I made a post a while back called “Visa Runs: The Long-term Expat Headache Explained,” and I realize people may be counting on this information as they try to make Thailand their home, so I thought it my responsibility to include an update due to some big changes in the way visas are being handled. It turns out that in September 2009, officials decided it was time to start cracking down on some lax methods in the system.

For those who are struggling to live in Thailand without a retirement visa, things may have just gotten a little bit more difficult. People like us, with no business or wife or job in Thailand, had a good thing going called the back to back tourist visa. I explained this in my last post about visas.

Basically, you’d get a two month double entry visa and use a couple one month extensions to turn it into six months in paradise. Please see the original post for more details on how this worked.

Before, Thai embassies, especially the embassy in Vientiane, were allowing people to keep getting this same “tourist” visa. People have been living here for years simply by going back to Vientiane and getting a new visa again and again.

Suddenly, a wrench has been thrown in that carnival ride.

Thai embassies and consulates issued a statement in September of this year (2009) stating that they were going to get a lot more strict about enforcing the rules against back to back visas because they claim people are illegally working in Thailand and using the Thai tourist visa to do it.

And rightly so—that’s exactly what people are doing.

Not everyone qualifies for a resident visa, and this is their way of getting around the law.

So now people who are applying for the tourist visa are facing much more scrutiny. The point is to find out what their real motives are for being here, and 8 or 9 consecutive tourist visas is a pretty good indication that they’re not just passing through.

While it still seems a bit vague as to what qualifies as too many back to back tourist visas, embassy officials are now using a red stamp in the passport, which basically says the applicant has stayed too many times on a back to back tourist visa and that next time their application must be refused.

Please note that this is not an all-out rejection as first implied would happen by Immigration Bureau. Rather, it is a simple red stamp that directs no more back to back visas to be issued. It is also important to note this is more than fair warning to the traveler, who would then have 6 months to figure something else out.

But even if the red stamp warning is more than fair enough, I’m still not too happy about this change at all. It really doesn’t make sense to me why Thai officials would make it harder to stay here. I understand they want their laws to be followed and they want money to be taxed if people live in Thailand, but if they don’t have a realistic way for this to happen, as in easier ways to get a resident or working visa, then long-term travelers are simply going to find a new paradise to live in where they are more welcome. In the end, Thailand loses.

With the political tensions, more concerns about personal safety in Thailand, and continue increases in the barriers to living here, it seems like they seem set on making it difficult to stay, even though the expat population, legal or illegal, forms a significant chunk of economic activity. Thailand needs more money coming in right now, and I don’t think the answer is to push people away.

Well—enough whining. It’s their country, after all, and this is part of international living. What does it mean to you?

Well, if you are here for less than 6 months or even less than a year—probably nothing. And even us long-term expats can find ways around this.

You could always marry a Thai—that seems to be all the rave these days.

But if you’re not quite ready to make a lifelong vow with a woman you just met at the local pub for a piece of paper that lets you stay in Thailand, all hope is not lost. The most obvious loophole at the moment is the Education visa. Enroll in a couple classes at the university—particularly language classes—and you simply have to check in with Immigration every 3 months and do a visa run once a year.

The good thing about this is that it is actually a better option than the old visa a run scenario. Another benefit is that it might produce a lot more expats who speak the language—that’s something this country really could use. A lot of expats already use this loophole by signing up for classes and never attending, which does make me worry about this change ruining the opportunities for language study.

I recently signed up for Thai classes myself, simply because I actually want to learn, and it would be a shame to see officials make it more difficult to do that once people start taking more advantage of the loophole.

Honestly, I don’t see this new change lasting long, but I’m no expert—that’s really just my uneducated speculation. I think it is in Thailand’s best interests to think up a different solution. But until then, us perpetual travelers do what we can to keep the dream alive. And there’s always another uncovered loophole to find.

It’s not over yet; I’m willing to bet on it.