moving to Thailand for 6 months help

maca1214

Hi. I have 4k euro saved up. Could I move to thailand from ireland and rent a cheap apartment or room with internet and survive for 6 months.
i hear of apartments for 200 usd per month. plus flight there and home and cost of living. So just wondering if it's doable or not.

mooseknunkle

So your flights are included in the 4k?

When are you going?,ill do a quick breakdown of your 4k and let you decide if its doable.

Flights give or take €1000
You want a room for $200 thats around €145 x 6 = €870 ,include a visa and other things and that brings it to around €1000

So now you're left with €2000 for 6 months thats about 90.000bht ,which works out as 3750bht a week thats about €85.

You probably could live on 500bht a day but it all depends on what your going to be doing,did you meet a girl while on a 2 week holiday and now want to go back on be with her for 6 months?,do you think you can live on €85 a week?

finbarrk

I know a lad that had €10k in a similar situation. He went to Cambodia though which would be similar I'd say. But he was home after 7 or 8 months broke. He partied hard I'd say though.

DieselPowered

mooseknunkle wrote: »

So your flights are included in the 4k?

Flights give or take €1000

Flights are €630 return.

I know a fella spent 4k in 2 weeks there.

Its only somewhat possible if you spend your time in the countryside and not the touristy spots.

louish

I'm in Thailand at the moment.

I don't think 4k is enough for flights, 6 months and visas, you'll also probably want some travel insurance.

I spend 9k a month on my apartment, 3k on a moped and about 8k on food entertainment each month. I live on a touristy island and you can still find basic huts/small basic houses for 5k a month. So I spend about 500 euro a month on basic living costs. In saying that, I'm not a party person and probably spend less than anyone else I know here.

Visas and visa runs are a big expense here compared to the cost of living- you need to apply for a double entry tourist visa in Ireland- costs about 150 Euro. You use this visa to enter Thailand and after 60 days you go to the nearest immigration office and pay 2000 baht to extend the visa for 30 days. Once those 30 days are up, you have to leave Thailand- take a trip to a neighboring border (costs about 6000 baht for me) to leave Thailand and activate the second entry on your double entry visa...then after 60 days pay another trip to immigration and once again pay 2k to extend.

There is also a crackdown on people suspected of abusing tourist visas here at the moment so people with double entry visas are treated with suspicion and refused re-entry at the border if they can't prove they are tourists and not using tourist visas to work here illegally. The burden of proof is on you. You may have some difficulty staying 6 months on a tourist visa under the current regime.

In saying that, it's a fun country and if you get together another 2k you could spend 3 months in Thailand and 3 in Cambodia or Laos if the crackdown on tourist visas is still going on then.

Hope this helps

tommylimerick

I also am planning on going to Thailand for a while , can I not just get a visa on arrival and cross the border every month
the border is pretty close to where I will be
I am not sending my passport by post to England to get visa
can I do this in Ireland ? thanks if you can help

louish

You can get a visa on arrival no problem but you will probably run into problems if you do more than one or two out-in visa runs for the free entry stamp. You also now have to show hotel bookings, bank statements, itineraries and sometimes flights out of the country to prove you are a genuine tourist at the border during visa runs.

It seems the days of people being able to stay in Thailand for 6 months plus on tourist visas are coming to an end, apparently immigration believe too many tourists are working on tourist visas.

A better option would be to go to Thailand, get a visa on arrival and then go to a nearby consulate (Vientiane or Penang) and apply and pay for a single or double entry tourist visa (some have had trouble re-entering on the second part of the double entry but if you have proof of a flight out of the country etc. you can probably get away with it).

If you want to stay longer than 6 months, the best option is to enroll for a language course when you get to Thailand, that will entitle you to an education visa. It costs about 800 euro for the course and you have to go to a neighboring country to apply for and pay for the visa. BUT you will be able to stay in Thailand for a year on that visa. If you go this route, you should make sure you actually go to the classes as immigration have been tightening checks on this- some people have been in Thailand for three years 'learning Thai' and can't say more than sawadeeka


They have been cracking down on people staying long term in Thailand on tourist visas for the last couple of months and the official 'crackdown' starts on August 12th so it will be tougher to do visa runs after this date. Some tourists have recently being refused re-entry at Southern borders after just 2 visa runs on the suspicion of working in Thailand on the wrong visa.

There is a website called Thai Visa that has updates on the visa crackdown if you need info you can find some there. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll try help. Good luck

leilea

I guess it would be possible, if you do not travel a lot, and stay in a cheap place, you can work somtimes in some hotels and get free accomodation !