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

Incorrect. People are not avoiding a proper visa, they are ensuring to not get denied due to their extensive history.

It doesn't matter if you are on visa exempt or tourist visa, people get denied entry as much on tourist visa as visa exempt. It's at the officer discretion if he consider that 3 months or 9 months in Thailand is too long to be considered a tourist anymore.

@Janin *****

Scammers would be a better word. If the service is delivered, then there nothing to complain about. The black market for Lotto tickets is huge in Thailand. But if you win, you get paid. It would be a scam if you win and don't get paid. The nuance is important, but most are failing to understand that.

And it's not illegal per se to use an agent for VIP-Fast track. Basically, it's at the officer discretion. But by using an agent, the discretion will always be to let you in due to bribery :). Nobody but the officers knows who in the VIP-Fast track did vs didn't use an agent.

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.