Thread: End This Visa Run Madness: Phuket Expat Tells of Horrific Trip and Starts Campaign

What kind of cheap arse is so poor they need to stay in Thailand for so long without leaving anyway? They all deserve to be gunned down by drunk monkeys brandishing machine guns.

Originally Posted by 9999

It so is boasting. Especially in the case of ACT. 69 posts and I've read in 3 different threads him finding any opportunity to tell everyone his employment and visa status in a boastful condescending to others manner.
.

Well, i havnt paid much attention, maybe he/she is.

Originally Posted by 9999

Why the hate on visa runners anyway? So much hate that if they died due to reckless driving you'd say it's there fault for being tight arse visa runners. That is extremely sad. The mind boggles.

Who do you think fuels the visa run bus market?


Without cheap charlies and illegals there wouldnt be a single visa run bus, let alone 100s of them.

Illegals dont contribute to Visa runs .
Quite the opposite actually .

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Illegals, dodgy teachers and cheap ass retirees fuel the visa run trade, without them needing to do quick, regular trips to the border and back. Proper tourists stop to see the sites and take some time and therefore would not bother.

It's not difficult to understand. ..

Illegals dont need to do Visa runs .
Teachers get working Visas .
Retirees get annual Visas .
You really have no idea what you are talking about

So who are doing all these visa runs then?

If regular visa runs are not circumnavigating the law then what are they?

Originally Posted by kingwilly

So who are doing all these visa runs then?

Various people do Visa runs . There isnt just one type of person that does Visa runs
Study Visa & Working Visas have to be applied for outside Thailand

Originally Posted by kingwilly

If regular visa runs are not circumnavigating the law then what are they?

You need to ask the Thais. In the case of non-immigrant ) visa, you are allowed to stay for 90 days and get as many entries as you like within a year. I've been told by Thai embassy staff that I can stay for a year and only need to cross the border. And when it expires just pop back in for another non-O.

I will however concede that it's a grey area. Heck, I'll even concede that every single visa runner is criminal scum.

This still does not condone this type of driving. And visa runs take up such a small proportion of buses / vans driven dangerously that taking the scum out of the equation would simply shift the maniacs drivers to other services with perhaps less death deserving patrons.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

If regular visa runs are not circumnavigating the law then what are they?

They are not circumnavigating the law at all .
They are adhering to the immigration law .

Then why does the government have a crackdown every now and the then?

Tourist buses would not suddenly take up the slack in extra buses and drivers assuming these clowns even have a licence to drive...

Originally Posted by ACT

A multiple-entry visa based on marriage still requires the holder to leave Thailand every 90 days unless they get an Extension of Temporary Stay, even though the visa has a duration of 12 months they still have to do border runs every 90 days.

But he says he's 'constantly' having to do visa runs.

So either he's doing them far more often than once every 90 days or he's chronically prone to exaggeration, which would actually fit given the rest of his account of this fast and furious visa run.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Then why does the government have a crackdown every now and the then?

The crack downs I'm aware of were for serial visa exempt border runners, and people getting several consecutive double entry tourist visas from Laos.

I'm not aware of any crack down on non-O visas, which would make up the majority of visa runners.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Tourist buses would not suddenly take up the slack in extra buses and drivers assuming these clowns even have a licence to drive...

That's a lot of assuming. You are suggesting that it's only visa run vans that take on maniac drivers. This is not the case. If it wasn't for the visa run scumbags getting driven about by these maniacs, they would end up driving school kids on excursions. Hows that for logic?

Originally Posted by kingwilly

So who are doing all these visa runs then?

Obviously not people in Thailand illegally, ie without visas, willy.

Originally Posted by Fluke

They are not circumnavigating the law at all .

I assume willy means 'circumventing' the law.

And no, of course people leaving the country on valid visas and returning with valid visas are not circumventing the law.

Originally Posted by 9999

I'm not aware of any crack down on non-O visas, which would make up the majority of visa runners.

I'd have thought the vast majority of people on these buses are on tourist visas.

People who have to do it every 15 days and haven't been around long enough to work out better ways of doing it.

And just the occasional friendless and rather uninformed long termer like Rick Ridgedick or whatever his name is.

Originally Posted by cyrille

I'd have thought the vast majority of people on these buses are on tourist visas.

I dunno, they have cracked down on perpetual tourist visa stayers, and there are a heck of a lot of people that live here on non-O visas the leave the country every 3 months. I'm guessing the tosser writing the letter in the OP is on a non-O. Either that, perpetual tourist visas (meaning more than just a quick border run every 6 months), or he's doing the trip every 15 days.

Originally Posted by 9999

there are a heck of a lot of people that live here on non-O visas the leave the country every 3 months.

Sure, but tourists have to do it 6 times more often than that, and are far less likely to choose to use other means of transport because they know what the buses are like.

And in this case it's Phuket...

Anyway, the best solution is to live where the scum to decent people ratio is more in your favour.

Like Chiang Mai, where you can use the excellent 'Green Bus' company. Then you can wind your way at a leisurely pace along a bucolic route through the hills towards Mae Sai. Relaxing in your reclining seat with extra legroom, skillfully sculpted for the larger backside.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Like Chiang Mai, where you can use the excellent 'Green Bus' company. Then you can wind your way at a leisurely pace along a bucolic route through the hills towards Mae Sai. Relaxing in your reclining seat with extra legroom, skillfully sculpted for the larger backside.

I took this bus about a dozen times before I started driving. I found these bus drivers to be pretty good, the trip easy and well timed. I'd always get seat A1, where you sit alone and get the extra leg room at the front. Happy days.

Perhaps the bottom line here is, (no pun intended about cyrilles backside) why do the Thais make it so hard? Why the need to keep jumping across a border, the Philippines let you stay 1year before you have to exit(most faring passports) you still need to keep paying and visiting immigration, so much easier I think, why are the Thai so xenophobic?

^ I think the theory is if they just opened up the flood gates and l;et all comers stay the place would be over-run with smelly falang beggars.

PI on the other hand, it's such a shit hole they need to beg people to visit the joint. Just my theory

One thing is for sure though it's a lot easier for us to visit Thailand than it is for a Thai to visit Aus, and they certainly can't come over and just do border runs every few months, even if we did have borders.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Originally Posted by kingwilly

So who are doing all these visa runs then?

Obviously not people in Thailand illegally, ie without visas, willy.

Originally Posted by Fluke

They are not circumnavigating the law at all .

I assume willy means 'circumventing' the law.

And no, of course people leaving the country on valid visas and returning with valid visas are not circumventing the law.

Whoops. :embarrassing:

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Perhaps the bottom line here is, (no pun intended about cyrilles backside) why do the Thais make it so hard? Why the need to keep jumping across a border, the Philippines let you stay 1year before you have to exit(most faring passports) you still need to keep paying and visiting immigration, so much easier I think, why are the Thai so xenophobic?

Philippines give you a two month tourist Visa , the same as Thailand

You can easily rock up at PI immigration though and extend you stay without having to leave the country.

Originally Posted by 9999

PI on the other hand, it's such a shit hole they need to beg people to visit the joint.

Surely that has to be part of it.

Life is much easier for long term westerners in Malaysia too, but I don't see any queues.