What happens if you get questioned by immigration regarding return tickets in Thailand?

Sometimes from business class, other times I've managed to get one off of airline crew who remember me. My trips to the UK are usually about 6 or 7 weeks long, but the immigration have a loooong look though my passport, and my heart skips a beat everytime.

I think that's a good idea

@Aa***

, do you buy a coupon for that separately or is it from flying business class?

Yer that's true, never know for sure. I usually use the priority immigration que at the airpirt also, I think they are less likely to hassle there.

I think there is a large element of chance with this

@Aa***

I don't think you can say anyone is safe with the history you describe. You just haven't been stopped yet. Most people aren't, we only hear about the ones that are.

@Ivan ***********

an Extensive history of using Tourist Visa and Visa Exempt Entry for living inside Thailand. No problems with history of other visa's like, Non Immigrant B or O.

Less chance of problems with a visa but you can still have issues at the airports in particular if you have an extensive history.

Not necessarily.

Right

@J**

but at the point where you are standing at the immigration desk with the officer in front of you thinking about denying you entry they may not let you do that. I know they may, and there are reports of people who have done just that, but it may not be an option.

@J**

he says they had already rejected a ticket he had to Vietnam, so I doubt they would take one to Laos.

@Marcel ********

She was accommodating enough to let you buy a ticket after you said you did not have one when she could have rejected you...

@Brett ********

so if home country is Australia, but arrived to Bangkok from Vietnam. Vietnam would be an option?

Reason I'm asking is I've had 4 non visa entries over the past 3 months, leave here in 2 weeks, have 2 weeks in Vietnam, then back to Bangkok.

I'm expecting a tap on the shoulder, and if o do get it, is rather fly back to Vietnam for more holiday.

@Rob **********

yes. They can if they want to. The point is being denied entry is a return to where you boarded or your home country.

There are also plenty of reports of people refused entry being sent back to the country their flight came from. Plenty of reports of people being sent back to Malaysia. There are also reports of people being sent to their home passport country, but I do not think this is 100% or even the most common occurrence.

@Liam ****

Danny Williams is not stating any real law or policy b

Robert Lagas That may well be the case - i'm not saying it hasn't happened. If she flew US-KL-Thailand, and KL was a transit stop, then they are just sending her back to her point of entry (the transit stop doesn't count in that equation). If, however, a US passport holder had boarded the plane in KL (i.e. that's the last place she had been stamped into) then the proper procedure, upon being denied, would be to send her back to KL. This is partly because it's the airline's responsibility to meet the cost in that instance (at least initially).

Anyway, i'm not trying to get bogged down in debate here. It's a pretty technical discussion. The OP was clearly on thin ice, visa-wise. I'm just saying that though whether you are allowed in is at the officer's discretion, your plans, outside Thailand, are not. Whether anyone wishes to sit in a detention cell at DMK and push that issue, and whether it is wise to, is another matter.

@Robert ***********

Oh I don't (and never have denied) that. I also said further up this thread that you should also have the three proofs

@Liam ****

Long staying expats should get proper visas, simple really....

Liam Fee, there is a report on this page, beginning this year as I remember. Girl from USA, has a stop over, than went on to KL. Had a new METV, arrived in Krabi International Airport. Denied entry on suspision of working, she tried negotiate a ticket back to KL, answer was NO. She got her passport back from the Captain in the USA.

@Robert ***********

Do enlighten us as to something I have said that is not correct here

There's a programme on TV where you can see it all happen called Border control. They take you behind the scenes in the interviews etc.

It varies between the UK, Australia, the US and Canada. Never once when they refuse entry do they allow you to fly anywhere other than your country of passport. It doesn't matter which country you flew from.

There's no choice. Your going back to your own country. No arguing, no negotiating.

@Liam ****

Sadly not always 100%, as in this case :-P

Immigration every where in the world have rules and regulations, follow them and you can tell after a visit in Thailand about the tempels, rain forest etc, if you ignore the rules it is your choice to do, don't blaim Immigration for doing their job.

@Robert ***********

The users of 'crowdsourced' information need to be able to filter out signal from noise, that's true. I think the info I provide on these pages is pretty much 100% spot on though ;)

@Robert ******

excellent,,, thats a holiday experience money just cant buy... The grandchildren will love that story in 20 years.....

In general Liam ;-)

@Rob **********

It is not your decision. So you can ask again about snowboarding or wind surfing or what ever other kind of nice thing you like to do, the decision of onward travel is made by Immigration while you sit in a cel.

@Robert ***********

Yeah, but in what was I have I provided bad information?

@Liam ****

Bad information is worse than no information....

@Robert ******

So if I'm denied entry to Thailand, and they order me back to Australia, but I decide the scuba diving in Greece is good this time of year so buy a ticket to Greece, they'll lock me up & deport me to Australia?

@Rob **********

You get locked up if your entry gets denied, and Immigration will contact the airline company to sort out a ticket with you and your passport goes to the captain till returned back in your country.

@Jason **********

All good... But they can or cant actually order you where to go next?

@Robert ******

They have a right to deny you entry at their discretion, that is true, but they don't have the right to determine when you return to your home country (not there and then, on the spot, anyway). They can either turn you away (and you fly back to wherever you boarded the plane) or they can detain you and begin the process of deporting you.

Anyway, technicalities. The advice to users I guess stays the same, have the three proofs whenever entering Thailand.

@Rob **********

: They probably won’t allow you to enter Thailand , they won’t stamp you in.

@Robert ******

they have the right to tell you to go home? So your from Australia, you have not outbound ticket, they order you to fly to Australia, so you get online & buy a ticket to Greece....... What then,,, they lock you up?

No, you stay at the Immigration cells in the airport.

@Robert ******

: Will they send you to IDC if you refuse to comply ?

As strange as it may sound: Immigration Officers do have the right to deny entry and order you to fly back to your home country.

Somebody has to have the balls to argue on the side of right. How far up does this stupidity go? 1 line up, or 3? Buying a flight out of Thailand to Indonesia is chicken feed compared to a flight to the UK, so why must a home country flight be purchased? What if your travelling the world with no particular plan? I havent worked for the past 4 months by choice, been to Bali, bangkok, next Vietnam, then back to Bangkok fora friends birthday... FKD if immigration are telling me where to go next.

Hmmm, the group is about giving advice - what's wrong with the posts here? No one is 'trying to run Thai immigration policy' - we're just trying to inform people on what the rules are...

I'm waiting on the 'No limit on what you can and can't do' posts!

Members can answer some questions here and suddenly become immigration experts!

Yup. See how far arguing with the border people goes. Lol.

What gets me is when i visit aus.. where i am from they pounce on the normal looking aussie, being to scared of being racist or whenever... and when i return to th with my partner we go through an empty gate bypassing 100,s

This gets complicated pretty quickly. Your entry to Thailand is at the immigration officer's discretion, so you can be denied, in effect, because they don't want to let you in (in practice, however, they would have to suspect you're up to no good). I suspect the most common reasons to be denied are a combination of lots of stamps and not having the three proofs. If you are denied, (and you don't want to sit in a detention cell) you should be sent back to the country you boarded. However, in some cases, this isn't possible (i.e. if the country you boarded requires a visa and you don't have/cannot reasonably attain one). In this case, they have to send you home. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they just tell you to buy a ticket to go home - most people wouldn't want to sit in a detention cell and argue this; it's probably pretty intimidating.

Part of the reason that they do this, I suspect, is because if you are denied entry to Thailand (or anywhere else) is that it's the airline's responsibility to fly you back to where you boarded (or, failing that, and if different, where you're from). The airline will obviously try to bill you for this, but if they can't, and/or if the airlines have to fly loads denied entry people home, the airlines would start getting pretty rancourous. Also remember, in Thailand, airlines are either state-run (Thai, Nok) or are powerful, well connected conglomerates.

@Erik *********

yeah fair enough

They do whatever they want and more

@Rolf *******

dream on? I was only asking a question about the legality. Not saying I need to do that.

@Danny *********

legally?? Lol

@Roger ********

So you try to enter Thailand, they take you into an interrogation room, they have your passport. Discussing if you can enter or not and you can just say: Okay, I don't want to enter, buy a ticket and go where ever you like? You hopefully know that the name is actually: Royal Thai Immigration Police. You can not just walk out a room where you are hold if you do not like it.

Their Immigration and have every right to refuse you entry. To be honest if I was one and saw a foreigner entering with multiple back to back exempt and extended stamps I would ask questions also.

They are not telling you to go home. You can choose to not enter Thailand and go somewhere else. They can say "if you want to enter Thailand, you must meet these conditions", which might include a ticket home.

@Danny *********

Dream on

You can argue with them all you want, they have the last say. They can refuse to stamp you in and use some other legal grounds for refusal.

@Danny *********

I think they hold the joker on this one my friend.