Have the remarks on Thailand's DTV visa changed for remote work categories?

@Sefton *******

You don't know Thailand well at all. Each officer/official interprets things their own way.

There's no one standard set of operating rules in Thailand.

@Sam ********

Never listen to someone blindly. Sefton claims it was easy for him to open a bank account on a DTV, for everyone else it's been difficult.

I think I've been very precise with my advice yet you haven't praised me?

@Wannikea ********

I mean, I deal with Thai officials all the time and while many of them are lovely, they're not the brightest.

I am fluent in Thai BTW but the Thai lady in charge of customs at a land border with Cambodia just didn't understand why I wanted a stamp in my purple car passport.

She's not used to anyone taking a car out to explore Cambodia...she's used to locals driving across for 10km then coming back the same way. Go figure, because I only saw 2 Thai cars further than the border area on that day and zero Thai trucks (they're not allowed to leave the border area). Whereas Vietnamese trucks are allowed to drive around Cambodia.

I told her for crossings between Cambodia and Laos directly, it's mandatory. No stamps from the Thai side = no entry to Laos by car.

Her Cambodian helper improvised and found a stamp with the name of the border crossing, then a separate one with the official's name (possibly her one) and a date stamp.

That's all I wanted.

Similarly, one official who sees this visa might assume no work is permitted at all, while another official understands what the "employment prohibited" remarks refers to.

Over the years, you begin to understand that things operate on a different level here.

And speaking of border crossings, especially those by land...each time I cross such a border, even when I'm crossing the same border, the procedures are different, however slight.

@Wannikea ********

Haha. Well, I prefer predictable rules. I'm far from old, but when I do get to that age, I'd hate having to deal with tons of bureaucratic nonsense.

Now with that stated, taking out a Thai car is generally straightforward enough - it's usually the neighboring country that puts in place roadblocks (except at the Chanthaburi crossings, where a military permit is required to take your vehicle out and Thai customs is known to block Cambodian owners of Thai vehicles because they're afraid they won't be brought back in...absolutely silly and discriminatory). On the other hand, Cambodia until relatively recently, generally banned Thai vehicles from entering via Ban Laem just in general, regardless of who owns the vehicle.

Thai truckers get the short end of the stick when going to any neighboring country. Fuel trucks aside, Laos no longer permits Thai trucks to travel further than a short distance from the border crossing entered. Meanwhile, Vietnamese and Chinese trucks ply Lao roads in their thousands.

Cambodia also has restrictions on how far Thai trucks can travel from the border - but Vietnamese trucks have pretty much free reign.

Malaysia bans entry to Thai buses, vans and Thai trucks - except in rare cases of perishable items, but generally, Malaysian trucks enter Thailand to pick up these goods and then transport them to destinations within Malaysia or Singapore. Sometimes you see Thai registered trailers within Malaysia, but the trucks pulling them are always Malaysian registered without exception, despite Malaysia and Thailand driving on the same side of the road.

For Thai cars going to Laos via Vientiane - they're back to restricting them to 15 days (although this is extendable later), meanwhile, in the reverse direction, you can easily get 30 days if driving a Lao car into Thailand right at the border.

@Wannikea ********

It seems to be now, but again, I think the authorities didn't think things through when they wrote "Employment prohibited" on most visas, rather than "Employment in Thailand prohibited" or "workcation, remote work".

@Shandy *******

Yep, could be. However, regardless of this, a work permit must accompany a valid visa that is work authorized.

@Sefton *******

Clearly you haven't.