Illegal, but since the weed decriminalisation, its not unusual to find establishments literally selling them openly over the counter.

@David ********

And now you're getting abusive because you don't like what I'm saying. Absolutely pathetic.

You're a grown adult. Time to start acting like it.

@Tylah ***************

Also, regarding what you said, nothing changes for you on 1st January. Nothing gets "reset".

The immigration officer looking at your passport, whether on 30th December or January 2nd, is considering how high your *total amount of time spent in Thailand* is over the past 12 months or so, and whether your behaviour resembles that of a genuine tourist.

The only thing that *used to be* "reset" on Jan 1st was your allowance of visa free land entries. However, that no longer applies and land entries now have the same stipulation as air entries; no limit *on paper*, but prepare to be quizzed, let in with a "last time" warning, or denied if Thai immigration think you've had too many.

@David ********

It sounds like you don't.

180 days is half the year. Doesn't matter if *you* think thats not a problem, or whether, in your view, that *shouldn't* be a problem.

In the eyes of immigration officers, someone staying in Thailand for extended periods on back-to-back tourist visas and exemptions, is not behaving like a tourist.

Just ask around on here. Plenty of people have found themselves in the office being questioned by imm officers with far under 180 days of total time spent on tourist stays that year.

@David ********

Well, no, its not.

The question the imm officer is asking themself when they look at your passport is, "Is this person using the tourist visa exempt system for purposes other than tourism?", as in, is this person basically just living (and perhaps working) here?

As they see it, someone who lives here for more than half the year, staying in the same place in all that time, is not a tourist.

@Jason *****

No one here is "bitter". We're just stating the situation in Thailand as it is, and suggesting better alternatives than relying on tourist visa exemptions to spend of the year here, with all the risks of interrogation or denial at the border that entails.

As someone else said, a Multi-Entry Tourist Visa can, with well-timed border bounces, be stretched out into a total 9 month stay.

Theres also the Non-O Retirement Visa Nongnuch talked about, which you can easily get. Which once extended, would allow you to come and go as many times as you want in that year. Just need to have 800,000 Baht in the bank. Even if you dont have that much, there are ways around that requirement with agents.

@David ********

Thats your tax residency status.

Thats a completely separate issue from whether the individual immigration officers *discretionary* view is that you've been spending too long in Thailand and that your behaviour does not look like that of a tourist.

Tax law is not the same as immigration law.

@Jason *****

However you think it "should" be, "has to" be, or "must be", unfortunately that isn't the way things *are* here, and that likely won't change.

Governments and policies might change, but the fundamental operations of the immigration bureau, basically, won't. By all means start a campaign or petition to try to change it. However, the authorities likely won't listen to farang.

@David ********

If you're spending most of the year every year in Thailand, then to the eyes of an imm officer, your passport stamps do not resemble those of a tourist.

Its generally the total amount of the year you've been in TH that makes the difference.

The only thing that used to be "reset" by the new year was the land-entry-without-visa allowance. Taking a break from TH before the end of a calendar year doesn't fool anyone. They can still see you've been here for most of the year on exemptions, and may well have questions on what you're doing here.

@Jason *****

Visa-free entries are indeed unlimited.

However, the law also says that they are for the purposes of tourism, and that each entry is at the discretion of the immigration officer you're in front of.

If the immigration officer suspects that you are not using the exemptions for tourism purposes (for example, you'll *generally* have a hard time convincing them that you are not actually just living here, if you've been here for a year), they will likely question you or give you the "last time" warning.

When exactly this cutoff point varies. Depends on the imm officer you're in front of.

Some people get away with living here for over a year on nothing but exemptions, others get questioned on entry 3 or even entry 2. But eventually, your number *will* come up.