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How Many 30 Days Stamps Can I Get to Stay in Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

An issue that is flummoxing to some, perplexing to others, is as the title suggests, 30-day entry stamps, 30-day exemption stamps to be specific.

30 day exemption stamps are those given to travelers of certain nationalities coming into the Kingdom. They are stamped in for 30 days. It is actually an exemption of immigration status. It is lawful status but it is not visa status; it is just an exemption to the over-arching scheme. Most folks from many countries are going to be stamped in for 30 days. That being said it is often a question that is posed to me as to how many of these can you get. Well basically and this through anecdotal evidence, that being said it is through a rather substantial number of anecdotes, I have heard from various clients over the course of a couple or three years now. It seems 6 stamps at the airport in a given year, six 30-day day stamps is the most that will be granted and in many cases I have had individuals tell me that Immigration has stopped them on their fifth stamp and said "look I am stamping this but we're not going to do this again If you're going to come back, get a proper Visa, get a tourist visa, non-immigrant visa, whatever. I have heard that from many different individuals. I have also heard of individuals turned away who have simply too many tourist visa stamps and I think, although I'm not certain, I think that Immigration Officers maybe notating somewhere with respect to warnings on this issue so if one has been warned "look we're stamping you in this time but don't expect to come back next time and be able to use this 30-day stamp". I am not certain but it seems logical that  some sort of notation may be taken down which basically keeps a record of that warning so when the individual enters again, there  really isn’t any confusion as to whether or not they understood that" look you are not supposed to be coming back in using 30 days stamps.". Another thing is and we have done a video specifically on this, along the land border and this has been published in the Royal Gazette, it appears that 30-day stamps at the land border is the max now so you can get two; you can do one land border run and do another land border run to get two 30-day stamps but that is it. After that they're not going to issue them any further. 

So basically again, things are dealt with in a much more case-by-case basis as opposed to  other Immigration Apparatus which are basically going to deal with things maybe a little bit more almost in an assembly line method. The Thai system, I won't call it ad hoc, but it is much more case-by-case. It is based on the given circumstance in a given situation. That being said, 6 total stamps in a given calendar year has been over and over what I have heard from clients tell me that immigration has told them at the airport, “look airport stamps this is the max, you are not going to get more than six out of a given year”. So the rule of thumb six out of a given year and that is pushing it. I think 3 or 4 is probably where you're going to start maybe getting extra scrutiny and then along the land border the hard-and-fast rule seems to be two 30-day stamps in a given calendar year.