Yeah Roy,
A reality check and a little alarm clock is ringing.
I'm shoveling in the same boat. Kindda odd to think that the less money we have the more it costs us to stay here. Should be the other way around, no?
What is crazy too is that ya can't get the 3rd month on a tourist visa without plane ticket out but you can just go get another 2 month or 4 month tourist visa back to back.
What the hell is going on,lol!
Tried that Thai visa board but it looks too crammed for space with stuff to be frustrated with bothering about it. Anyway I hear they throw you out of it fast if your bad.
I am just gonna guess I made a mistake and estimate a trip to Singapore will cost much more, like maybe 25,000 baht.
I'd have to bring a peanut butter sandwhich with me.

From 1st February, the Thai consulate in Penang began refusing applications for Tourist Visas unless they were supported by an Original (not copy) air ticket showing onward travel out of Thailand.
Believe me this rule was strictly adhered to and most applicants were refused Tourist visas when I was there in March. They did however get their application fee back (which the consulate is not obliged to do) and had to get just a 30 day enrty stamp when they got back to the Thai border.
The simple fact is that if you are not here as a short term tourist, then you should get the approriate visa. They do not want people staying here long term on Tourist Visas or indeed 30 day entry stamps.
It has been lapse in the past and they are just tying up the loose ends. Expect others to follow in Penang's footsteps at some stage.
There really isn't a term as 'visa friendly' - either you qualify or you don't and getting a multi-entry non-immigrant visa is actually more difficult in countries neighbouring Thailand than your own home country and in some cases your own home country is the ONLY place you can get a non-immigrant visa.
The initial visa is relatively painless compared to getting the extension in the subsequent years. The screw is turning tighter at an alarming rate for non-immigrant 'O' visa extensions, as many posts n this very board will testify.
I know of some people who would rather go back to their home country each year and get a fresh visa rather than suffer the unpleasant experience others might have had trying to get an extension to their current visa.
I am also heasring lately that just as they did with visa-on-arrivals (30 days), they are going to restrict the number of consecutive Tourist Visas you can have - again trying to stop long term stayers from avoiding getting the correct visa, for whatever reason.

Should have happened a longtime ago with the abuse of the tourist visa to try and stay long term in Thailand but not for the specified tourist reasons for the visa to be sanctioned.The only positive still for Thailand is the good income received at the immigration offices for extensions of these visas.
All I see now being advertised 'to stay one year' by companies is IMHO the abuse of the education visa.As if suddenly so many farang want to learn and read a very difficult language.Hopefully attendance is compulsory,not just crap farang enrolling and then turning up to 10% of classes.

pompui wrote:Should have happened a longtime ago with the abuse of the tourist visa to try and stay long term in Thailand but not for the specified tourist reasons for the visa to be sanctioned.The only positive still for Thailand is the good income received at the immigration offices for extensions of these visas.
All I see now being advertised 'to stay one year' by companies is IMHO the abuse of the education visa.As if suddenly so many farang want to learn and read a very difficult language.Hopefully attendance is compulsory,not just crap farang enrolling and then turning up to 10% of classes.

Some people can only get a tourist visa to stay in thailand for a long time so its not abusing the tourist visa, its just working the completely stupid system that the thai gov insists on having!!

Ive been here in LOS for 4 years now.... I have always been on a tourist Visa or when i go back to UK i get a multi entry..... The big net (90 day max) that was thrown out to catch the undesirables, the ones Thailand do not want, sex pests, people working illegally etc etc also caught a lot of people like me, the in betweenies.... i have an income of over 65,000 baht per month but too young for retirement visa... have a Thai wife but in reallity she is my Fiance... i dont work or intend to work... really all i do is spend 750,000 baht per year in Thailand, and all Thailand want to do is get me out!!!!! Is there a visa out there for me??? I am ex armed forces on a military pension, so technically retired, but not over 50.... So for some people sitting with their visa"s scoffing at us lowso tourist visa abusers, get over it... I can find no other visa that lets me stay here and i am not an undesireable here to abuse the system....

Nearly same same as me BWD and I to get fed up of people telling me I am abusing the system.
I give 100% truthful information on the application form.
They have my passport so can clearly see how long I have been here yet still issue me with a new visa.

So the Thai government do not consider me to be abusing their immigration policies but clearly there are some expats out there who are far more knowledgeable on the subject than our venerable hosts!

big wave marry your thai G/F problem solved do it legal so you have the papers they want plus it only 40 k a month you need

aznyron wrote:big wave marry your thai G/F problem solved do it legal so you have the papers they want plus it only 40 k a month you need

Good point Ron, Dave take note, Whens the invitations coming out?

I'd love to!!!! BUT !!!!!!! We are married already as in "Village Wedding" cost me 150k Baht... BUT!! already married to farang woman who is not signing the divorce papers!!!!!!! S i will have to wait until been separated 2 years then divorce her, then i will be over 50