As is tradition in Thailand, a lot of times the country gets really excited about some new offer or new feature of coming to their country to try to lure people in only to discover that in their rush they don't actually have the system in place yet. This happened recently and pissed a lot of people off when the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) announced to the globe that they visa on arrival had been increased from 30 days to 60 days for most countries that qualify.
Well a lot of people ended up getting pissed off when they arrived expecting this news to be true only to end up with 30 days and when they tried to protest to the Immigration officer the guy behind the glass had no idea what they were talking about.
I have learned over the time that I have been here that it is an act of futility to try to argue with an Immigration officer in Thailand. They seem to have a god complex behind the glass because they know there is never going to be any consequences for anything they do that is a bit "untowards" to anyone that comes up to their booth. They are also police, which in this country makes one's ego go off the charts. I have seen some rather intense and almost machoistic bullying of visitors and in the past there were even bribe schemes perpetrated against certain nationalities so that the officers could pad their own pockets. Basically, if you are from China or India they would just refuse to do their job until you put 500 to 1000 Baht in your passport. It doesn't matter to them, they have to sit there all day anyway so if they hold you up, it doesn't affect their life in the slightest.
Before I run away with the disdain I have for Immigration officials I'll instead stay on topic and also go ahead and say that I have disdain for Immigration officials of all nations . Other than in rare instances its seems as though Immigration officers around the world have an objective of being as mean as possible to people that are simply trying to come to their country to spend money there and this just seems kind of backwards to me.
As far as the new system taking several months after announcement to fully implement, I feel as though this is rather inexcusable. It seems to me that getting an email out to all of the entry points would be something that could easily be accomplished and that everyone would be on the same page on day one, but unfortunately that just isn't the way that this country works. Almost nothing moves quickly here except for motorbike taxis... those guys are always fast.
Also, there is reluctance at certain points of entry to comply with new regulations because it cuts into their "under the table" money so they will hold off as long as they can. I don't know how people keep their jobs when being this uncooperative, but it does seem to be the case.
Anyhooo, here we are nearly 2 months later after the 60-day visa-on-arrival was announced and it appears to be in full circulation. So anyone that was considering coming here for a longer than average holiday can do so without fear, especially if you are flying in. There still could be some issues at small land crossings but honestly, there aren't very many long-term travelers that enter the country that way anymore since Thailand, as well as most of the surrounding countries, kind of gave backpacker industry the boot many years ago.
Better late than never I suppose and it's anyone's guess how long this program is going to last. In the past Thailand has had programs like this only to 6-months later cancel it because too many people were getting free visas or something. This country can't really seem to make up their minds about what they want to do with their tourism stimulus programs, so you can never count on anything that they implement sticking around for very long. Go ahead and pull the trigger if you were considering visiting.
If you don't feel confident in taking one dude's statements on the internet as truth here is another source that is a bit more official. They also have links to the official Thailand Immigration webpage if you are truly paranoid.
