person of course. I have been to three different schools during my time in Thailand, 2 back in Pattaya and 1 here in Hua Hin and without a doubt the people who showed up the least were the Russians. Only British, French, Scandanavian people seemed to actually be interested in learning Thai and showed up twice a week as per the schedule. It was always my experience that Russians abused they system, showed up once a month for class at the most just so they could hopefully keep their ED visa and do the very minimum required. This is why I believe immigration officers used to come in and take photos of the students and teachers, we started having to sign the book every time we attended and started to get questions every 3 months at immigration to prove we were learning Thai.

Again, just my personal experience, doesn't mean all Russians are this way but for me, I never met a Russian in class that actually cared about attending on a regular basis.... they were just using it as a loophole to stay in the country..

As for having problems with them, I have absolutely none. When I lived in Pattaya I actually stayed in an apartment in Cozy Beach, the Russian area of Pattaya. I absolutely loved being around Russians, they do keep to themselves and were quiet for the most part. I could sit in a restaurant with Russians and they are nothing like their loud mouthed American counterparts or alcohol fueled shirtless Brits covered in Tattoos looking for a fight and being obnoxious as hell. If I had to pick tourists and people to live around I would pick Russians every day of the week!

[Name Taken]

Yeah the same Russians that screwed up the ED Visa in the first place by never going to class are probably going to screw this one up to by abusing it somehow. It is a good idea though! If I was still living here I would have gotten this instead of having to go to school then "prove myself" every time I flew back to BKK to the immigration officer that I actually spoke Thai. Hope they stick with this, just arrived back here 3 days ago and they need to do something to get tourism back on track, this place is like a friggin ghost town compared to 2 or 3 years ago!!

How do you know that it was Russians that screwed up the 'ED Visa'?
I personally have never had any problems with Russians here in Thailand, they seem to mostly keep to themselves.

Yeah I guess its just from my personal experience, just one person of course. I have been to three different schools during my time in Thailand, 2 back in Pattaya and 1 here in Hua Hin and without a doubt the people who showed up the least were the Russians. Only British, French, Scandanavian people seemed to actually be interested in learning Thai and showed up twice a week as per the schedule. It was always my experience that Russians abused they system, showed up once a month for class at the most just so they could hopefully keep their ED visa and do the very minimum required. This is why I believe immigration officers used to come in and take photos of the students and teachers, we started having to sign the book every time we attended and started to get questions every 3 months at immigration to prove we were learning Thai.

Again, just my personal experience, doesn't mean all Russians are this way but for me, I never met a Russian in class that actually cared about attending on a regular basis.... they were just using it as a loophole to stay in the country..

As for having problems with them, I have absolutely none. When I lived in Pattaya I actually stayed in an apartment in Cozy Beach, the Russian area of Pattaya. I absolutely loved being around Russians, they do keep to themselves and were quiet for the most part. I could sit in a restaurant with Russians and they are nothing like their loud mouthed American counterparts or alcohol fueled shirtless Brits covered in Tattoos looking for a fight and being obnoxious as hell. If I had to pick tourists and people to live around I would pick Russians every day of the week!

Some Americans can be very obnoxious, but we're not all like that.
I also think that some of these Thai Language Schools can be very 'dodgy' and will falsify their students attendance records. I think the whole idea of a Thai Language 'ED Visa' is a bad idea to be honest.
I personally don't have any interest in learning the Thai Language, but that's just me.

[Big Boy]

This thread is supposed to be about about the 6 month visa for tourists, not about who likes who, or the ed-visa.

Can we get back to topic please, before we have to delete the off topic posts.

[Geko]

Has anyone actually applied for or know anyone who's applied for and successfully obtained one of these 6 month multi-entry visa's yet