In mid-march I left Thailand for the first time on DTV after staying for 3 months. Immigration officer asked me if I was leaving for "a short time or long time." Seems like a pretty harmless question, but kinda odd, so as I over analyze it, anybody have any thought on the purpose of the question? I told them I was leaving for a couple months. I received a regular exit stamp.

Nong Khai border cross today and no questions asked very smooth for DTV workcation first entry

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😂

🌼First Entry on DTV as 🇵🇰 Pakistani approved from Islamabad Embassy: 🌼

Entered from Bangkok Airport with flight in and out, hotel booking of 3 days and flight out was to Bali (not Pakistan). Bali I hold a valid 1 yr visa for.

I wasn’t asked much except how long will I be staying and what’s my purpose. (i had all docs prepped just in case).

People next to me on visa exemption got asked more Qs tbh.

Visa Officer was happy and stamped me in for 6 months 😊

There was no line at BKK airport, I was the only one in my queue.

PS: Thai Airways official in Bali (where I was leaving from) asked me the most questions, printed out my DTV on their colored printer and gave it to me at the boarding gate with something written in small letters (might be an airline sign off or sth) but anyway Thai airways knew fully well about DTV and what’s required and were thorough in their questioning.

Overall 10/10 Experience and made me happy to be entering the Kingdom on a positive note 😊

Hi thought I’d share our experience after reading a few post about immigration at Don Mueang asking questions on re entry to Thailand after bouncing out , we arrived in Thailand in September on the 60 day waiver and extended it by 30 days , we then flew to da nang for 5 nights this week and arrived back yesterday and at the counter the officer asked why we were here to which we replied holiday , she then called a supervisor who took us to another desk round the side as asked us to take a seat and asked how long we were here for , we told her for 60 days and we would ask for extension again for 30 and we fly back to the uk in march , so we were just open and honest with our plans and showed her our flight booking , she went away done some computer work and went through our passports then called us over and stamped us in which the usual 60 days and no further questions asked , now we came over and did similar last November on a 60 day tourist visa then extended then went to Cambodia for 5 nights came back stamped in for 30 and then 30 extension and flew home in April then as above we came back in September so think they are concerned with the amount of times we come in and out , we also feel the outward flight booking made a big difference as they are not daft and obviously counted the 60 and 30 and saw the flight out matched that, I would also add that they were extremely friendly and professional with no sign of any resentment in fact we even had a laugh when one lady officer came over and flopped into a chair and closed her eyes , you need to sleep I said , yes it’s too busy she laughed 😂

Hello,

Are there any Mexican nationals who have traveled to Thailand recently who can share their experience with getting a visa upon arrival? Is it required…I’m seeing different things online.

We have booked multiple internal flights with both Air Asia and Thai Air. Our personal experience with Thai air was way better than Asia Air. Asia Air weighs every bag and if its even a little over, they checked it and charged for it to be checked. I guess a bit our fault but Thai Air did not do that. The flight was 1 hr late with no update or notification to passengers and these are the smallests seats we have ever been on. My husbands knees are pushed into the seat in front of him. We will stay with Thai Air in the future.

How come when you tell friends you're moving to Thailand they ask if you're nervous and if I told them I'm moving to a European country they'd be fine?

Well I did it,.! Nong khai border Vientiane , got there 10.30am and went to enter border post in car and security man on entrance directed us to a young Thai girl ( fixer ) just outside gate, “Don’t ask me why but gate man said we couldn’t go over in car, so in my mind one less problem to sort out,”my Thai g/f spoke to her as her English was poor, so we followed her on her m/bike to a small parking lot and parked car, she took me and g/fs passports and a passport photo I gave her and filled in a couple of forms, 10 mins later tuk tuk taxi bike arived and took us to border post, she filled in some more forms and directed us to immigration window, stamped out of thailand and then escorts us to big bus to ferry us over friendship bridge to Laos side, she comes over with us and tells us window to go to for Laos immigration, 1st windows for Laos visa, that’s what passport photo was for, 1300 bht for visa for 30 or 45 days, ( not sure how long ) as dates were difficult to read, any way go to main Laos immigration window and gets stamped into Laos,. She offers us a mini bus taxi tour of Vientiane ( which my Thai g/f accepted) I wasn’t keen on it but went with the flow, after my suspicions were realised ( taxi man took us to half a dozen shops ) but g/f only exchanged 1000 bht into Laos Kip so she couldn’t break the bank, after a few various tourist type shops we went to a couple of massive temples and stopped for food and drink on way back to border, so for 1200 bht we had escorted service through immigration both ways ,. went through Laos immigration and back on big bus over friendship bridge and back into thailand, there got stamped back into thailand for 30 days, no questions asked, back onto tuk tuk taxi back to car and all sorted,. So 1300 bht for Laos visa and 1200 bht for escort/fixer/2 hour taxi tour around Vientiane/ plus 30 bht for tuk tuk taxi,. Our lives were made easy with this service, yes I could have managed it myself, but it wouldn’t have been easy, plus the fact there seemed to be “ fixers” everywhere, Nong khai seems like a good border to me,. No big Qs and fast moving short lines, good logistics to with the bridge buses and local Thai and Laos taxis around the border posts both sides,. I must admit my 1st impressions of Laos were not good, give me thailand any day of the week,. anyway mission accomplished thailand 30 day stamp in passport,.

Thought I’d update my personal experience returning to Thailand today after a lengthy stay and covid stamps. (I said I would in some previous experience of others). I came January 9th 2022 visa exempt, one 30 day extension and 4 covid extension. Visited Bali for 16 days and was understandably flagged by DMK on return, but was allowed in after a small grilling and proof of outward flight. Stayed 43 more days then went back to the uk for 3 weeks. Just come through BKK and was again expectedly questioned, but not taken aside like before. After explaining why I’m back yet again (and it being my last return for many years after this), a proof of outward flight and hotel (which was actually the $10 onward flight ticket) and many shaky hands as I’m not good with these things, she stamped me in with a smile. Mostly I think she must have thought I was just batshit and felt bad for me for even attempting to come all that way again so soon 🤣 I know I’m extremely lucky and it’s often not the case, but just so people are aware it is possible, even at Bangkok airport! hoping that one day I can return again with some kind of real long term visa 🙏