Thread: Clear answers to the new Visa regulations

Sabah Cafe & Cinema had a semi formal visit from Immigration Police Major Suppachai Paladech, Inspector of the Immigration Detention Centre and Secretary to the Commissioner of Immigration. Technically the second in command at Immigration. The intended purpose of the visit was to clear up some rumors and ally fears that many long term 'tourist' are having regarding the implementation of updated immigration regulations on the 1st October 2006.

A basic transcript is available at a page on khaosanroad.com.

Thailand's New Immigration Regulations - from Sabah Cafe


It should answer some of the key questions

Question: It is obvious that the present border runners will change into visa runners to other countries. What are the Department of Immigrations thoughts on this?

Police Major Suppachai: From October 1st you can travel to the border and re-enter 3 times using the system of waiver of a visa. After that, if you get a single entry tourist visa from abroad you can stay here for 60 days, after that you can get a visa extension for 30 days, so it is already 6 months. Each time you leave the country you can come back with the visa extension again, so the tourist visa intervenes.

Question: So if we buy a tourist visa and extend it for 1 month can we leave buy another tourist visa and back, can we continue to do that?

Police Major Suppachai: Yes, you can do that. We don't want some people staying on visa extensions for ever. Some people stay for 10 years. The main thing at the moment is that now people that come to Thailand for 10 years are not getting screened. With the tourist visa the police now have a chance to check the people that are not on the blacklist. That is the main thing of this new law.

Question: When does the new rule effecting 90-day maximum wavered visas come into affect?

Police Major Suppachai: It means that the person who has been staying on visa extensions for years, you can depart. If your visa ends on the 30 September, you leave the country and come back on the 30th September, you still can use that 3 times. There was misinformation on the Internet, it doesn't count by stamps, it counts by days. This is very important, it counts by days not stamps. Yeah counts by days.

Question: This is going to effect the airlines. How is Immigration going to handle this? How does an airline know when a passenger comes to their stamp quota? The airline is responsible for their passenger?

Police Major Suppachai: Your question is a very good question. OK we know that from the first of October it counts from 90 days and the problems will come back. Many people will be stopped at the border, right. So within 90 days we will try to do something. Because we are thinking about the electronic visas. We will use that kind of visa where the airline will have to submit the name of the person to our office before to issue the ticket, similar system to the US. It needs at least 1 year.

We don't want people using that kind of system (visa waiver) to stay in our country forever, we have to use the tourist visa to intervene in that system to screen them, to screen the people who are staying in our country.


Question: We have heard that there will be a 3 month visa you can buy here in Bangkok. Is this a new rule, if so when is it in place, is it already in existence, can you explain?

Police Major Suppachai: It is not a new visa, it is a new regulation for foreigners who don't have a visa, but visa extension, it means you can apply for a non immigration type B and O at the Immigration Bureau.

Question: In Thailand right?

Police Major Suppachai: Yes. But it means that you have to have at least 3 weeks, I mean visa. It means when you come in right, you have 4 weeks. In the first week you have to contact immigration, in Bangkok in Suan Phlu and submit the papers that you want to change your visa. You have to have a visa. Before we could change the category of visa from tourist to non-immigrant, but this time we can issue the visa as well.

A summary of points that were discussed in more detail:
The reason for the new regulations are twofold:

1. Try to eliminate known foreign criminals from entering Thailand. It is desired by the authorities that those staying longer term in Thailand should be screened through a more thorough computer system available at Embassies, Consulates and Immigration offices. Hence the reasoning of forcing people into applying for longer stays after a maximum of 90 days by obtaining 3 consecutive free 30 day waivers of a visa at entry points. Border crossing checkpoints are currently limited to screening out undesirables on the 'Blacklist' and high profile undesirables.

2. Persuade foreigners that are on the incorrect visas or stamps to correct their paperwork in line with the law. By making the trip to an Embassy, Consulate or Immigration office necessary within 90 days from 1st October 2006, it is hoped that foreigners who are disrespecting Thai law rectify the situation by applying for the correct visa. To aid this, Non immigrant B and O visas will be issued inside Thailand at the Immigration Office in Bangkok. IMPORTANTLY, to apply you have to have at least 3 weeks remaining on your current stamp and obviously the correct paperwork. The visa needed to apply is yet to be clarified.

The Department of Immigration controls borders and The Department of Foreign Affairs controls Consulates and Embassies. There has been no official orders to tighten controls on issuing visas abroad. It is at the discretion of the issuing officer. It is business as usual. There is and never was a guarantee that you would be issued a single, double, etc visa. At borders the 90 day max of 'waivers of a visa' will be enforced once your 90 days FROM 1st October have been utilized within the period of 180 days.

Days in country are counted and NOT number of stamps. There is an issue here with airlines and the Department of Immigration understands this. It is their wish that a system similar to something like the US where passenger list are checked electronically before departure will be installed in the future to eliminate problems. This may take some time.

The Department of Immigration understands that there will be problems with the new regulations and will review as necessary.

It's a copyright article guys

"The reason for the new regulations are twofold:

1 Try to eliminate known foreign criminals from entering Thailand"

What happened to looking at thier fokin passports at the border and checking that against the bad boy list?

WTF has that check got to do with visas and visa waivers?

Originally Posted by Triton

It's a copyright article guys

Yeah and copyright means a lot in Thailand.