@Todd ********

Well, yeah, legally there is no limit on paper. But in actuality, imm officers *do* deny people entry based on "you stay too long, get correct visas". You're right that you can be denied if the IOs deem your use of the system to be sketchy. One of the criteria tbey use for making that judgement is the total number of days in TH on visa-exemptions.

They will literally tell people this using those exact words, even though, on the reason for rejection documents, they'll record something like "insufficient funds", even if they *were* shown 20K Baht in cash. Or "no visa", even though many nationalities can enter visa-exempt.

@Todd ********

As in, specifically told that they had stayed too long on tourist entries.

When I say deemed to have stayed too long, I mean stayed too many months on tourist stays. If you are denied at the airport, they may give you the option of going back to wherever you came from or to another neighbouring country.

However, they *can* also direct you to go back to your passport country - and they can put you in the holding cell until you do. All depends on how lucky/unlucky you get, but *generally*, if it does get to that stage, they will likely have given you at least one previous warning and made a record of it ("This time OK, next time get visa").

However, some people don't take the warning/s seriously and end up regretting it.

Guess Brandon Thurkettle, John Stanners, Tod Daniels, all crazies, then. Got it.

No ones saying you *will* get denied, deported, and banned. Just that these days, the odds of getting denied entry etc increase the longer you chance it with back to back stays.

There are detention facilities for people deemed to have stayed too long and been ordered to book a flight back to the country of their passports origin. I have personally witnessed people getting denied for this reason.

Do you mean he was denied entry on a 60 day tourist visa?

If he had already made multiple entries this year, as in, had lots of visa-exempt stamps, that is indeed the risk you take. You cannot live here on temporary short term tourism stays, eventually you will run out of luck.

Generally, if over 50 years old and with 800,000 Baht in a Thai bank, a retirement visa would be the best option.

If not, then getting a DTV on soft power grounds (as in, sign up for a Thai cooking course).

There is such work here.

Of all the fitness classes I've attended in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Koh Phangan, over half of them have been coached by a foreigner.

@Bob *********

It is if you get caught.

Which can happen even if you aren't doing anything wrong; if cops get on a bus and start checking passports, or imm officers patrol airports and do spot checks one day.

Both have happened to me. I was not on overstay. If you're apprehended, you can get deported & blacklisted even with just a few days overstay.

Its just not worth the risk. Not if it can be avoided.

I've used OnwardTicket twice over the years (most recently 2023).

Both times, it was enough for both the embassy & immigration at passport control.

@Nick ***********

A cat cafe is a cafe which has lots of cats, which are enclosed in the cafe & cannot leave. It typically sells snacks you can feed them while you drink your coffee.

I never go to such places, even though I love cats. The cats are often over-pampered, over-bred, and don't want to be there, only interested in visitors if they've got snacks.

Instead of cat cafes, I prefer a cafe which has a resident cat or two, who can come and go as they please, who enjoys being around humans & just likes the attention/scritchies.

It is indeed not good, but neither is getting angry & confrontational.

I'd hope the cat cafe had an automatic closing mechanism installed on the door in question.

You cannot rely on every single one of the masses of people coming in and out of a cafe throughout a working day to always remember to pull the door shut behind them.

Its an extremely vulnerable system indeed if all it takes to cause a major problem is for one person out of the hundreds if not thousands of visitors to be in a hurry/absent-minded/texting while walking/having a bad day, and thus not pull the door completely shut.

You stated that Evisa being "not so easy to use" was the cause of this situation.

All Brandon did was point out that the system warns you repeatedly that the EVisa cannot be used at all entry points. The overwhelming majority of people buying EVisas have no problem understanding this, and planning appropriately.

He, on the other hand, clearly did. It is, as we say in the world of gaming, a "Skill Issue".