Last week I got the dreaded blue “red stamp” on my SETV in Vientiane. It’s noteworthy because I didn’t have that many visa in the passport. So I’ll give details here for the record. Also one question.
Details about my visa application
I’m Canadian in my 30s.
Applied for SETV in VTE.
I was dressed nicely, but they didn’t look or speak to me.
Below are the total of 4 SETVs in my passport (before applying). These are pretty much back-to-back:
1 from HCMC
2 from Vientiane
1 from Savannakhet
My previous passport had 1 from VTE and 1 from HCMC in 2017.
The passport was issued to me in Bangkok about 2 years ago, which might not help, if they even notice that.
The stamp says something like “This guy comes to Thailand a lot. Maybe don’t give him another visa.”
Things are changing
So this is a bit of a surprise, as people here usually say you can usually get at least 3 or 4 visas from VTE before getting a red stamp. I only had 2, then got the stamp on the third. Things are changing.
Also note, when I was applying for that 1 visa from Savannakhet in Nov 2018, I was given a verbal red stamp “You go Thailand too much. You not coming back here for Visa”.
Questions:
- Does the new passport trick still work?
- What about a next entering by land, without a visa, and extending in Bangkok? I have 0 visa exempt entries in the passport, all of 2018 and 2019.
Or I might just leave Thailand forever. Other countries are looking nice, without the visa headache.
