Are more people facing issues re-entering Thailand after staying on tourist visas since the introduction of the DTV?

@Gilly **********

One slight amendment to what I said before:

I used the word "always" when I should have used "long".

When I first got here in 2013, I'd run into people while on visa runs who were basically living here for years on end on tourist stays. Thai wife, off-the-cards teaching jobs in some village somewhere, the lot.

But then the 2014 coup happened, and they started enforcing things. The requirement to have proof of onward travel, accommodation, and 20,000 Baht (or equivalent) was already there on paper, but very rarely enforced.

After 2014, they started enforcing it, and demanding it from people they suspected of not being genuine tourists.

Obviously, this relaxed over Covid - but then after the pandemic ended, they cracked down again.

@Gilly **********

Its always been the case that immigration pulls aside & questions people they suspect of just living here on back-to-back tourist visas and/or border-bounce stamps.

Including Chiang Mai airport. I was pulled to the back office and questioned there in July last year when entering on a tourist visa. I had had just two border-bounce stamps that year, and previously had been on a Non-B for teaching for 4 years.

I was allowed in, but had to show them proofs of inward travel, finances etc.

Obviously some people are able to stay here for quite a while (over a year or so) on nothing but short-term tourist stays. Other people get questioned on their third or even second entry. But while the amount of time you can stay here per year on tourist visas is technically unlimited, entry has always been at the individual immigration officers discretion.

@Gilly **********

maybe your paying more attention to it but as Brandon said it’s been that way for a while

@Gilly **********

Then you don't know a lot of people. Dozens of people have been denied entry ever day at Suvarnabumhi, Don Muang and Phuket for years now. Tons of posts on Facebook about it. Sometimes nearly full planeloads denied entry and turned back around.