Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about Visa Exemption stamps. For those who are unaware, visa exemption is basically the stamp you get on arrival in Thailand if your country has some sort of reciprocal arrangement with Thailand that allows you to be in the country notwithstanding the fact you don't have a Visa. So for example, those with an American passport, they come to Thailand, they are stamped in for 30 days - that's the 30-day Thai Visa Exemption. As we have discussed in other videos, now Russians for example can enter Thailand and they get a visa exemption of 90 days; again understand this is a Visa Exemption, it is not a visa itself. 

That said, I thought of making this video after I received a recent email from a viewer, quoting directly: "Currently I visit Thailand a few times a year during the 30-day visa-free Tourist Stay for US citizens. I was under the impression that one could use this 30-day Visa free stay up to 6 times in one calendar year if one entered via an International Airport but I just read that the Visa free 30-day entries are limited to twice a year. Is this true? Yeah, I have done the videos on this many, many times; we actually did the video when the Royal Decree was promulgated. Yeah the baseline, again none of this is guaranteed. People think that okay I'm only allowed X amount but I am definitely allowed 2 entries. No, Immigration has unfettered discretion to let in anybody or not as and when they deem appropriate. That said there are guidelines, there are regulations, they have been again promulgated by the Royal Decree some years back - I think this is going back 6,7 years ago that they did this - where they officially came out and said hey it's 2 entries per year in Visa exempt status. That is what we will definitely allow. 

Now again if you're deemed sort of a threat to National Security here, or you have some kind of like prior criminal conviction or something of this nature then you may not even be allowed to enter at all. But that said two is the baseline. I don't know where people have gotten this and I do understand, it's not a misconception per se, it's just sort of a practical rule of thumb where people say "oh you can enter 6 times a year if you are using an airport or whatever". Well that's not a rule, that's just sort of common practice, I guess you can look at it like that. Again I've done a video, I did a video where I said "getting away with it doesn't make something legal". In this case just because something's allowed, for example 6 times a year somebody came and went from Thailand using a Visa exemption. Okay, if Immigration let you in and they deemed it appropriate to admit you then you sort of got away with it for lack of a better term. But as discussed in other videos, yeah, the minimum from allowable, although that's not even really the right word, again it's sort of like a rule of thumb is definitely 2 entries per year you are not going to really need to be worried about having to deal with any flack in Thai Immigration. You get up over that and I would say the rule of thumb is expect possibly some extra scrutiny. Again though, presuming that ‘there's 6 times if I use an airport’, no, that's just what you got away with. That's just how it works. It's not any type of rule out there; there's no regulation that says "6 times at an airport, 2 times elsewhere."

At the end of the day, the promulgated rule that we know of is definitely you get two entries per year in Visa Exemption status, again if you don't have any other problems that are deemed to be a reason of ground of inadmissibility in Thailand, again if you don't have that then I think you can you can sort of bank on being able to enter twice per year but I don't think it's prudent to presume that you can, again well "because I came through an airport I get more entries", that's not the way it works.