A new visa law for Thailand tourists from 37 countries went into effect on Oct 1st. Border officials are not sure what the new rules will entail.

The speculation of many before Oct 1 was that the Thai Immigration officers would count days, or that you would need to break the trips up, so that your passport showed that you had left the country for a meaningful time. It was felt that the new law was put into effect, to stop foreigners from working illegally in the country, depriving Thai’s of jobs and the taxes that these jobs would generate by these illegal workers.

Many have abused the system for years. Those with out proper visas would do border runs in order to stay in Thailand, some of them for years. Another new, but more sinister reason, was the arrest of John Kerr, the self confessed American murderer of Jon Bennet Ramsey, which ironically turns out later to be a hoax, was the final straw, causing the Thais immigration to lose face, as they failed in protecting the Thai people from foreign pedophiles and murders

The first border official that I talked to at the Thai Cambodia border at Had Lek, informed me that you will get 3 entries, and then you will need to wait to enter the country again, until after the 6 months from the first entrance. This would have been a worst case scenario for many that need to transit through, or do lots of short trips into the kingdom. He did offer that if you could get a visa from a Thai embassy, that you would be able to get in, but you would have to go to an embassy, and wait your turn to see someone that would be able to issue you with a valid visa.

At Suvarnabhumi Airport Bangkok’s new airport The consensus of several of the immigration folks is that as long as you don’t go over 90 days in any 6 month period, you can enter as many times as you want. This is good news for the people that have a need to come into the kingdom for short periods, but that don’t stay for long.

Now the question is if you go to a foreign country that has a embassy like Cambodia‘s Phnom Penh, with the new rules, will the embassy be able to issue a visa? Apparently the answer is yes they can! With this real visa in your passport the 90 day clock begins again I asked several immigration officials at Suvarnabhumi, and they all had the same answer, so a real visa issued by an embassy will restart the clock.

The rules for retirement visas and for work visas remain the same the only other news was that they are charging allot more on overstays and will put you in jail if they catch you on a overstay.

With the coup there is no legislative body to change the rules, so the law will be in effect until at least Sept Oct 2007. The soonest that a new government can be formed according to the timetable establish by the coup leaders.

Fred Tittle
www.ecosea.com