And for everyone reading about why there no care in general. Well, Thailand is a country where bribery, etc, is illegal, but rarely enforced. As long as the people who matter get their cuts, it's fine. They could shut down 100% of agents within a day if they wanted. But it profit too many people with deep pockets. The airport that are stricter are the ones where agents and officers work hand in hand. Smaller airport like Hat Yai are less strict with repeat visa runners because they have nothing to gain.

@Reed *********

Because 3 billionaire family run the visa market in Thailand. Agents answer to them, not the government. Except in Chonburi, they are independent over there. A few years ago, volunteer visa had a crackdown due to Khon Kaen officers ignoring the chain of command and taking larger cuts. So they had to restructure the whole market to make it less likely for officers to neglect to pass down the money.

@Dave *********

Nope. It's always been like this. You are acting like in new development. It's just stricter because visa exempt when from 30 days to 60 days.

@Andy ***********

It's been going on for decades. An agent will secure safe passage at airport and border. What we call VIP, or Fast track services. This is needed for repeat visa runners. The agent and the immigration officer both take a cut. There are thousand if not tens of thousands of foreigners using such services every year.

They want people to use agent, if not, she don't get a cut.

They are extremely strict indeed. You got accepted because it was your first bounce, the next bounce won't work. Btw, there no such thing as getting flag upon leaving Thailand, the flag is if you get denied coming back.

What Brandon is trying to say is that given that you lost points, but not much else, it's not worth fighting. If they had stolen 100k baht it's another story. The Thai way of dealing with such things suck.

They want people to use agent or be on long term visa. it's more lucrative for them. You can get in anytime you want for 4k baht with gent.

The 5 years DTV is 100-125k baht with agent (if you don't have the proof of 500k for months in your account). It's the current on-going cost with most agent using their contact in Vietnam. 30k would be a scam, yes.

@Garrett **********

Such practice is omnipresent in America too. For example, the whole pet industry (Hills and Royal Canin), in America, make a fortune with deceiving marketing on their bag and can.