Visa rules will be tightened to stop abuse

[PeteC]

Fromthe Bangkok Post. Pete
________________________________________

By Chatrudee Theparat

Visa-on-arrival (VOA) regulations will be tightened for nationals of 41 countries to prevent abuse of the privilege and curb the rising number of illegal entries, according to the Immigration Police Bureau (IPB). Foreign nationals from those countries, including the US, China and India, will be able to stay longer but with fewer chances of renewing the VOA.

IPB commissioner Suwat Tumrongsiskul said nationals from those specific countries are currently allowed to remain in Thailand for 15 days maximum after the VOA is granted. The VOA is normally renewable once.

However, some foreigners including tourists ''tiptoe around the law'' by resorting to so-called visa runs to extend their stay. Most take a bus to a border, check out of the country and then return the same day to have the VOA renewed.

They repeat the practice as many times as they wish, affording them almost unlimited stay in the country. The policy is largely intended to serve tourism.

Pol Lt-Gen Suwat said the change of the VOA rules is in order.

In future, foreigners from those 41 countries will be able to stay in the country for 30 days from the first VOA stamp, which will be renewable twice at most, each time for a maximum of 30 days. In other words, a foreigner will be permitted to remain in Thailand for no longer than 90 days in total after three VOA stamps.

The commissioner said the current system is prone to abuse as many foreign nationals make numerous visa runs so they can stay on long term to do business. In some cases, they have gone unregulated, causing social problems.

Official figures showed that about 400,000 Chinese nationals were granted a VOA last year, and 18,000 of them have stayed behind.

Around 200,000 Indians made VOA visits last year and it was found that 16,000 of them have not left.

Pol Lt-Gen Suwat said the new VOA rules will be put into effect once approved by the Royal Thai Police Office.

He said more information technology will be employed in the blacklisting system. The IT-operated immigration clearance system is now in use at 15 out of 55 checkpoints nationwide to check in tourists and screen out undesirable individuals. The technology lets the bureau enlarge its database of foreign visitors to identify those on the blacklist and expel them.

Pol Col Ittipol Ittisarnronnachai, head of the Pattaya immigration centre, said its IT-operated database is shared by many hotels and resorts in Pattaya to help track down blacklisted people. The technology has been credited with weakening the local mafia network.

The Betong immigration centre in Yala is also using the system to trace people of dual nationality, some of whom are believed to be behind the southern strife.

Pol Lt-Gen Suwat said more authority to issue visas will be delegated to regional IPB offices.

At present, IPB chief inspectors are authorised to grant visas, and in future their deputies will also be able to approve visa requests

[caller]

Interesting - why the 41 countries - what about the rest? From the UK you get a 30 day visa. Will their visa runs be affected as well?

Is this more pre-election hype?

Who benefits?

Or is this pressure from abroad to control "undesirables" but something that will end as a catch all?

Its getting to the stage where maybe your average tourist will be affected?

[The understudy]

Ye s caller
Tthe Visa runs will be effected nad the new scemes to be implemented as follows
When you come to the border of any country bordering Thailand zou are allowed to stay for 30 days. You can renew only 2 times for 30 days. In totall you allowed to stay in Thailand for three months and no longer than that.
who tries to benefit out of this I don't know But this will be a subject for darn good investigative Report (A Job I could do.)
Is this just a pre election hype? We hafta flollow this news further more to know which countries are effected and if the UK are also effected as well.
This stuff will not effect me directly but it will efffect my friends who are staying a long time in Thailand using the Visa run sceme.

you'rs THe understudy!!!

[The understudy]

[quote= Correction form first Text I'd sent!
"The understudy"]Yes caller
Tthe Visa runs will be effected and the new scemes to be implemented as follows
You can enter Thainad with your regular Visa and you can stay for 30 days. When you go to the border and extend by 90days in the old sceme. But in the new sc2me they only let you extend for 30 days and they let you only do tis 3 Times then yoh HAVE to return to your Country. IN totall you can stay only for thee months on Thailand.
who tries to benefit out of this I don't know But this will be a subject for darn good investigative Report (A Job I could do.)
Is this just a pre election hype? We hafta flollow this news further more to know which countries are effected and if the UK are also effected as well.
This stuff will not effect me directly but it will efffect my friends who are staying a long time in Thailand using the Visa run sceme.
Regular tourits will srtay in Thailand usually four to six weeks no loger than that. It's more for those people whos stay in Thailand and do business but want to stay under the radar of the TAX man (Fiskus in German).

you'rs THe understudy!!![/quote][size=18][/size]

[Big Boy]

I've read the above article http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/10Sep2006_news04.php, and at the very least I'm confused. I'm not sure if I should be worried.

As a prospective ex-pat I guess this has to seriously effect me (as it must effect a lot of existing ex-pats).

I'm also assuming there will be vast home ownership issues for those ex-pats who re-new regularly.

My intention is to retire to Thailand within the next couple of years. Will this new enforcement of the rules affect me? I've not really investigated the need to leave Thailand every X months to re-new my visa - I knew everybody did it, and was quite looking forward to the various trips to local countries (as per a couple of recent postings).

Maybe I can take this opportunity to ask how long is the retirement valid, and how is it re-newed (I've seen some contradictory inormation on this board to date)?

[PeteC]

BB and others, the devil is in the details, as usual. The article is not well written. First it lumps the USA into the 15 day VOA group and then goes on to say 30 days etc. The USA has been 30 VOA for a very long time. China and India have always been 15 day VOA.

Regarldess of the poor journalism, this issue concerns VOA (visa on arrival), i,e, you have no visa already stamped in your passport that you obtained in your country before departure to here. Being a retiree or married to a Thai, you should be getting the appropriate non-immigrant visa at home first. This article does not say anything about those types of visas (pre-obtained) and I'm assuming the procedures for renewing those types will remain the same.

The article also does not say what happens AFTER your 2 VOA renewals are completed? Do you have to wait 6 months, a year before coming back into Thailand again in order to enter on another VOA? That is a critical point not addressed, yet. Stay tuned, am sure more will be coming out on this, probably after the elections and the New Year. Pete.

[Big Boy]

Thanks Pete ,

I'll certainly watch this one as it develops.

[PeteC]

Small update through the magic of how mysterious things work here..LOL. We have an ex-cleaning lady who is the mia noy of a medium grade immigration officer here in Pattaya. Being Sunday, we lucked out as he was over seeing her and my better half bumped into them at the local shop.

His take is that the article was a typo and meant to say Russia, China and India, not the US. He says there has been some talk in the offices about this but nothing is close to being carved in stone. The target countries are more or less 3rd and 2nd world whose visitors to LOS have been abusing the system flagrantly, and coming here to work illegally or, do some crime business.

He does not know at present if the same rules mentioned above will apply to all countries or just the target 41, and if different rules, what they will be. Stay tuned once more. Pete

[pookie]

It might just be me, but, looking at the bigger picture, what with the tighening up/reaffirming of the land ownership laws recently, and now this, are the "powers that be" saying "F**K off, falang, we dont want YOU here............just your money"?
Just a thought

Pookie

[Winkie]

I don't think that anyone is being told to F*** OFF.

Don't you think they have a right to enforce, and create more tighter control, certainly other countries do not tolerate foreign nationals 'setting up' base and just popping out and in again every 3 months.

We should be fair and permit Thailand to utilise the same rules that we would hope our own countries would enforce.

All should look upon this as a positive move.

Winkie

[Burger]

Seems like they are trying to crackdown on people pretending to be here as tourists but working illegally instead. Fair play to them, those people deserve to be told to eff orf.

Do I read this right in that is does not affect people who obtain non-immigrant multi-entry visas before arriving ?

Burger

[Winkie]

There is no mention of it affecting non-imm Visas, so I assume that the rules don't change.

It seems they are only tightening up on the border re-entry/VOA situation.

Winkie

[Norseman]

We should be fair and permit Thailand to utilise the same rules that we would hope our own countries would enforce.

All should look upon this as a positive move.

Winkie

I think you are quite right Winkie. You too Burger.
Think we should welcome this law-enforcement.

[Big Boy]

My intention is to retire to Thailand within a couple of years, does anybody know how these rules will affect me please?

Are the rules being applied solely to VOA, or are the rules being extended to cover other visa types?

[Bamboo Grove]

It pretty much looks like it's only VOA that will be effected. Any other kind of visa and you're ok, just as you've been so far. Until they decide to change the next thing.............