fester

He will need a NON-O or NON-ED visa. The school should be able to give him a support letter to apply for the right visae.

eThailand.com have a lot of good info about schools in Thailand:

http://www.ethailand.com/article/default2.asp?tree=281

It says clearly that you are ADMITTED until 28 APR 2003.

Just play stupid and enjoy. But be prepared with 60 days overstay á 200 Baht (12,000 Baht) if they find it out on exit. I  would have done that!

Or, go to nearest Immigration office and ask what to do, venetually clear overstay and ask for an extension.

Or, exit quick as possible and enter again on a better visa.

What do you think, forum members?

Thai/Farang Partners Club is not an bad idea. If you guys want to have a forum branch with that name, I can set it up asap. Please let me know here.

Anyone willing to be moderator for that forum branch?

I am updating the thaivisa website with the upcountry adresses of the Immigration Bureau. We have Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai, but the rest is shady...

Khon Khen?

Korat?

It is impossible to get a definite answer from the (good) guys at Immigration Bangkok where their upcountry offices are located.

Many farang brothers upcountry need this info, so they don't need to travel to Bangkok to get their extensions.

Please help us help the Bureau,and your fellow farang

brothers, to list all the upcountry Immigration offices, their street adresses, phone numbers etc.

Just fill up here!

Thanks!

/Fester

webmaster

As my Visa expired on 22 February, I went to Maleysia for a new Visa.

Reading in "Pattaya Mail" the story of new Visa's with 3 reentries in Khota Baru for 11.999 BHt, I planned a trip to Khota Baru with my girlfriend and my baby (9 months).

For the records:

I am 49 years, early retired, have a Thai girlfriend and a Thai baby.

The itinerary as planned was:

2 days Khota Baru,

1 night travel,

2 days Kuala Lumpur,

1 night travel,

2 days Penang,

1 night travel back to Bangkok.

On Thursday, 20 February, I took the airplane from Bangkok to Narathiwat.

Fare 3.690 BHt + 505 Bht for the baby (all taxes included).

Boarding time: 6:30 AM

Arrival time: 9:30 AM

Minibus from Narathiwat to border:

70Bht each, no charge for the baby.

At the border I took a taxi to the Thai Consulat.

Turned clock back 1 hour (Maleysian time).

The driver took charge of all the paperwork at the borders in

Thailand and Maleysia in no time.

Fee: 500 Bht (everything included).

The Thai consulat in Khota Baru would only grant me a Tourist Visa of 3 months. which I refused.

The Thai Consulat in Khota Baru is closed on Friday and Saturday.

Remark:

together with me, there was 4 men applying for a Visa (as offered by "Pattaya Mail"), with a lady which took charge of everything. They obtained a Visa for 1/2 year.

Khota Baru is a nice little place with a beautifull white beach and interesting night markets.

But nothing to spend more than 1 day, unless you want to spend your time lying in the sun.

Thursday night took the "Transnasional" bus from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur.

- Boarding time: 23:39 PM

- Arrival time: 6:30 AM

Fee: 30 RM each

No charge for the baby.

Book a room at "New Oriental Hotel, No. 55 A-B Jalan Yew, Off Jalan Pudu, 55100 Kuala Lumpur".

Plenty of hotels at all prices, but at the time I was in Kuala Lumpur there was the National Summit going on and most hotels were full.

The Thai Embassy at Kuala Lumpur was crouded by Nigerians applying for a Visa for Thailand.

The staff is very unfriendly (Saturdays and Sundays closed).

I would only get a Visa for 3 months, which I could prolonge in Bangkok at Immigration, which I refused.

Kuala Lumpur is a very beautiful city, and worth spending a week-end (or more). Prices are somewhat the same as Bangkok.

I would surely recommend Kuala Lumpur for a visit.

Altough Islam is the main religion, plenty of hookers in the streets.

Remark:

I visited the Petrona Towers (among other beautifull things) and it was all FREE.

No dual prices as in Thailand.

Sunday night took the "Transnasional" bus from Kuala Lumpur to

Butterworth.

Fee: 20.30 RM each

Baby: 10.10 RM

I wonder why the baby was charged this time.

Arrived at Penang at 6:30 AM.

Booked a room at the Waldorf Hotel, 13 Leith Street

([email protected]).

Big room with 2 double beds, airco and fan.

Nothing fancy, midrange hotel, good location.

Price: 35 RM/Day + taxes.

Plenty of hotels and guest houses starting at 10 RM.

Penang gave me the impression to be in Khaosan Road.

Plenty of backpackers and older people with long gray hair and pony tails, dressed in the Khaosan style.

There are now a lot of streets which are a copy of Khaosan Road.

Also plenty of stalls with Chinese and Indian food.

I loved a little stall with Indian food where you could take something like a pancake and stuff it with al kind of Indian food for 5 RM.

At sundown, the streets get crowded with hookers and "Katoeys".

Booked an appointment with Mr. Moto for Visa.

He arrived at 8:00 AM at the hotel.

I handled him my passport over with all the papers and 200 RM fee.

On Tuesday I've got my passport back with a new Visa, NON-IMMIGRANT, MULTIPLE ENTRY, TYPE "O", VALID FOR 1 YEAR.

I booked on monday a full day tour in a taxi at the hotel for 100 RM.

The trip was 7 hrs including a lunch, and worth every RM.

Visited many temples, Museum and Art gallery, Penang Hill Railway, Batik factory, Tin utils factory, Botanic Garden, and so on.

Very good and pleasant guide.

The next day I had lunch at the "Komplex Tun Abdul Razak" (tallest building), visited other places and spend a day at "Khaosan Road".

Tuesday, at late afternoon I booked a trip from my hotel to Hadyai for 30 RM/person.

The driver took care for all formalities at the border.

Arrived at 19:00 PM local time in Hadyai, I had an VIP bus for 1.135 Bht from Hadyai to Bangkok.

Back in Bangkok at Wednesday morning, 6:30 AM.

In Penang you can book a 2 days excursion to Langkawi Corals Island.

But this trip is rather expensive, 118 RM for adult and 59 RM for an infant.

Carlos

(pasted from soc.culture.thai by Fester, sorry about that...)

A lot of HK farangs heads for Bangkok on long weekends. It's just 2 hr 45 mins flying time...

The tickets can be very cheap from HK it you have the right connections.

90 days per entry. Try to get her an Non-O with multiple entries, or better - but hard in her case, apply for a one-year extension for her when your own work permit is sorted out.

I bet that a multi "O" with visa runs every 90 days is the only solution for her.

(We got this email to the forum admin from a member who want to be anonymous, for obvious reasons, so I repost it here on his behalf. /Fester)

--

On Saturday 22nd I made a visa run to Aranyaprathet. All went well at the Thai border, but things changed when I got to the Cambodian Visa counter. Not taking into account the recent 'trouble' between Thailand and Cambodia I made the mistake of talking to the Cambodian immigration officers in Thai. I also made the mistake of asking them why, when they refused to accept $20 for the visa, and were insisting on 1,000 Baht. The reason is obvious but my understanding is that the official charge is $20 and that that is normally acceptable. The immigration officer freaked out, hit me on the back of my hand and refused to accept my application. His reason being that I spoke with him in Thai and he is Cambodian, and since I'm a farang then I should only speak English with him. In order to avoid any further problems, I apologised for using Thai and offered to pay 1,000 Baht as he'd wanted. The guy was unrelenting, he refused to accept my application and told me that if I needed a visa I should go to the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok to obtain one. He suggested if I was unhappy with this then he could take off his uniform and come outside and fight me. It was impossible to calm the guy down, he'd lost the plot.

I returned to the Thai border and explained the situation to the immigration officers. The senior officer made a call and after 10 minutes a large 4WD came across from Cambodia with a senior Cambodian immigration officer. This guy spoke to me in Thai, by default, and asked me to explain the situation. After this he made a phone call, which involved a bit of yelling, and then apologised to me and suggested I return to the counter and there would be no problems.

When I got there another immigration officer opened the window and asked me to explain what went wrong. After this he inspected my passport, noted I was British and stated that I had no right to speak Thai and as I was British I should use only English. Then he insisted that I go into the office and apologise personally to evey single member of staff. Following this he gave me a blank sheet of paper and insisted that I right a letter of apology and andmission of guilt for having spoken to them in Thai. Following this the visa was issued and everything as normal.

In conclusion there is obviously still a lot of bad feeling between Cambodians and Thais, so don't speak Thai with them, and don't question their corrupt practices either if you need to have a trouble free visa run.

Yes, but you might want to double check some AT commands to have the modem work properly on the Thai phone line.

Should not be any problems at all!

Immigration will not touch your application before 30 days before it expires. Its a good idea to make it early, as you of course will be missing some document(s).

If you are sure you have everything, even the last wek will be ok.

THAI promotion aims to lift revenue

(Bangkok Post Feb 24, 2003)

Thai Airways International will stage a ``buy one, get one free'' promotion for first- and business-class passengers on international flights from March 1 to Oct 31.

President Kanok Abhiradee said the promotion was intended to enhance revenue for the national carrier in the coming low season.

With two new aircraft adding to expenses, THAI is seeking to increase the number of passengers and make maximum use of seat capacity.

Currently, the airline's load factor in economy class averages 80%, compared with just 45-47% in first and business classes. THAI aims to lift the latter to 65%, which could increase revenue by up to 25%.

The promotion will apply to first-class tickets for all international routes, but some routes within Asia, as well as Los Angeles, will be excluded from the business-class promotion.

And after closing time, everybody buys the Beer Chang at 7/11 and have party time at the street outside.

The new social order.

Technically you could have used a second passport for travelling to Texas, depending of your nationality...

This is the risk with these "postal order" visas if some official really start to ask questions, which they rarely does...

But the boys in Brown are getting smarter and tougher. You might want to lose that passport if you feel uncomfortable with it.

Have you spoked with the visa agent about this?

Here is the direct number to the good people at Immigration handling the Residence permits.

0-2287-3101 ext. 2234, 2235

You better have a Thai call for you, if you don't speak good Thai, as you are expected to speak fluent Thai as a resident...

Got this email from a concerned Ameraican woman:

The Immigration Bureau in Bangkok is no longer granting 30 day extensions on tourist visas--they will give a maximum of 10 days (presumably due to some hogwash surrounding 9/11)-

Anyone else have the same experience??

Have a look at this thread;

Visa run to Vientiane

You will easily get a Laos visa at the Friendshop bridge.

Nakorn Ratchasima used to have an Immigartion office before, anyone knows if it is still there?

I don't think you have to worry. Other members might have to coreect me here.

This might work perfectly, and it mostly does, it has been common practise in Thailand for more than 10 years to send passports over the border to obtain new entries, and it's done every day with hundreds of passports.

There are reports of crack downs when the Immigration has found out:

http://www.thaivisa.com/339.0.html

Warning over no-travel "visa-runs"

Apparently you could leave the country with this visa with no problems, so it's propably recorded in the Immigration computer system. You would be able to enter Thailand again and again on this visa, if the Immigration officer at arrival doesn't suspect anything dodgy.

But if you are catched in a special check-up for some reason, with a clever immigration officer (yes, they exists) looking at it, or you apply for an extension at the Immigration Bureau, you could be fined, jailed and deported for illegal entry.

But, in most cases, this non-travel visas will work out just fine.

The Immigration says that this visas are illegal, but I doubt it, but it has NOT been proved by a proper investigation before a Thai court that they really are illegal.

The reason for that is that the Thai immigration can use the weapon of Deportation for any foreigner they catch, for any suspected crime, and that hinders you to have the case proved by a court. It's very hard to contact a professional immigration laywer, and have the case proved, while in the Immigration Detention Center... You have NO rights as a foreigner in Thailand regarding Immigration.

TiT.

Some questions:

- What Thai consulate in Texas did issue the visa? There are several Thai consulates there!

- Did you used any reputable agency in Bangkok to obtain this?

- How much did you pay?

Hello Charlaine and welcome to Thailand Expat Forum. Sorry for delay of answering this topic, but it's not an easy one...

Although Massage and Acupuncture is not on the list over prohibited work for foreginers, I think it can be hard to get a work permit for this type of business.

You have to enter Thailand on a NON-B visa. Take contact with the labour department and ask them how to proceed. You might need an experienced immigartion laywer in this very special case.

Personally I think you are chanceless. Maybe someone else here have an other opinion?

Take a copy of your husband's work permit, a supporting letter, and apply for a Non-O visa abroad.

Once back in the country, visit the Immigration Bureau and submit the necessary documents, e g husband's work permit in original and copy, and copies of his tax records.

Requirements:

1. Application Form T.M. 7.

2. A copy of passport or substitute document.

3. One 4*6 cm. Photo.

4. Marriage certificate.

5. 500 baht fee.

6. Birth certificate (if any). & current medical original certificate ( any Thai clinic will do for 30-50 baht).

7. If an alien is the supporter, he must submit financial evidence, proof of employment, work permit and tax receipts.

Initial place to contact:

An alien must apply for a non-immigrant visa "code O" at a Thai Embassy or Consulate abroad before entering the Kingdom.

Duration of first permit: As warranted by this visa, permission is given for a period of 90 days.

Duration of extension: The Immigration Office will grant a maximum extension of one year at a time.

Hello, and welcome to Thailand Expat Forum.

Wish you all luck with the new baby! Hope to see new postings here how it goes.

Cheers

PS! How many kilos??

As the former posters say, the multiple "O" would be the best option. I understand that she is a US citizen, so it should not be that hard to get it.

It doesn't matter if you marry in the US or not, she can not get any better than a Multi "O" anyway.