MaxiJaz

I am writing this to share my experience with people looking to get a double entry visa for Thailand and at the time of writing I am currently sitting in a cool cafe having a delicious omelet sandwich and a sprite having just completed the 1st part of the process this morning and waiting for tomorrow afternoon, 1:30pm, when I can hopefully collect my new visa and return to Bangkok.

About me - I am a middle-aged UK man with reasonable speaking, reading and writing skills in Thai which of course the Lao people understand, but I'm 100% sure anyone can do the exact same as me with no local language skills at all, but having said that this is my first attempt at this route having previously completed the mission via the far more costly and time consuming direct flight route to Vientiane from Suvarnabhumi Airport.

My decision to try this route was partly due to my own stupid mistake of using the wrong date on my old double entry visa where I used the first 60 days and extended at Chang Wattana for an extra 30 days. I had 2 dates in my passport being original visa of the 25th April and a Chang Wattana extension of the 27th April. I made the horrendous mistake of booking a visa run on the 26th with BangkokBuddy.com the replacement service for GolfJack.com who makes runs to the border every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday leaving Sukhumvit Soi 12 at 5:00am sharp.

The other reason is that as Thailand has so many holidays in April I wanted to get my visa in the shortest and cheapest way possible and overstay for the shortest possible time which even though I explained to the immigration officer in Thai to the best of my ability still cost me 1,000 baht for the 2 days I overstayed planning and organizing this trip along with an uncaring glair from the same guy while he repeated to me "1,000 baht. 2 days"

IMPORTANT - First of all CHECK EVERY DATE carefully using the dates on the actual visa for reference not the extention as any mistake and you have to start the whole process again along with checking any Thai National Holidays because these are always random dates and can mess your whole plan up.

I’m sure people will disagree with me on some of the details and can offer some additional ways to save money but here is my experience. I will list all the costs in detail at the bottom of this article.

Day 1: To complete the whole application process in 2 days I used a low cost airline NokAir departing from Don Meuang airport at 6:55am to Udon Thani International airport on a short 60 minute flight. This is the only airline I know that gets you most of the way to Vientiane early enough to get to the Thai Consular in Lao to meet the deadline of closing time at 11:30am. Remember their are 2 parts to the embassy in Lao which are in different locations but the one you need is in Avenue Kaysone Phomvihane, Vientiane, Laos and is the only part of the Thai embassy that deals with Non-Thai visas.

Arriving at Udon Thani International on time I very quickly went through immigration and as you exit there are numerous guys touting for your business. You must tell them you want to go to the friendship bridge in Nong Kai about 50-60kms north of the airport and they will direct you to a booth to pay the 200 baht fee and then show you to the nearest mini-van just outside the exit. I didn't check any baggage at Don Meung airport so I was able to get a good seat in the mini-van and off we went once the van was full, 10 people after about 10 minutes. Maybe because I was the only Farang and the van had 3 elderly Thai ladies onboard the driver drove very carefully at a safe pace but as the roads are no where near as bad as the Bangkok road racers, the journey was pleasant and quick, about 30 minutes. He made 1 quick stop at Kong Kaen University to drop off a student and once we reached the bridge, called out in English where we were and parked right next to the entrance of Thai immigration. The queue was short and despite the nonsense of paying an overstay fine at a different window I was through in a few minutes picked up a 20 baht bus ticket on the right hand side out of the exit and within a few minutes we all piled into a rickety old red and white bus to travel the 2-3 kms across the border to the Laos immigration.

At Loas immigration, which is outdoors, there are 2 main booths and the one you need is on the left hand side. The application forms are inside a small window on the left side of that booth which is difficult to see. Complete the easy application form and don't forget a pen and passport size picture. Submit the form along with the fee, which for UK citizens was what I could see, was the highest price at $35 US while most other countries were charged $30. Fairly quickly the passports started to appear 1 by 1 at a 3rd window around to the right of the booth for collection but not necessarily in the same order they were presented.

Now, you have a choice and need to be prepared to haggle with a new set of Lao guys hanging around as to how you want to get to the consulate and your hotel. The guys were offering shared mini buses at around 200 baht each, although I think this was the starting price as I heard a small group of French people get 50 baht each, but not sure of their final desination. For me, I didn't want to risk being late so after a short chat with a young guy he offered to take me to the embassy, wait outside and then take me to the Doeong Dong Hotel in the middle of Vientiane which I booked with agoda.com for about 1,000 baht with breakfast for 500 baht. I'm sure I could have negotiated the price down to 200-300 just to go to the embassy but I was happy and off we went.

Outside the consular you are again bombarded with application form filling touts who offer their form filling services or photo taking services. I forgot to ask how much they charge and its upto you if you want to use their service but the form is relatively simple, name address, where you are staying in Lao etc but there are friendly staff inside the compound that are quite happy to help if you get stuck. Under the covered seated area at the back are some stairs which lead upstairs to a big room with a photocopier, just hand your passport to whoever is there and they will make the right copies of your passport for 5 baht each page, so you can save a few baht if you do this before hand. For me they wanted 2 copies of picture page and a copy of the Lao visa page at a total cost of 15 baht. There were also two members of staff there who will help you fill out the forms for free.

Back downstairs, collect a numbered ticked and on the right hand side of the seated area are 2 windows and someone calls and displays a paper sign showing which numbers are being served. They call them out in multiple of 10's (1-10, 11-20 etc.) so keep an eye open and ear ready to join the queue when your number is called. Join one of the window queues and your paperwork is checked again. Remember to ask for a double entry visa which is currently 2,000 Baht. Once verified they direct you to inside the big main consular building where you must leave your passport, photocopies and fee. They issue you a reciept with the same number on the 2nd copy of your photo page in your passport and you're free to go. All in all I was at the embassy just over 1 hour but one thing to remember is that Monday's are visa run days from many big bus companies so avoid Monday if you can. I learned this from experience but someone told me Friday's are also just as busy but I can't confirm this.

My taxi driver was patiently waiting for me outside the embassy and he took me directly to the hotel where I paid him the 500 baht and for convenience I made arrangements with him to collect me at 1pm the next afternoon and for the same fee wait for me and whisk me back to the border about 20kms away.

Day 2: The Taxi driver arrived early and we waited in the cool reception after checking out at 12:00pm for 1pm and set off the embassy. Many people were already there but the gates were open for you to collect a second numbered ticket and join the masses hanging around outside in whatever shade or fan you can find waiting for the 1:30pm opening time. The doors opened on time and everyone went into the main building which is lovely and cool inside. I was number 110 but using the same system as yesterday they called people on a very quiet P.A. system in multiples of 10 and I was out of there in about 40 minutes. Don’t forget to check the dates and that you have a double entry (No of entry 2) visa and it’s time to go home.

There are many touts outside offering Tuk-Tuks, Taxis or Vans to wherever you want to go but this was my first time and I was very conscious of the limited time so was happy that my taxi driver was ready and waiting to go.

Back at the border is just a reverse of coming but once you get through immigration on the Thai side of the border watch out for the Touts there as I found these to be a little economical with the truth as they tried to either get me a Tuk-Tuk to Nong Kai station or a Taxi direct to the airport asking initially for 800 baht. Walk past all of these guys about 50 meters and you will see the mini-vans with Nong Kai – Udon Airport written in big letters on the windscreen. These guys don’t tout and offer a flat fee of 150 Baht to the airport. The van went after about 5-10 minutes to Nong Kai (not far) to collect some more passengers, I think because he only had 3 passengers on board and then we went to the airport.

I’m sure you can manage the rest of the journey back to your home but I would highly recommend this route and encourage everyone needing to get a double entry visa to try this route. If you have any further questions please PM me and below is a copy of my itinerary. Good Luck and any further suggestions are more than welcome.

My Itinerary:

Day 1 -

Return flight from Don Mueang airport to Udon Thani International airport - 2,700 Baht

Departs 05:50am

Returns 18:35pm

Mini Van from Udon Thani airport to Friendship Bridge in Nong Kai – 200 Baht

Lao Visa (on arrival) $35.00US – about 1,200 Baht

Bus across the Friendship Bridge – 20 Baht

Taxi to Embassy and Hotel – 500 Baht

Double Entry Tourist Visa – 2,000 Baht

Hotel in Vientiane – 1,000 Baht

Day 2 –

Taxi to embassy to collect passport and back to the Friendship Bridge – 500 Baht

Bus across the Friendship Bridge – 20 Baht

Mini-Van back to Udon Thani International airport – 150 Baht

Total Basic Costs – 8,290 Baht excluding meals and entertainment