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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawWhat Happens if I Am Denied Admission to Thailand?

What Happens if I Am Denied Admission to Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing what is the protocol after one has been denied entry to the Kingdom of Thailand. 

In recent months, in frankly the past 18 months, we have seen a larger number of people being turned away trying to enter the Kingdom, most notably people who are trying to enter on multiple 30-day stamps, multiple tourist visas, those who have been found through biometrics to have outstanding warrants etc. 

I am not going to get into so much the criminal aspect of this, I am simply going to go through what are the protocols if one is denied admission. Well generally speaking, that individual is going to be permitted to make arrangements to leave the Kingdom and if arrangements are not made, it may be possible that that individual or individuals may be detained until such time as travel arrangements can be made for them to either return to their home country or a third party country.

One thing to keep in mind with respect to non-admission into the Kingdom is "finding a place to land" if you will. so those that come into Thailand and have been rebuffed from admission, not all jurisdictions are going to readily welcome that individual or those individuals into their jurisdiction because they sort of "red flag", for lack of better term, deportees; people that have been denied admission to a given country. So in some cases there may be no choice but to go back to one's home country and either get a new Visa or make other travel arrangements or maybe make no other travel arrangements because they may not be admitted or admissible back to the Kingdom at all. 

That being stated, the thing to take away from this video, if you are denied entry, you will be generally speaking granted an opportunity to make further travel arrangements and go to another country. It has been my experience that people that are rebuffed entry here in the Kingdom oftentimes end up over in Cambodia, sometimes Malaysia. It is going to depend on the nationality of the individual involved as well as the reason for turning that individual away. If it is simply a matter of having too many tourist visas, some other jurisdiction again Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam will probably take that individual in although it is not a foregone conclusion and from there they can make they can make arrangements accordingly.

One thing that I have seen it has been frustrating for folks is they will try to go to another jurisdiction, and they will be turned away at admission there and it turns into almost like a "leapfrogging" situation where they finally just end up back in their home country because they have no other jurisdiction that will take them. Once in the home country, sort of like a reset button is hit. It then becomes far more feasible to be able to travel into another jurisdiction from that home country because at that point you are no longer being “red flagged” as someone who is deported from a different jurisdiction. This is the same case here in Thailand. I think many Immigration apparatus use a system similar to this or this system pretty closely.