I bought an onward ticket once before, it just looked like something someone had made on a word document, sure enough it had a booking reference, which I entered into the airlines website, and only information it had on the booking was my name nothing else, It obviously wasn't a genuine booking, my point is if someone decided at some point to check it out, it was obviously "fake" and it would get rejected, I personally don't see the point when you can buy a genuine ticket to a neighbouring country, for near enough the same price 🤷
I was told my METV would be rejected with a bus or train ticket, needs to be a flight, they also said I need a ticket for returning to Thailand, to show the need for an METV, maybe some embassies are more flexible, I think the airlines issue is, if you get denied entry into Thailand, it's their responsibility to return you to where you came from, the Thais like you to have a ticket for leaving Thailand within the number of days your stamped in for, due to overstay worries.
Just book a cheap £20 flight on Skyscanner to a neighbouring country, why mess about with "fake" tickets?? they are not far off the same price, if one day someone checks the ticket, it will get rejected. 🤷🙆🤦
as far as I'm aware, bus and train tickets only take you to the border, some airlines or visa applications require flights, because flights actually take you out of the country.
I would say the usual cost is around ฿4000, that is the total cost for the immigration and agent fee, it depends where you are applying for the extension, in the tourist areas it can be a long drawn out process for a reason.
it is not difficult in any immigration office, it is the time it takes to do it, some immigration offices in tourist areas, make it difficult for a reason.
Does it also include land borders?? Someone commented on another post, he only got stamped in for 30 days today (15th of July) he didn't say what time of day it was, maybe it was before the 4pm start 🤔
Speak to the Thai tourist police first, you might need the assistance of a lawyer/solicitor to help recover the money, see what there advice is, if you would have paid with a debit or credit card, you could have spoken to them and got a charge back, for a payment of services not received, as far as I'm aware any legitimate business would only ever ask for a deposit anyway, not the full amount.
the METV has a 6 months validation period, if you want to get 8 or 9 months out of it, you need to do a border bounce just before the expiry date, along with a 30 day extension at your local immigration office.