New rules for TR Visa

[jimnbkk]

I was just reading Thai Visa and there was a sentence that got my attention about the abolishment of multiple entry tourist visas. I looked it up on the Royal Thai Embassy website for Washington DC and found some big changes. For single entry TR visa it seems to be the same: 90 day validity for a 60 day visa, $40. For multiple entry: Now they want $200, and they want bank statements for 6 months showing over $7,000 in the account each month. The hotel reservation must show your name too. Here's the link: http://thaiembdc.org/tourist-visa-categ ... iple-metv/

Looks like I'll be here only 30 days next trip. First they mess up the beaches so it's uncomfortable to sit there. Now they working on making it difficult for us. "Pesky tourists......."

[Gaybutton]

I'm trying to follow the logic. Is there any?

For US $40 you can get a single entry 60-day tourist visa without any trouble. If you want multiple entry, now you have to pay 5 times that price along with having to jump though hoops? None of that makes sense to me considering all anyone would have to do is either save traveling to places other than Thailand to the end of their Thailand trip or do that traveling before arriving in Thailand.

Has there been anything published to explain why they are doing this? The only motivation I can see would be if this is somehow supposed to make it more difficult for potential terrorists. I don't know how this new rule would accomplish that, but what other motive would they have?

Alternatively, if you leave Thailand but want to reenter, for another $40 you could just buy another tourist visa while in another country, couldn't you?

[jimnbkk]

You could also just enter with a Visa on Arrival for 30 days, then go somewhere else for a visit and return using another Visa on Arrival. Seems too easy. Must be a catch.

[Gaybutton]

Seems too easy. Must be a catch.

I read the link you posted. I was hoping you might have misinterpreted something, but you didn't. There it is in black and white. I'd love to be able to figure out why they're doing this and why they picked now as the time to do it. There must be a reason, but what is it? I wonder who came up with this one.

[windwalker]

It is a 6-month visa but one must leave and return every 60 days. Perhaps for some people it may make sense but sure a lot of hoops to jump through to get it. Agree it makes little sense but what is new about that?

[mahjongguy]

Changes to the Tourist Visa were intended to cut down on the number of farang who live in Thailand full-time and are therefore not tourists.

Single Entry Tourist Visas are still easily available in neighboring countries. Overnight service, no hassle, but a given embassy/consulate may choose to deny repeated requests. It's possible, but much more difficult now, to stay here long-term by getting SETV's at Vientiane then Penang then Ho Chi Minh, etc.

Double Entry Tourist Visas have been difficult to get anywhere in Asia and now have been scrapped.

Triple Entry Tourist Visas were generally available in one's home country and now have been scrapped. They have been replaced by the Multiple Entry Tourist Visa. Enter as often as you want during the six months after the issue date. As before, each entry gives sixty days, each of which can be extended locally for 30 additional days.

Clearly they don't want farang working here illegally, don't want farang who for some reason cannot make a visit to their home country.

For the same reasons, anyone who makes six Visa Exempt entries in a twelve month period is flagged in the system and will be interrogated before admission.

[Gaybutton]

It's possible, but much more difficult now, to stay here long-term by getting SETV's at Vientiane then Penang then Ho Chi Minh, etc.

Your post makes much more sense out of it. Now I can better understand the reasoning behind it.

Meanwhile I have to plead ignorance. I've never heard of SETV. Can you provide details?

[mahjongguy]

Sorry, I'm always trying to save keystrokes. SETV is the acronym used on ThaiVisa for the Single Entry Tourist Visa. And now there's the METV.

[christianpfc]

Single Entry Tourist Visas are still easily available in neighboring countries. Overnight service, no hassle, but a given embassy/consulate may choose to deny repeated requests. It's possible, but much more difficult now, to stay here long-term by getting SETV's at Vientiane then Penang then Ho Chi Minh, etc.

It's a hassle. Overnight is the best case (but still you lose two half days of your holiday in that country), I read Phnom Penh considerably longer unless you use an agent (trying to get more money out of you?).

8. An employment verification ( **we don’t accept pay stubs**)

That would be a hard nut to crack for me. Fortunately, Berlin doens't have such a rule (but most other embassies have!). I can go to Thailand for half a year because I have no job; if I had a job I couldn't go to Thailand for such long time!

The hotel reservation is not fully specified. Do you just need one hotel or the full period of stay? And what about people who own a condo or live with their boyfriend/girlfriend/whoever?

Changes to the Tourist Visa were intended to cut down on the number of farang who live in Thailand full-time and are therefore not tourists.

It took me two years of traveling in Thailand to visit 38 out of 77 provinces (with long recovery times in Bangkok between trips), I could easily spend 5 years just to travel everywhere in Thailand I want (some places repeatedly).

I think those changes are rather to prevent illegal working in Thailand. But what's actually the harm if native English speakers come to teach in Thailand at wages close to the local's?

In general I can say that applying for a visa, whereever, is a humiliating experience. Makes one feel like a beggar. Thai embassy Berlin does not accept 200 and 500 EUR notes, no cheques or credit card, postal application 15 days (!!!) processing, if you electronically pay the wrong amount if will not be refunded (!!!). Like many other cases with governments and bureaucracy, instead of them serving you, you have to submit to their unrealistic and unwarranted rules. Absurdities like Thai consul in Saigon accepting only USD as payment. Requirements that are not stated on their website (here thaivisa comes to help).

[jimnbkk]

The Thai embassy in Washington D.C. only accepts US Postal money orders.