Surprise! It's a visa question.

[alliegator]

Looked around, but can't find a definitve answer.
When do they start counting the year for which I have 90 days total as a tourist?
I was there from September 12-November 4 last year and did one visa run.
Now, when I return for the summer, do I only get 30 days? Or did they start counting in October, or New Year or something else like that.
Thanks for help with my dumb question!

Thanks, TanMan-
I had a stamp upon entry last time, and will arrive June 1, probably stamp upon entry again. I'm coming from the US.

[TanMan]

To my understanding, and the way I have seen them counting the days at immigration, it is "rolling" 180 day period (not one year), where you can stay in Thailand for 90 days with as many entries as you want. You don't specify when in the Summer you will be coming, so do the math yourself. Also, you don't specify whether you actually had a tourist visa, or just a stamp on arrival.. When it comes to visa questions, you have to VERY specific...

[MrDK]

I did some checking lately as I had a similar concern and got the same answer as TanMan stated. In other words on 3 May your "counter" will be at 0 and you can obtain another 3 Visa Exemption stamps (if doing 2 visa runs).

The above I am quite certain of.
The below is an assumption on my part.

The same should be true is you arrive before 3 May as you still have 34 days left from the 180 day period which started on 12 Sep. So if you arrive say on April 4 you will barely qualify for 30 days, but on your next visa run you should have 60 more available as you will be past 3 May

Keep in mind that you also have the option of a formal tourist visa issues in the states. This type of visa is good for 60 days and can be extended for an additional 30 without a visa run.
I believe that it does not consider the visa exemption stamps.

[Crustasian]

To save yourself any hassle or worry just apply for a 60 day tourist Visa in the states from Thai embassy.Then the count does not happen.

[Miami]

Originally Posted by Crustasian

To save yourself any hassle or worry just apply for a 60 day tourist Visa in the states from Thai embassy.Then the count does not happen.

Totally agree with Crustasian. Sent my application to the embassy on Friday afternoon (overnight del.) and had my visa on the following Thursday.

[MajorTom]

I was welcomed with a 22day stamp a few days ago coming back from Cambo.
Message was, (after i got some thais to translate my passport): Stayed more than 90 days during the last 6 months. (I have been staying on 60+30 tourist visas)
Not sure why they let me in at all, since im already far above 90 days.

Did not get the chance to ask what happened. As they did not say anything, gave me the passport back just as usual, and i walked away.

Will try to clear things up at the local office.

BTW, last time i did the same tour. I was given a 90 day stamp with no visa at all..(BKK)

[visa2003]

From what I could understand, the 60 day visa can be extended by 30 days without doing a visa run but can you leave and re-enter Thailand as many times as you want? Or is the 2 entries( dates specified before visa issued) as many as you get?

[Miami]

When I apply for my 60 day visa, the form asks for the # of entries at $25 per. At least thats the way it works here in the US. As an aside, when I went to get my 30 day extension, I went to the new airport because I was staying around Bangkok. I got the runaround at least three times when I asked for directions to the immigration office. Finally I'm told that the immigration office for extending visas isn't in the airport, but across the parking lot at the Novotel.

[LivinLOS]

Tourist visa's are per entry.. You get single or double, triple, or vary rarely a quad entry.. Theres also a date which that / those entries must be used by, leve the country even for a hop and the entry is toast.. You can extend each entry by 30 days for 1900 baht.

A non Immigrant visa gives 90 days per entry and can be done as many times as you like within the defined time period.

A Visa waiver (non a visa on arrival) is 30 days given without any pre application, this is the one thats being controlled and it should be that you can spend 180 days in country inside a rolling 180 day / 6 month (this isnt fully defined and we need to pass April 1st to find out) period... Its not the stamps that count its the amount of days in country.

Of course run into a badly informed immigration guy and any of these rules can be reinterpreted on the spot..

[TanMan]

Yes, I'm a little confused how the rules will be applied for those that choose the 30 day stamp on arrival approach.

Post - April 1, 2007, I think the formula will have to be "Jump 30 days ahead of today (date of arrival), then go back 180 days... (STAMP = 90 days - the number of days in Thailand in that 180 day period not to exceed 30 days).

The reason for the 30 day jump forward in the beginning of the formula is to allow you another day going forward for every day that falls off the back end as the 180 period rolls. Regardless, it will be interesting to hear all the stories...

If someone has, let's say 80 in country days in said 180 day period, then you can only jump ahead 10 days as they should be allowed 10 fresh days, plus any days that fall off the back end in the next 10 day period starting from the date of arrival.

OK now I'm really confused..

[LivinLOS]

Rolling back it would be 150 days.. Anything over 150 will only get a partial stamp.. Remember the 30 days your about to be in country for count as part of the cumulative 90..

Your allowed 90 in 180.. and that includes the stamp your given..

Also dont forget for visa runners.. if you do a visa run that day counts on BOTH the stamp for day leaving and the stamp for day coming.. So if you only do Burma type runs, thats actually 2 days counted !!!

[MajorTom]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

Its not the stamps that count its the amount of days in country.

Of course run into a badly informed immigration guy and any of these rules can be reinterpreted on the spot..

Originally Posted by MajorTom

I was welcomed with a 22day stamp a few days ago coming back from Cambo.
Message was, (after i got some thais to translate my passport): Stayed more than 90 days during the last 6 months. (I have been staying on 60+30 tourist visas)
Not sure why they let me in at all, since im already far above 90 days.

Did not get the chance to ask what happened. As they did not say anything, gave me the passport back just as usual, and i walked away.

Will try to clear things up at the local office.

Thats right.. Went to immigration in Patong today trying to get the remaining 8 days of my visa exemption. After i explained i only stayed 43 days the past 180 (on 30 day stamps). The message was:

Too many stamps during the last 6 months.. I have 5, due to various traveling and rotation work. None of them are ranong type border runs.

He told me to leave the kingdom and get a proper visa, otherwise no entry.

[Yahooka]

Originally Posted by MajorTom

Thats right.. Went to immigration in Patong today trying to get the remaining 8 days of my visa exemption. After i explained i only stayed 43 days the past 180 (on 30 day stamps). The message was:

Too many stamps during the last 6 months.. I have 5, due to various traveling and rotation work. None of them are ranong type border runs.

He told me to leave the kingdom and get a proper visa, otherwise no entry.

So they do count the stamps and NOT the days you spent in LOS.....looks like another trip to KL there for you......I bet you just love that prospect !!!

[LivinLOS]

Originally Posted by MajorTom

Thats right.. Went to immigration in Patong today trying to get the remaining 8 days of my visa exemption. After i explained i only stayed 43 days the past 180 (on 30 day stamps). The message was:

Too many stamps during the last 6 months.. I have 5, due to various traveling and rotation work. None of them are ranong type border runs.

So what type of stamps were they ?? ALL tourist visa's ??

Theres a big scene going on on ThaiVisa about the interpretation of the 180 rules.. Some officers seem to want to stamp up to the 'end of the 180 day period'.. This makes no sense !!

The whole system is getting really messy..

[MajorTom]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

So what type of stamps were they ?? ALL tourist visa's ??

Theres a big scene going on on ThaiVisa about the interpretation of the 180 rules.. Some officers seem to want to stamp up to the 'end of the 180 day period'.. This makes no sense !!

The whole system is getting really messy..

One Tourist visa with extension and 4, 30 day visa exemptions.

[LivinLOS]

OK so how many days in total on the 4x 30 dayers ?? If you have only 43 days on 30 day stamps then your entitled to more in theory.

[MajorTom]

Originally Posted by Yahooka

So they do count the stamps and NOT the days you spent in LOS.....looks like another trip to KL there for you......I bet you just love that prospect !!!

In my case they did both. When they could not get me on the amount of days, they caught me on the stamps.

Not sure why they let you in though, as you probably have more stamps than me.. Again this is not very consistent and probably based on luck/mood of the day etc.

Think i will try Penang this time..

[MajorTom]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

OK so how many days in total on the 4x 30 dayers ?? If you have only 43 days on 30 day stamps then your entitled to more in theory.

Stayed 43 days total on those 4 stamps. That should leave me 47 days, enough for at least one more stamp.

I also had a tourist police volunteer, working at immigration, explaining to the thais. So that should at least reduce the chance of misunderstandings.
He had a paper with the rules, stating what we all thought was the fact: 90 days in 180. Said nothing about amount of stamps.
That was the english version.. the thai one obviously says something else.

[LivinLOS]

Well I know guys with 10's of stamps.. My brother has to have 5 or 6 with his bali and sing hops..

Was this BKK airport, cambo border, or HKT airport ??

[MajorTom]

BKK airport. They were one me about the days. Immigration in Patong was talking about stamps.

[LivinLOS]

Thertes another thing that may be occurring.. And this is the big hoo haa on ThaiVisa..

Some people have found immigration have started to count from the first entry after Oct 1st.. And then say this is thier starting point in the 6 month period.. Then (no matter how many days in country in the 6 months) they have only issued a stamp to lead up to the end of that 6 month period..

So say someone came in on Oct 5th.. even if they had visa free entry days left and were under 90 they would only issue a stamp up to April 4th to 'the end of thier 180 day period' !!!

Does the 22 days they have issued you in the current stamp line up with the first entry you made after Oct 1st??

This is an ass backwards interpretation that I have to think is not how it should work (if a person came in Thailand for one day in Oct and then returns to Thailand again 6 months minus 1 day later they get a 1 day only stamp.. Pure ludicrous) but this mistake seems to have been done to multiple people.

[Robaht]

I am guessing that as long as you get a fresh tourist visa every time (or another type of visa) then you will have no problems since the consulate "okay'ed" it. But then the problem is with getting to a consulate to issue multiple consecutive tourist visas and I think the jury is still out on how easy that is going to be (ie. 3rd, 4th, 5th one down the road).

Eventually, I'm going to pony up the cash for a non-imm O visa and go back to the good old USA and get it -- but dang, they sure are making it hard for us folk who don't work in Thailand, have no interest in working in Thailand, and only come here to spend money when we are not working elsewhere....

[MajorTom]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

Does the 22 days they have issued you in the current stamp line up with the first entry you made after Oct 1st??

Would you believe it.. Entered Oct 13th first time. have to leave April 12th.