An update on my immigration issues/plans

[cdnmatt]

The above mentioned “special tourist visa” if agreed upon is for those tourists that stay a minimum of three months at a time frankly, how many tourists are little more than 2 week millionaires!

It's 2020, and there's a once in a century global pandemic going on. Loads and loads of people are capable of earning money from home, and have been capable for some time.

Loads of people have already moved from cit centers to outside of the city, so they can have a nice 3bdrm house instead of a 1bdrm condo. If you're willing to bite the timezone bullet, no reason you can't turn your home into Thailand. Or if you're one of the millions self employed folks out there, then it's pretty easy as well.

Well, if they're hurting so badly for long-term tourists, wonder if they'll life my blacklisting a little early instead of making me wait until April 2023?

[StevieWonders]

Well, if they're hurting so badly for long-term tourists, wonder if they'll life my blacklisting a little early instead of making me wait until April 2023?Isn’t that the whole point Matt? You’re NOT a long-term tourist; you’re an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

[cdnmatt]

Isn’t that the whole point Matt? You’re NOT a long-term tourist; you’re an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT


Well, Thailand changes its immigration laws and government structure so often, it really kind of all depends on what year you're there.

I got caught March 2018. Now if I would have taken care of everything by March 2016, then there wouldn't have been a problem at all, and I would have never been blacklisted. I had my dogs though, and wasn't willing to leave them, so fuck it, I stand behind my decision. Just so happend there was a military coup, and the general who appointed himself as PM was a xenophobic asshole who doesn't like white folks.

[Manforallseasons]

Well, Thailand changes its immigration laws and government structure so often, it really kind of all depends on what year you're there.

I got caught March 2018. Now if I would have taken care of everything by March 2016, then there wouldn't have been a problem at all, and I would have never been blacklisted. I had my dogs though, and wasn't willing to leave them, so fuck it, I stand behind my decision. Just so happend there was a military coup, and the general who appointed himself as PM was a xenophobic asshole who doesn't like white folks.

Were the dogs blacklisted?

[Dodger]

I got caught March 2018. Now if I would have taken care of everything by March 2016, then there wouldn't have been a problem at all, and I would have never been blacklisted.

matt, if you don't mind me asking, what did you get blacklisted for? Just curious.

[francois]

Matt can correct me, but I believe he was blacklisted for a lengthy overstay, as you may have missed.

[Armando]

I got caught March 2018. Now if I would have taken care of everything by March 2016, then there wouldn't have been a problem at all, and I would have never been blacklisted..
Oh dear what a shame! And if I had bought Apple stock 20 years ago I would be a millionaire by now. No point bleating about what you might have done, Fact is, you didn't - and neither did !.

[cdnmatt]

matt, if you don't mind me asking, what did you get blacklisted for? Just curious.



Just overstayed my VISA< nothing criminal or anything. What happened is fell in love with Kim, there were no long-term VISAs available to me, so I decided love trumps immigration law, and just stayed. This was back when it was no problem, and I remember clearing my first ~3.5 year overstay. Simply hit the Laos border in Nong Khai, paid my 20,000 baht fine, immediately went to the Thai embassy, grabbed a double entry tourist VISA< and next day I was back home in Thailand.

Then Thailand went and had a military coup, and turns out the new PM is / was a xenophobic piece of shit who doesn't much care for white folks. His government introduced harsh blacklisting laws, but by this time Khon Kaen was simply my home. I knew lots of people, the city, language, culture, societal norms, etc., and more importantly had my dogs who I loved like my own children, so once again just stayed. Wasn't doing anything nefarious, just hanging out at home working behind the computer.

Then Leo and myself shacked up, he grew tired of Khon Kaen, and convinced me to move to Vientiane. Upon going I knew I was going to be blacklisted from Thailand for 5 years, and I was fine with that. What I didn't know is that Laos had also changed their immigration laws to disallow anyone with a blacklist stamp, as the previous time I was able to just walk though the border without issue. So I ended up stuck at the Nong Khai border, blacklisted from Thailand, and disallowed entry into Laos. Nowhere to go except IDC in Bangkok and deportation to Canada.

Oh well, there's silver linings to everything. Still stuck on Vancouver Island here, but considering KoVid is about to unleash hell on the world this coming fall and winter, there's some perks to this island living. All we have to do is shut the ferry down except for cargo, and we're good to ride out the storm until next summer. Plus, if shit didn't hit the fan, I would have never met Ghon, and he's one of the most amazing individuals I've met in my life. Plus being back in Canada this long has allowed me to concentrate on work and get my setup in an excellent position.

[Marc K]

HI Matt, I don't think living on an island is much consolation, especially one the size of Vancouver Island. I also live on an island (O'ahu) and here even the most distant neighbor islands have seen cases of COVID. Little Molokai (population 2,500 on a good day) has cases. Seems in this day and age there is no hiding from the virus. It takes testing, resulting and quarantining to keep it under control, as Thailand has apparently done quite a good job. Also, even quarantining is not airtight, at least not here. The nightly news almost always has a case or two of a flagrant violator, often caught having posted Instagram photos of his great vacation in Hawaii. Idiot! How many slightly more intelligent people actually do sail through the cracks nobody knows for sure.

[StevieWonders]

Whinge whinge, whine whine. Are you telling us Matt that if a Thai person was found living in Canada illegally and had been doing so for a number of years - that is, no visa - they would not be deported and blacklisted?

[cdnmatt]

HI Matt, I don't think living on an island is much consolation, especially one the size of Vancouver Island.

Oh yeah, island living definitely isn't full proof, and you still need to be careful and take precautions -- wear a mask, social distance, wash hands, etc. However, it's definitely safer than living in the middle of a large metropolis. We still get cases, but far less, making it easier for health care workers to conduct contract tracing, making the possibility of widespread community transmission that gets out of control far less likely. That, and it's simply easier to keep society isolated. Nobody is driving over to the island -- you're taking a ferry or an airplane to get here.



Whinge whinge, whine whine. Are you telling us Matt that if a Thai person was found living in Canada illegally and had been doing so for a number of years - that is, no visa - they would not be deported and blacklisted?

1. I'm not complaining. Dodger asked what happened, so I told him.

2. Actually, my first husband was Hungarian, was an illegal immigrant in Canada for about 5 years, and the Canadian government gave him permanent residency status, so go figure. Granted, it was because he married me, but still...

3. If you get caught illegally residing in Canada, you don't immediately get kicked out. You get a court date, and the opportunity to convince a judge that you should be allowed to stay. If your request is denied, you get a deportation notice stating you need to leave Canada by a certain date. If you defy the order, then you are subject to arrest and forced deportation. I know this, because said husband in #2 had a roo mate who was also Hungarian, and she went through the exact process while I was living with them. She got her dportation notice. No blacklisting.
4. The blacklisting laws Thailand introduced are actually quite harsh. To the oint the customs officer in Canada simply didn't believe me that I was blacklisted simply for overstaying my VISA. He was absolutely certain I must have committed some criminal act, because in his mind, there's no way a country would blacklist you for 5 years for an overstay. I told him to go Google Thai immigration law then, but not sure if he did or not.

5. I don't really care about going back to Thailand right now anyway. I'm moving to Vientiane once this whole KoVid situation calms down.

[StevieWonders]

“I’m not complaining”. Really? Listen to yourself. The drumbeat of “I’m the innocent victim here” comes through loud and clear.

[Dodger]

Just overstayed my VISA< nothing criminal or anything.

Thanks for sharing this.

Quite and adventure.

Glad things are working out for you back home.

[Armando]

Then Leo and myself shacked up, he grew tired of Khon Kaen, and convinced me to move to Vientiane. Upon going I knew I was going to be blacklisted from Thailand for 5 years, and I was fine with that. What I didn't know is that Laos had also changed their immigration laws to disallow anyone with a blacklist stamp, as the previous time I was able to just walk though the border without issue. So I ended up stuck at the Nong Khai border, blacklisted from Thailand, and disallowed entry into Laos. Nowhere to go except IDC in Bangkok and deportation to Canada..

You throw shit at the Thai government but you knew you had broken the law big time. You made a lot of major assumptions before you made that trip. You failed to check changes in Thai law and failed to do the obvious research before trying to gain access to Laos. So everyone else is to blame. Hmmmm.

I am glad there is a silver lining but continually moaning your lot does get a bit boring.

[cdnmatt]

@Armando -- You wouldn't by chance be willing to disclose your previous SGT handle, would you? There's no way you just joined last month.

[Smiles]

For newbies: CdnMatisse is the Grifter-in-Chief of this here excellent message board. In all circumstances, do laugh heartily but whatever you do, do NOT take our man/boy seriously.

[Manforallseasons]

For newbies: CdnMatisse is the Grifter-in-Chief of this here excellent message board. In all circumstances, do laugh heartily but whatever you do, do NOT take our man/boy seriously.

Matt has certainly found a new degree of confidence as he no longer finds it necessary to randomly pepper his posts with occasional typos attesting to his condition, and has added a new character to his fictional saga named Ghon, obviously worthy of at least a new chapter.
Few have encapsulated to the degree that Matt has that “seeing is believing”.

[Jellybean]

. . . We still get cases, but far less, making it easier for health care workers to conduct contract tracing, making the possibility of widespread community transmission that gets out of control far less likely . . .

Ah! So Canada also has Covid-19 ‘contract tracing’, cdnmatt. We have the same here in the UK, oh wait a minute, I don’t think that’s right, I think we call it contract testing or is it contact tracing? Oh for heaven’s sake! Now I’m not so sure. To be on the safe side, and for the avoidance of doubt, I had better see what Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister, has to say on the subject, he’s bound to know what it’s called . . .


https://youtu.be/_wqa560H4zo

;)

[cdnmatt]

And for the newbies here, you can go ahead and ignore Smiles. He's an older gent who's mind has went off the deep end a little, but he's bharmless. If you stick around, you'll notice he also has an insatiable crush on me as well.

[francois]

Ah! So Canada also has Covid-19 ‘contract tracing’, cdnmatt. We have the same here in the UK, oh wait a minute, I don’t think that’s right, I think we call it contract testing or is it contact tracing? Oh for heaven’s sake! Now I’m not so sure. To be on the safe side, and for the avoidance of doubt, I had better see what Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister, has to say on the subject, he’s bound to know what it’s called . . .

;)

I excogitate the correct terminology/enunciation is Contact Tasting. based on my experiences here in Thailand.:devilsh:

[Armando]

@Armando -- You wouldn't by chance be willing to disclose your previous SGT handle, would you? There's no way you just joined last month.

I lurked. I can read just as well as most others, apart from you it seems.

[gerefan2]

I lurked. I can read just as well as most others, apart from you it seems.

Don’t you worry , he can read all right!

[goji]

Should this be moved to the Fiction section ?