i know you can be unlucky with police because i have experienced that outside of thailand.

but everytime i have gone through a checkpoint in thailand (in a taxi) they have waved me through.

one time i was walking soi 23 and two cops on a motorbike came zooming up to me from behind wanting id and i shrugged my shoulders saying my passport was in my hotel. they checked my pockets and that was enough for them.

maybe don't tell them you stay at a condo. tell them you stay at a hotel and only here for 5 days.

If you don't have your passport, what are they going to do? I got pulled over by traffic police today but I just showed them my license and drove off. I can't imagine they'd ever detain you if you have some form of ID but not passport...

Getting caught would be difficult, but you'd be severely limited in what you can without a passport. Generally renting condos, signing up for internet/phone packages, even getting a bank statement will require you to show your passport, and if they notice you don't have a valid visa maybe they will report you or something. Not worth ****ing with imo.

Same as renting an apartment or a room on airbnb or in a hotel, according to the law all owners have to report foreigners to immigration, even if you rent just for one night. So if you are overstaying your visa, you can forget about going somewhere on holiday.

I highly doubt any airbnb owners are reporting anyone given it's illegal for short term stays.

It's unlikely you get caught but if you are caught the consequences are more than just a mild annoyance.

Everyone's risk tolerance is different

Up to you ;-)

What?! Do you need some sort of rental permit to rent short term your own apartment? It makes no sense..

And probably a work permit too...

The 'thai hotel law' says rentals have to be 30 days min. Otherwise you're operating an unlicensed hotel. But it's rarely enforced and airbnb invested in thailand so it'll prob never be banned.

Condos don't bother reporting you to immigration, and with hotels you're probably checked out by the time they do. I used hotels and condos over 4 years of overstay, back in the day when they didn't ban you for it, and got stopped by police few times but they don't ask for passport. Or if so you can bribe. The main risk imo is afterhours discos that get raided for drug tests by the army, they check passports and don't take bribes

Guys I'm wondering what the quickest and cheapest way to do a visa run is. I'm currently in Pattaya and have a multientry visa for 6 months. Some questions,
* Do I go to immigration and get the 60 days extended to 90 days? At what point can I do this?
* Where do I go in terms of leaving country and then coming back. I'm not interested in sight seeing, I just wanna get back into Thailand as quickly and cheaply as possible after each 60 day period, what are my options?

Not an expert in visas but i think every kind of visa need yo be reported,ED and normal tourist visa work that way 60+30 and you extend in inmigration

I belive if you need a country/border to activate visa one of the best options is Kuala lumpur no fee to enter in malasya for most citizens and direct flight at least from BKK and you could return in the same day

And what's the actual process look like? I just arrive in KL airport and jump on next flight back to BKK? Do customs officers question this at all?

1. you can extend the 60 to 90 days any time u want in immigration office and no one will ask u anything
2. the longer u stay out the better, there are no set rules but i wouldnt fly in the same day, sleep over somewhere at least

If you're involved in a serious traffic accident, they most likely need your passport. Also, if ever the victim of a crime, or accused of one.

All the scenarios mentioned are pretty unlikely though.

Some years ago, there were reports of visa-run mini-vans being pulled over 200m, from the border, solely for the purpose of shaking down overstayers, that would be a pretty lame spot to be in.

Edit: Biggest risk of being caught is some scorned girl reporting you.....

I got stopped earlier this year when i was passed out in the backseat of a grabtaxi at like 2-3am heading home. I was heading home from my hotel from Suk after a night of drinking way to much. Not sure where i was stopped maybe closer to rama 2 not in the tourist area at all. The cops had me get on the trunk and searched the hell out of me. They checked every corner of my wallet and pockets looking for drugs or something, took out every baht from my wallet and straightened them out, and also checked through my entire passport looking at everything. He was looking at dates and everything in my passport so yeah for sure if these guys came across u you're done.

This was the only time ive been stopped. Not sure what would of happened if i didnt have a passport. I'm guessing these guys would of for sure took me in. This was one of the random roadblocks they set up that ive drove through many times. Luckily because i was coming from a hotel i had carried it with me. They gave me all my money back and in general besides the extensive searching the cops were friendly.

I've been stopped with my GF before at a checkpoint due to her outdated sticker and the cops acted like i wasnt even alive. Not a word. I think if you didnt go out and party at night and just got inside at a decent hour you could live for an easy decade on overstay barring you were a dude who didnt ever want to visit home and were fine never coming back when u left.

Posted about a settlement I'm involved in about a month ago. Couple questions related to that.

First how to spend the money. Any recommendations for Thai golf courses/places to stay for 6 months or so leading up to qualifying for the U.S. Open? Guessing a private driver would be needed to get back/forth from wherever I'm renting? Someone here had a reliable guy that was always on call I think.

Second concern would be an advance on this settlement. In Vegas currently so if there's anyone local someone can recommend it'd be appreciated.

are you role playing as a rich golf pro now sir?

Ideally I'd wanna come back same day. If there's no set rules is it up to the customs officer and whether they feel like letting me in? What if they say no?

They would deport you back to where you came from and revoke your visa. Probably better to spend the night on KL or wherever just to be safer, get a bed on a dorm for a couple dollars and save yourself a bigger problem.

Yeah it's up to whatever they feel like. They don't see it as a way to stay in Thailand exactly 6 months (9 even, if you use it again right before the end), it's supposed to be for people that go to a bunch of countries including several trips to Thailand. People did get denied at airports before doing that. Usually people that had a lot of other visas or Ed visa right before the METV, but even if you're new to Thailand it's still safer to stay overnight somewhere.

Or fly to Vientiane, Laos, and then it's like 2 hours to go by land to Udon Thani airport, to then fly domestic (no checks) to bkk. At that land border I've never heard of anyone being denied with METV. Private taxis wait after the Laos side passport controls, and with those they'll take you through the car lane of the Thai passport control, much quicker, then on to the airport. The bus from there doesn't stop at the airport. I paid 900 baht on my own, if there's some other people to share and fill the cab up it's 3-400 each. Can't do it with the Cambodian border, they deny entry if you don't stay overnight.

Brilliant, thanks for the advice guys.

@jspill, you recon it would be possible to fly to Laos then snap cross border back into Udon Thani ? Get it all done In a day? Or potentially too risky?

It's purely a political move. Thai Red/Yellow shirts have been discussed here previously so I'll elaborate a bit. The US Open is the most democratic golf tournament in the world to quote Tin Cup.

This is just the first step in a multi-parlay wager though I'm hoping to pull off. The last leg of the parlay would be a run at president as a 3rd party wedge candidate. Have no illusions of actually winning, but 27% of the popular vote seems doable by my calculations.

(M.D. are very popular in US Congress nowadays. There's 17 between the House/Senate. "Bad Boys" or "Outlaw" candidates are also very popular for those who've been paying attention with Obama/Trump. I just spent 3 weeks in county so that base is covered as well. Bull**** charge of "burgling my own house/residence" - but whatever I'll take the street cred in exchange).

Should have added above I'm working on an "end-around" to this settlement, just as there's multiple moving parts to the parlay wager. Since my lawyers appear to be utter crap at repossessing what's rightfully mine, what I'm hoping is my soon-to-be-future wife has a better lawyer than I do. Because if I happen to get married shotgun style overnight here in one of the 24 hour Vegas chapels, well then my wife would be entitled to half my stuff wouldn't she? (An advance might still be needed to get this off the ground by next April)

One last thing to bring this back to questions about Thailand.

People are probably wondering why SEA to prepare for the US Open? It's because of some dental surgery/implants I need. Which coincides with a 6 month prep time. As far as I'm aware Thailand ranks up there with Mexico for dental tourism at 1/3 to 1/2 what it costs in the states. A liquid diet with fresh fruit smoothies over there fits the bill as well.

So, if someone has a female dentist in mind they can recommend that'd be great. For some reason I feel this is going to be a female with no good reason. (Golf/Greens Fees are probably much more affordable like most other items).

I've just had 2 ed visas (extension of the same course), and planning to get METV next. Would you recommend I do land crossings for my border runs? I plan to stay out at least a few nights, if not a week for my visa run.