Do denials of entry (because of too many tourist visas or visa exempt entries) seem to happen more often at airports than at land borders?

I am wondering if it's better to fly to a nearby country like Malaysia and enter Thailand overland instead of flying directly into Thailand.

Even though I haven't been in Thailand for 1.5 years now, I have entered visa exempt quite a few times in the years before that and am worried about being forced to fly back home, since I read about so many people being denied entry recently (especially at airports?).

Land of smiles? Not at BKK Suvarnabhumi airport.

History;

2023- 1 x visit of 28 days and 1 visit on VISA for 56 days.

2024- 2 visits of 29 days

2025- decide to travel around Asia for 6 months. Arrive BKK 28/1. 2 months visa exempt and 1 month extension. Visited many cities and places. Then flew to Cambodia and Vietnam for 2 months as never been before.

25/6 - fly back to BKK. TDAC all completed, flight to Europe on 22 July, so less than 1 month.

Immigration woman told me I will not be allowed entry. I asked why not, she said you've just done a border bounce and you're not a tourist! ( border bounce for 2 months lol)

No. No entry. So she called a supervisor, who saw my visas etc for cambodia and Vietnam. Showed him a list of cities and places i had visited, and my return flight to Europe. He asked why i had extended before and i told him honestly, i was going to visit the south chumphon and Hat Yai. He agreed that I was a tourist, and told the woman immigration officer to let me in. He then left.

Her face was like thunder, you could see the anger in her face.

As she returned my passport she said, you're not allowed in Thailand again without a visa!

I know it's IO decision, but with my history and never a border bounce, I find her attitude and decision harsh? Any views welcomed , especially as the amount of people who abuse the V.E and border bounce regularly. Maybe it's these abusers, ruining it for genuine travellers

A friend of mine was turned back at BKK. He had gone in and out too many times. He is back in Canada now. Other than going through the Embassy, paying his fees and getting rejected, how can he tell if he would be able to apply for a VISA now?

Hey all,

I have read through several posts, both from users and mods about not exiting, even with re-entry permit on an non immigrant ED visa (for studying Thai language or those types of courses) due to several people being denied entry via DMK/Suvarnabhumi or any entry through air.

Most of these posts were from the Covid days or 2023 and older ([members only]/)

Are there any recent reports (last few months/weeks) of anyone who has non immigrant ED visa -extended several times, has re-entry permit stamped, and getting back into Thailand through land border successfully?

I simply want to see if there are any new updates regarding this.

Thank you in advance 🙏🏽

Dumb question here.

Have anyone experienced or heard of the immigration not letting you into Thailand even after getting the DTV visa?

I got my DTV (Soft Power - Muay Thai) approved today via embassy in Jakarta after beeing deported from Thailand 2 weeks ago😁😛😎

My story is for all the supporters, believers, phat kaphrao heads and everyone else that is in between!

Let me tell my story how it really was…

21th of March:

I entered Suvarnabhumi aiport after beeing away from Thailand for 1 month. I was on the ED Visa prior for 9 months and that’s why I had to leave.

I wanted to enter the kingdom on a regular tourist visa this time but they denied my entry and deported me back to Cambodia where I came from. (I spend 1 month there)

The reason they deported me was "wrong visa". Unfortunately the immigration officers weren’t very "talkative" so they let me wait 4 hours until they told me I’m getting deported. They put me and the other boys into detention room, made us pay for the room & forced us to buy a flight ticket back to the same airport via the same airline we came with.

My flight was the next day 8am so I only spend a few hours there.

22th of March:

Arriving in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in the morning. After back and forward with the immigration officers there and answering the question "Why Thailand deported me?" several times they gave me back my passport and gave me the regular tourist visa for 30 days.

23th - 25th of March:

Staying in Phnom Penh and figuring out a plan how to enter the kingdom again.

26th of March:

Flying to Bali from Phnom Penh, layover was in Kuala Lumpur. The flight was fairly cheap.

27th of March:

Applying for the DTV E-Visa. I had all my documents and muay thai gym papers already ready.

My original plan was to do it in Cambodia when I was there for a month but because I heard they ask for a personal letter from

the administrator of sport or something like that I got scared to apply there😂

I didn’t want to throw the visa fees out of the window due to that.

Documents I applied with for Jakarta:

- Muay Thai Docs, Invitation letter, etc.

(I used Muay Thai Fever in Chiang Mai)

- Bank Statement 6 months

(Last 2 months were over 500’000 Thai Bath.. first few months the balance was sometimes minus😅)

- Passport Picture made in Cambodia

- First Page of Passport (Bio data)

- Hotel Booking in Bali (1 night)

- Plain Ticket to Bali

- Electronic Visa on Arrival (Sent to E-mail)

29th - 30th of March:

Staying inside the hotel for 24 hours because nobody on the island is allowed to leave the house. The whole island shuts down for 24 hours. It felt a bit like covid again😂

I used this time to think about my life, think about thailand and all my (potential) girlfriends waiting there for me.

1th of April:

So here comes the part where I messed up but I didn’t realize until that day.

This could be really interesting for the group‼️

I have an US Passport but when I filled out the form I put "Switzerland" in the field "Place of Issue" instead of "United States Department of State". The reason is simple because I’m a dual citizen and got my passport in Switzerland. I realized it when I was scrolling through the group that this is a mistake and that many people got rejected cause of it after all those days of not hearing anything.

I wrote them an e-mail right away when I realized it (it was before they reached out to me) and told them I messed up and that I’m aware of it. I apologized and translated the message also into thai. Don’t know if it made a difference but in my case maybe I just was lucky that they still approved me.

3th of April:

Finally they reached out to me and asked me for further documents. They asked for a bank statement where my name was clearly visible. So I provided the already sent bank statement and highlighted my name with color.. made it all neat and stuff. This time I only send them 2 months.

4th of April:

Status changed to Pending Approval

5th of April:

Got approved at 10:30am Bali Time.

Joined the DTV CLUB and super happy now!

Story to be continued…

Thanks for reading this far & big thanks to this group! I will still keep on reading comments in here because it’s so entertaining😂

After coming in and out of Thailand for over a year I via tourist visa, just got stopped and pulled at dmk immigration and questioned that it's illegal to use a "free visa" for longer term (I corrected them and said exempted). Now they won't let me in again with this visa type anymore. It seemed they just started doing questioning more and more people. I will need to get a different visa type going forward in order to continue my stable relationship with my Thai gf. The pressure and intensity of authority they are going with is really. It felt to me like they are trying to find things to pressure people to do dtv or Similiar.

Just a reminder—if you frequently visit Thailand and stay for several months, like some of my wealthy friends, you might want to secure a tourist visa or DTV as soon as possible. That said, even that isn’t always a guarantee, so it’s wise to keep extra cash on hand for immigration officials. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a holding cell or on a flight back to wherever you came from. A French guy I came on my flight with was denied entry, put in the dirty detention room and had to pay $1500 for return flight @ Phuket. 

Was anyone denied entry on DTV after extensive border run history (more than 5 in a row) ?

Hello,

Could anybody tell me how long can you stay in Thailand per year using a visa on arrival just coming and going every 60 days?

I heard it’s 6 months per calendar year and was hoping someone knows the answer.

Thanks