15 day Visa in Thailand

Ritchi

Hi, just crossed over the Thai border from Malaysia, and they're only issuing 15 day visas at the minutes. Has anyone else had this? And does anyone know if it's easy to get extensions? Will be in Krabi for the next few days trying to get one.

Paulgar

Hi Ritchie, I live in Thailand and the rules here have recently changed. They are now only offering 15 day extension at land borders, but you will get 30 day extensions if you arrive by plane.

If you want to stay in Thailand longer I suggest that you leave the country at the end of the 15 days and go to a Thai embassy in a neighboring country and apply for a two-month tourist visa which you can extend for a further month inside Thailand.

Paulgar

The actual new regulation ;

30-days border runs now only 15 days

BANGKOK: -- In order to limit the amount of foreigners using "back-to-back" border runs, Thai Immigration has issued a new regulation regarding the 30 days tourist exemption.

Effective immediately, travelers without visa will get only 15 days of stay if they are arriving via a land border checkpoint from a neigboring country.

Passengers arriving via an international airport will obtain a 30 days stay, and for them there is no change.

Travelers with Malaysian passports will obtain a 30 days stay.

This police order number 778/2551 is today confirmed by Royal Thai Police, Immigration Bureau, in Bangkok.

-- thaivisa.com 2008-12-04

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/30-days-Border-Runs-15-Days-t227407.html

Ritchi

Thanks Paulgar. Found out this much myself from some locals. Apparently the law only came in on the 4th December, so if we came in on the 3rd, we'd actually have a longer visa, which is pretty annoying.

I can't go over the border again as we want to spend Christmas here, and have a place booked, some it doesn't really suit to leave it until the end of our visa to do it. We've two real options at the minutes , which is either to buy another 7 days from the immigration office here for 1900 baht, and then go straight to Cambodia and get a longer visa there, for after we complete Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Or do a border run in about a week, which will extend it by about the same amount of time, and cost about 1200, but take a full day. It's messed with our plans a bit, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

Wish they had given a little notice about this before it came into effect(or did they?), as we had thought 30 days was fine, or we'd have applied back at home for it.

S.M.B.

Ritchi wrote: »

Thanks Paulgar. Found out this much myself from some locals. Apparently the law only came in on the 4th December, so if we came in on the 3rd, we'd actually have a longer visa, which is pretty annoying.

I can't go over the border again as we want to spend Christmas here, and have a place booked, some it doesn't really suit to leave it until the end of our visa to do it. We've two real options at the minutes , which is either to buy another 7 days from the immigration office here for 1900 baht, and then go straight to Cambodia and get a longer visa there, for after we complete Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Or do a border run in about a week, which will extend it by about the same amount of time, and cost about 1200, but take a full day. It's messed with our plans a bit, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

Wish they had given a little notice about this before it came into effect(or did they?), as we had thought 30 days was fine, or we'd have applied back at home for it.

I posted the new regulations up here as soon as they were announced.

It's up to you to keep track of the visa situation. Thailand immigration are hardly going to send everyone in SE Asia an email to inform you all of the changes.

Dave!

huh that sucks

What happens if you overstay? Just curious

S.M.B.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

And if you overstay far too long you'll get blacklisted and deported.

Paulgar

S.M.B. wrote: »

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

And if you overstay far too long you'll get blacklisted and deported.

In reality if you can make it to the airport and pay the overstay fine there will be no problem. The overstay fine is 500THB a day. If you are caught inside Thailand on overstay you will be held in custody until they get around to deporting you. This applies even if you are on the way to the airport when you are caught - so overstay is not recommended.

Ritchi

S.M.B. wrote: »

I posted the new regulations up here as soon as they were announced.

It's up to you to keep track of the visa situation. Thailand immigration are hardly going to send everyone in SE Asia an email to inform you all of the changes.

When was it announced?

I'm not saying they should have informed everyone, but 2months ago there was no word of this as far as I am aware. Usually countries give a bit more notice than that. Especially in a country that's dependant on tourism. I've met a good few people that had flights into Thailand, get redirected due to the troubles in Bangkok, and had to travel over land from Kuala Lumpur instead, and hence only got a 15 day visa, and have had their plans ruined. There's a lot of very unhappy tourists here.

If they had not coincided this with the troubles in Bangkok, and gave maybe a few months notice(so people with plans could apply for the visas they previously didn't need), it would have gone down a lot better. As it is it's screwing people over that have already being screwed over just to make a bit more money from the tourists that are funding a lot of the economy.

Apologies if this was actually announced a few months ago and I missed it.

S.M.B.

Ritchi wrote: »

When was it announced?

I'm not saying they should have informed everyone, but 2months ago there was no word of this as far as I am aware. Usually countries give a bit more notice than that. Especially in a country that's dependant on tourism. I've met a good few people that had flights into Thailand, get redirected due to the troubles in Bangkok, and had to travel over land from Kuala Lumpur instead, and hence only got a 15 day visa, and have had their plans ruined. There's a lot of very unhappy tourists here.

If they had not coincided this with the troubles in Bangkok, and gave maybe a few months notice(so people with plans could apply for the visas they previously didn't need), it would have gone down a lot better. As it is it's screwing people over that have already being screwed over just to make a bit more money from the tourists that are funding a lot of the economy.

Apologies if this was actually announced a few months ago and I missed it.

It was announced in early December and they gave no notice.

They've every right to change the visa exemption rules whenever they want though. If you had paid for an actual tourist visa and they changed the rules then you'd have every right to be annoyed.

And the changes have being made to make it more difficult for those living in thailand without proper visas rather than to restrict the average tourist.

youcancallmeal

Hey I'm in Kuala Lumpur at the moment and will be heading north to Thailand shortly. Is my best option to go to the Thai embassy here in KL? Were planning on leaving tomorrow though. I read somewhere that hostels and hotels on Langkawi(Which were planning to stop in) will sort out your Thai visa for you? Anyone know anything about this?

Paulgar

youcancallme>al wrote: »

Hey I'm in Kuala Lumpur at the moment and will be heading north to Thailand shortly. Is my best option to go to the Thai embassy here in KL? Were planning on leaving tomorrow though. I read somewhere that hostels and hotels on Langkawi(Which were planning to stop in) will sort out your Thai visa for you? Anyone know anything about this?

If you are arriving in Thailand overland and are staying less than 15 days then you do not need a visa in advance. If you are flying in you will get 30 days. If you want the 30 day or 60 day tourist visa you will need to go to the embassy in KL.

As for using an agent I would say no. I have not needed to do visa runs in a few years, and I never did so in KL, but I did use agents in Laos though. I was willing to take the risk and always insisted that they give me their ID card in exchange for my passport. I would say that it is much better if you do it yourself. In the past agents have forged visas and this has led to unknowing tourists ending up in heaps of trouble. You will also save money by doing it yourself.

youcancallmeal

Paulgar wrote: »

If you are arriving in Thailand overland and are staying less than 15 days then you do not need a visa in advance. If you are flying in you will get 30 days. If you want the 30 day or 60 day tourist visa you will need to go to the embassy in KL.

As for using an agent I would say no. I have not needed to do visa runs in a few years, and I never did so in KL, but I did use agents in Laos though. I was willing to take the risk and always insisted that they give me their ID card in exchange for my passport. I would say that it is much better if you do it yourself. In the past agents have forged visas and this has led to unknowing tourists ending up in heaps of trouble. You will also save money by doing it yourself.

Yeah were arriving by land via the Malaysian border and plan on staying more than 15 days. We met a guy who got a 60 day tourist visa in the Thai embassy here in KL. It takes 2 days but unfortunately we don't have the time. He was saying though that you can get the fifteen day visa extended by a 7 days and then 7 days again at immigration offices in Thailand or else just do the border run for 15 more days, more hassle but probably our best option at this stage.

Paulgar

As far as I'm aware you can only get one extension on a visa-on-arrival unless this law has changed.

darrenh

just a bit confused!

when i enter thailand for the first time how many days visa will i get?

after that i intend to travel through laos, cambodia and vietnam. how many days visa will i get when i want to re-enter thailand?

Paulgar

darrenh wrote: »

just a bit confused!

when i enter thailand for the first time how many days visa will i get?

after that i intend to travel through laos, cambodia and vietnam. how many days visa will i get when i want to re-enter thailand?

Hi darrenh, if you enter Thailand by air and don't already have a visa you will get 30 days. If you arrive by land you will get 15 days. If you leave Thailand and come back you will get another 15 days by land or 30 days by air.

As I remember it you can do these visa-runs three times in a row, but after this you will need to go to an embassy for a new visa. Otherwise, you will need to remain outside Thailand for six months before being eligible for another visa on arrival. So you can only stay in Thailand for a maximum of 90 days using the visa on arrival scheme. Any extensions inside Thailand are counted as part of this 90 days and you start counting from the day of your first visa on arrival. So if you are planning on staying in Thailand for a long holiday you need to really get a visa from an embassy.

It should also be noted that you are expected to have proof of a return-ticket out of Thailand to be eligible for the VOA scheme and that they can ask for proof of funds.