Thai Visa run to Laos

A dear friend was struck by tragedy late last year when her business partner stole all their company’s assets and split the scene. I spent most of April of this year with her to help put her back on her feet. She is not ‘there’ yet but at least we got her off the streets where she was living.

Returning to my adopted home country of Thailand by June it was time for me to re-apply for a one year extension of my ‘old white guy’ visa. This should have been easy-peasy plus a hundred bucks or so and done; however, it seems that the Thai government is seriously cracking down on unwanted immigrants and I somehow got caught up in their dragnet.

When I went to renew I was told that I could not because I could not show a 65,000 baht (~$2K USD) deposit into a Thai bank every month for the last 12 months. When I pointed out to them that this new ‘requirement’ was not written down in any document or website anywhere, I was told that I should have known anyway – or words to that effect.

The helpful young lady at the Immigration office here in Chiang Rai told me that I could probably get a year extension if ‘sponsored’ by a “Foundation” (Thai non-profit corporation). Luckily for me I have been a long time sponsor of an orphanage located in northern Thailand an hour or so outside of Chiang Mai. The Foundation’s President promptly completed all of the paperwork and I submitted it – happy as a lark, but alas – again denied. Was then told that I would have to deposit 800,000 baht (~$25K) into my Thai bank account. I declined that generous offer and was then informed that my last and only chance was to apply at a Thai Embassy (outside of the country obviously) or in other words – I must leave Thailand in order to live in Thailand.

to be continued