Thai visa

desparate travellers

HELP! We are going to Thailand in 2 weeks. Only realized today that we might need a visa. We are flying into and out of Bangkok with 35 days in between however we will be in Laos for 10 of these days so we thought initially that we would not need a visa.

Not too sure if we have enough time to get one now. Does anyone know what will happen if we just arrive in Bangkok with no visa and a flight leaving 35 days later? Would we be able to buy a visa in Thailand or extend our stay? If we apply for a visa now would we get one in time. It says you need to apply 3-4 weeks in advance but the your visa will be issued with in 7 working days.

Any help or advise would be really appreciated as we are starting to panic now.

Thanks

Lustrum

Do you not still get a 30 day visa automatically on arrival when you fly in? And when you cross back from Laos you'll get a 15 day visa autimatically crossing by land.

The Laos visa can ususally be obtained at the border too without any problem, just have your dollars ready to pay for it

Have a look at this http://projectvisa.com/visainformation/Thailand

and this http://projectvisa.com/visainformation/Laos

Benny_Cake

According to the letter of the law you need a flight out of Thailand within 30 days to get the visa on arrival at the airport. However,I have never had this happen to me, nor have I seen it happen to anyone else. To be on the safe side, you could purchase a refundable air ticket out of Thailand for a date within those 30 days, and then cancel it once you're through immigration. I had the same problem the first time I went to Thailand in 2003 - booked a Thai Air flight to Penang as insurance, but I never needed it and simply cancelled it once I was through. The Thai consulate in Dublin keeps limited opening hours so you couldn't guarantee that you would get your passport in time. Alternatively, I think Trailfinders run some kind of Visa organisation service, I know someone who was able to get a Vietnamese visa from them fairly quickly.

gustafo

your biggest problem could be with the airline if you don't have a visa they might not let you board as your stay will be over the 30 rule, thai immigration won't give a hoot,

i was flying from london last year with jet air and they wanted to see my visa as i my return flight was over 30 days, it was just as well i had one..

bifl

Hi I was in the same situaiton as yourself flights in and out of Thailand are 41 days apart. Instead of using the Thai Consulate at €40 (who charge more than the equivalent UK consulates ) plus two way postage I booked a flight with Air Asia for €34 from Hat Yai to Kuala Lumpar (690tbh + fuel charges etc).


The UK embassy have alway had this on their web site where air travel to outside of thailand was acceptable. Recently I see this has been included to say trains etc were acceptable.

http://www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/188

''Foreigners entering Thailand by any means under the Tourist Visa Exemption category are required at the port of entry to have proof of onward travel (confirmed air, train, bus or boat tickets) to leave Thailand within 30 days of the arrival date (otherwise a tourist visa must be obtained).''

Benny_Cake

bifl wrote: »

''Foreigners entering Thailand by any means under the Tourist Visa Exemption category are required at the port of entry to have proof of onward travel (confirmed air, train, bus or boat tickets) to leave Thailand within 30 days of the arrival date (otherwise a tourist visa must be obtained).''

Good to see that they now accept proof of onward travel by land, although I'd imagine in the OP's case it would be much handier just to book a flight. Try Air Asia OP, they have some very cheap flights.

dicey1664

hi, just looking for some help aswell,30 day holiday, we were planning on staying in thailand for the 30 days but recently decided we want to go to laos almost straight away,will our 30 day tourist visa be void when we leave ?

Benny_Cake

Will you be flying out of Thailand within 30 days? If so, then you'll have no problems flying into Thailand, but if you go to Laos the 30 day visa will have been used. You can get another visa on arrival when you come back to Thailand, but if you re-enter by land then you'll only get a 15 day visa so you'll need to time that right!

dicey1664

yeah were flying out within 30 days, but the 15 day visa we get when we come back wont be long enough, is there any other options ?

Benny_Cake

dicey1664 wrote: »

yeah were flying out within 30 days, but the 15 day visa we get when we come back wont be long enough, is there any other options ?

What route are you taking through Laos? When I was there you could get a Thai tourist visa (60 days) through the embassy in Vientiane, leave your passport in and collect it the following day. Not sure of the cost right now, it seems a bit of a nuisance in your case, but its an option.

PWEI

I once got a three month single entry tourist visa but got this from the Thai Embassy in London. You might be able to apply for this at the Consulate office in Dublin. The following link has a list of types of visas and permission to stay for Thailand.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/3139-useful-immigration-information-visa-descriptions/

dicey1664

were planning on going through Vientiane but warent planning on staying a night there,were in a rush to get back and down to the islands cause 1 of us has to leave early

Benny_Cake

dicey1664 wrote: »

were planning on going through Vientiane but warent planning on staying a night there,were in a rush to get back and down to the islands cause 1 of us has to leave early

Plus you'd have to queue at the embassy and all of that...it's not something you really want to have to do when you're only going for 30 days. You could apply for a double-entry tourist visa in advance from the consulate here, providing you have enough time to do so. This will allow you to fly into Thailand, leave and re-enter again. Bear in mind that it could take over a week to organise this so it all depends on when you're heading to Thailand. You can get the form and details here: http://www.thaiconsulateireland.com/visaapplication.htm

Alternatively, you could fly back to Thailand from Vientiane or Luang Prabang, this would mean you would get another 30 day visa on arrival, and save some travel time to give you more time on the islands! Bus and train journeys in Thailand are quite long, and you may find that flying back is no more expensive than going through the process of applying for a visa.

dicey1664

cheers, looking at flights now most seem rather expensive though:(

Benny_Cake

Actually I think that the only airlines flying between Thailand and Laos are Thai Air and Lao Airlines, so they might be a bit pricy. Maybe apply for the double-entry visa then?

dicey1664

not enough time off on sunday :mad:

Benny_Cake

dicey1664 wrote: »

not enough time off on sunday :mad:

You might be able to pick up a cheaper flight in Bangkok,otherwise stay the night in Vientiane. Don't let it ruin the holiday - Thailand and Laos are amazing.

beagle001

Benny_Cake wrote: »

Actually I think that the only airlines flying between Thailand and Laos are Thai Air and Lao Airlines, so they might be a bit pricy. Maybe apply for the double-entry visa then?

Bangkokair also fly the route