What are the chances of being denied entry at immigration with no DTV after multiple long stays in Thailand?

@Dave *********

I wrote Tourist Visa. This is not the DTV. I even got my non-immi 90 days retirement visa within 4 days.

@Joackim ******

0

@Josh ********

can you tell me about the agent too?? How much price do they charge?

@Shane **********

they are wrong. The rules have not changed

@John *********

isn't It more like a rolling calendar? It's not so much what you did last year, but what you have done in the time you started entering Thailand?

@Thomas ******

it's all about your history rather than a specific period of time

@John *********

provide the evidence instead of just a comment

@Ollie *****

There is no reset

@Ollie *****

Your record in the computer will be there tomorrow the same as it was there yesterday. Nothing resets. They are looking for trends, and they will use your entire history in evaluating those trends.

@Ollie *****

What seems to be happening is that some people are only being granted a 7 days extension if they have already received a 30 days extension on a previous visa exempt entry earlier in the year. This may reset in a new calendar year, but if so, it only affects extensions and not the right to enter Thailand on a visa exemption itself. It depends on your entries and your total time spent in Thailand within a rolling cycle, regardless of the calendar year.

@Jan *****************

where in the world do you get your information certainly not from any immigration officer? You should probably add to your comment that what you are saying is nothing official. It is only your opinion.

@Wayne *******

There are no new "visa rules" or a new law.

There is no “reset” on January 1st.

There is no limit of two visa-exemptions within a calendar year, and not within a one-year period as well.

What has changed, mandated from above, is the strict scrutinizing of your number of visa-exempt entries and the thorough check on "visa runners" (actually they meant to say "back-to-back border runners").The new approach taken by border officials is intended to ensure that the option to do a "visa run" is not abused.

Now as far as regarding extensions on visa-exempt entries, it does appear that the Immigration offices are indeed only issuing 7-day extensions if you already got one previous 30-day extension on any visa exempt entry

It is totally up to the discretion of the immigration officer you are in front of when you apply for the extension and they will tell you if you can get the 30-days extension, or if you only get the 7-days extension.

The thing is right now it's totally subjective and up to the officer you are standing in front of when you go to stamp into the country for them to decide if you're a "real tourist" or if they think you're milking the visa exempt entry program.

There's just no real concrete clear directive as far as what's what.

Some people with a 30-days extension already on a previous visa exempt entry reported getting another 30-days extension without any issue, however some have reported they only got a 7-days extension issued. So your experience might vary.

60 + 30 + 60 + 7 = a maximum of 157 days per year... and it seems this is regardless of whether you arrived by air or across a land border (some say that for a land border visa-exempt entry, you cannot get any extension at all)

Visa-exempt entries themselves are not limited, even though some believe that unlimited visa-free entries are possible by air. This is simply not true.

Visa-exempt entries are not limited to two entries per calendar year.

This is a misconception, and some agents and lawyers spread this information to make profit from panicked people.

Many agents and Immigration Volunteers are warning you should not believe those alleged news telling you that visa-exempt entries are limited to two per calendar year. It simply is not true.

In the past visa-exempt entries were limited to two across land borders, this old rule got discontinued on July 15th, 2024. On the paper, visa-exempt entries by air or across land and sea were “unlimited” after this date.

However this word “unlimited” did not describe the real stance of Immigration – THEY decide when your “personal limit” is up, not any text printed on the websites of Thai embassies.

Under certain circumstances, but always at the individual discretion of the border official, multiple visa-exempt entries are possible, like four, five or even more times, if you do not milk the system.

In this case, however, the entry history in your passport and on the immigration central computer must prove that your stays were short-term holidays (like only 2-4 weeks) and the total annual stay is not exceeding 157 days (some will say not exceed 180 days, some will say 150 days – it’s unclear)

And there should be several weeks (or months) abroad between each visa-exempt stay.

Your best proof of not misusing the system is when you can show that you returned to your home country between each visa-exempt stay, or stayed abroad for a long time. And when you show an onward travel proof

ATTENTION: an “onwardticket” can be scolded upon by Immigration and you can be accused of showing a faked ticket, denied entry and being forced to buy a ticket back to your origin.

The intended aim of the new approach was to prohibit "visa runs," where you only entered briefly a neighboring country and then immediately re-entered.

You must be able to prove the planned short stay at the immigration counter—for example, with proof of onward travel or a return journey, such as a flight ticket.

It seems that a border official would consider you being a "genuine" tourist based on such short holiday trips within a year.

In this case, they expect to see on their central computer that you never extended the 60-days visa-exempt stay permit – i.e. maximized – any of these short trips.

The 7-day extension is a REAL extension. It's not the same as the stamp "application for extension denied, you have 7 days to leave the Kingdom", even if to some people it looks like a “grace period”. I have already seen the stamp of a 7-days extension, it takes up half of a passport page. The original “you have 7 days to leave” stamp is smaller, takes something like a quarter up to one-third of the page

What has become clear, is that "per year" can be defined as "per one-year period.

Some people still say they meant “calendar year” but to me this doesn’t make any sense, and we have received several confirmations that nothing “resets in a new calendar year”. The count will be for a full one-year period, period.

Those who want to be on the safe side should obtain a single-entry tourist visa in advance for stays of up to 60 days, with the option to extend for 30 more days. You can do two stints on SETV within a 1-year period, no problem.

Someone entering on a 6-months multi-entry tourist visa (two extensions possible) and a half-year interval outside of Thailand between each METV, is good to go for a maximum of consecutive “touristic” 180 days stay per 1-year period

(theoretically you could get almost 9 months of stay out of the METV but let’s not make it too complicated, as we have received some recent reports that the “last” 2 months admitted stay out of a METV were refused at the border)

@Wayne *******

There is no calendar year reset.

And there are no new rules.

There is no specific limit on visa exempt entries.

There however is a limit of two extensions only on visa-exempt entries within a one-year period. And even the second extension is not guaranteed.

What you are referring to is new guidelines issued to immigration officers as to how to enforce existing rules.

Visa exemption is designed for short-term tourism so you may or may not be allowed to enter consecutively - particularly a second or third time.

Every entry is at the discretion of the Immigration officer you will stand in front of. Nobody in a Facebook group can foresee the decision of the border official.

If you want to spend 4, 5 or 6 months of holiday in Thailand get the appropriate multi entry 6-months Tourist Visa in your home country

If you want to enter on consecutive 90-days Non-Imm Visa-types, with a few months abroad in between, it is unclear if and at which point the Immigration officer will discontinue regarding these entries as the step towards a 1-year extension of the stay permit – something this visa-type is intended for.

Repeated 90-days Non-Imm-O visa entries will reveal that you are misusing them for 90-days holidays, and at some point you will get pulled aside and warned and can possibly denied entry

With other words – we still don’t know for sure, there is no clarity about it. Even between two Immigration officers of different borders or offices, interpretations can be different

@Wayne *******

I get my information from firsthand reports by people who have actually been processed at immigration offices, combined with what immigration has formally published. I have been very clear that there is no nationwide written rule changing the law here. What I’m describing is observed practice under the new formalised guidelines, not a new statute. Immigration decisions have always been discretionary and practice-driven, and pretending that only something stamped “official announcement” counts while ignoring repeated, consistent real-world outcomes is simply naive. You’re free to dismiss it as opinion, but people are being issued 7-day extensions in exactly these circumstances, regardless of whether that makes you uncomfortable or not. Moreover, I tend to trust people who clearly have a better grasp of this than you do.