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My partner and I had such a good time in Laos earlier this month, we are thinking of actually moving there.

Problem is...there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of information regarding how to get the proverbial ball rolling, so I wonder please if somebody could be kind enough to point me in the right direction?

I'm interested to know what type of visa we'd need (being British, my partner being Thai), how to find accommodation and any other pearls of wisdom you may feel are appropriate.

I was at the immigration office in Bangkok last week and while I was sitting and waiting I saw a hand written sign by the window that usually handles tourist visa extensions. It read, "Only 7 day extensions for all visas".

So this may mean that they may be changing the policy or enforcing a policy that was previously unenforced.

Hmmm...interesting, this post is now starting to sound like that old Flanagan and Allen song - "There's a hole in my bucket"!

FWIW, I just called the Government Contact Center (Tel: 1111) and someone there told me I could apply for a "15-day extension" with my tourist visa. When I explained that I'd received a 30-days extension with my first tourist visa, the lady exclaimed "Ah, you get 30-days with your first visa only". I didn't want to cloud the issue by telling her I'd also received 30-day extensions for each entry of a multiple tourist visa issued in Kuala Lumpur last November - so I just politely thanked her and hung-up.

Absolutely, Udon.

Unless you have permanent residence, we are all "dogs" just with different lengths of leash.

I guess doing the superior dance is just part of human nature ... the DARK side.

Nice post Jingthing...FWIW I'm in TOTAL agreement with UdonRoy too!

You've done us a great service by posting your experience UdonRoy and thank you for nailing the key points so that other's in your situation (living here legally on a tourist visa) can be forewarned.

Its a tough deal, sure, but remember we are guests in this country and must respect the authorities. Perhaps you should review your visa situation and find something more fitting to your needs than repeated tourist visas.

Good Luck

Bruce

Appreciate the tip bruceboy but I do (respect the authorities) and I have (reviewed my visa situation). Until I'm 50 years old, I am just one of tens of thousands who fall through the visa gap!

Did last week with Jack again .... His profits must have been minimized .... no soft drink is offered on departure ... I guess 30 persons x THB 10 really shatters your profit ....

Buses are still the most comfortable. If you can live with their staff and the bickering for tips, for me still the best solution.

I used to be a Jacks' stalwart until on two consecutive visa runs I had to travel in their minibus, having been told while booking my trip that they were taking their coach.

IMHO and most respectfully sniffdog I think that Thai Visa Run has now taken the "most comfortable" mantle from Jack, as they seem to check their shock absorbers more frequently, plus you get a drink and you get some food and the staff seem to be more knowledgeable, etc.

Unfortunately the extensions are at the discretion of the officer...

Good point Krub, this is a phrase continually bantered around but if you're unhappy with what's being meted out, doesn't the officer have a superior he's answerable to?

I've always used the chain of command in other countries (US, UK, EU). Does that not work here in LOS?

I do not know which country you belong to, but seems like nowadays people are more relying on power, instead of peace, negotiations and talks. Governments of US and UK are the biggest liars and full of fanatics who are promoting violence and terrorism in this world.

Well speaking as someone who comes from one of the countries you mention above ajarnmark and having lived in the other for almost half my life...I couldn't agree with you more.

the whole purpose of the visa is to make you sweat and voluntaryily just leave without to much work on there part. if anyone cares to tell me wrong then explain who it helps to force expats to leave the country and go to another embassy abroad for visas to come back. and go thru all the hassle?

Respectfully I disagree with your "sweat" theory and FWIW I think this article here (entitled Thailand's New Immigration Regulations) has a pretty good explanation; even though I agree with you that a necessity to depart LOS seems rather archaic in an information age where hi-tech computers can do what's needed.

Respectfully, I have a couple of suggestions eek:

1. If you have a Thai partner, ask your partner to accompany you, hand your partner all your completed tourist visa paperwork and ask him/her to do all the talking when you get to the front of the visa-acceptance line.
   
2. Tell your partner to request a multiple-entry (2x) tourist visa, because you plan to take a romantic train ride sojourn to Langkawi Island.
   
3. Get yourselves two train tickets from Hualamphong to Arau (Malaysia) for a date about 5-weeks after you arrive back in LOS and either go to Langkawi Island, or if your schedule doesn't permit such a trip - cancel the tickets for a refund of up to 80%.
   

This "10" seems to have been in response to a Thai asking and suspect it was not intended to be taken literally.

Yes it was lopburi3, my Thai partner asked one of the First Secretaries (on my behalf) and his response was probably due to the fact that he felt a little embarrassed by my partner's reaction when without knowing a thing about me, I was adjudged to be yet "another" stupid, beer guzzling, sex trafficking, dirty, loud, obnoxious farang.

FWIW it certainly pays to take your Thai partner (wife, girlfriend, husband, boyfriend) with you on visa runs, as being Thai - they have the right to ask for (and get) what you cannot. One other advantage of having your partner accompany you is that you'll have someone to talk to when enjoying dinner!

As for your question Crossy you're absolutely right Sir, it would have been moot paying ฿10,000 (฿1,000 per entry) for a 3-month tourist visa. Even 6-months would have been stretching it a bit as well.

I'd be surprised if a triple entry tourist would be issued to an applicant in Brussels. A double is probably the best available. With 2 30 day extensions and 1 border crossing that would enable a 6 month stay in Thailand..

FWIW and most respectfully - I was told I could have a decuple (10x) entry tourist visa coming through Vientiane last week (but that's another story) and I have acquaintances who have received triple and quadruple entry tourist visas from London within the past 30-days, so IMHO dennis13...I would definitely ask.

Buy a cheap Air Asia ticket for 500 baht if you're really worried.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that option is available any more...since the ฿700 exit tax was included in the price of every outbound international air ticket.

No, usually when I hire a Malaysian to deliver my fake credit cards I offer about B4-5k. All my fake credit card friends pay that amount.

Yes; so do mine!

What about taking a trip to the other Cambodian checkpoint located at Ban Laem (aka Pong Nam Ron)? Can anyone advise Mangkud the names of current visa run operators that provide the ubiquitous ฿200 bus ticket option please?

Hello dennis13.

You might want to check with the Royal Thai Embassy in Brussels because obtaining a tourist visa in your home country, I believe your visa would have a 6-month validity and not three.

If the tourist visa is indeed valid for only 3-month like you say, you could apply for a multiple-entry (2 entry) visa and on arrival here, you'll receive a stamp in your passport valid for 60-days, which you can then extend at immigration for a further 30-days. Okay then, what you'll need to do next is pay careful attention to your visa, the part that reads "ENTER BEFORE" and ensure you take a visa run the day before stated date; if you're going to be staying in Bangkok - that'll involve a 'pleasant' 9-hour return journey to Cambodia in order to obtain another 60-day stamp, which again you'll be able to extend for another 30-days.

That means a 3-month tourist visa could permit a stay here of anything up to 6-months; bearing in mind the date you initially arrive here of course - after your visa has been issued, plus there would be a need to do one visa run.

Now then, if the tourist visa issued to you is in fact valid for 6-months and not three (like in the example above), you could apply for 3 entries (instead of 2) then you'll be able to go on one more visa run, get stamped-in for another 60-days and extend once again at immigration - for yet another 30-days.

Check with the Embassy then please dennis13, as I believe you'll receive a tourist visa with a 6-month validity, that will permit you to stay here for up to 9-months - with a requirement to go on two visa runs.

Will be going to Vientiane shortly for a TV run. Can anyone recomend a hotel with AC and cable tv under 20$, and rough directions to it. Thanks

Yes indeed!

I can highly recommend the:

Mali Namphu Guesthouse

114 Pang Kham Road

Vientiane

Tel: +856 21 215-093

Email: [email protected]

FWIW I spent a few days there last week and the cost was US$16 (฿550) per night, which included breakfast.

If interested, I recommend you email them first to enquire about availability and request a ground floor room in their courtyard complex. This guesthouse is located pretty much in the heart of what's happening in Vientiane and is only a short walk (approximately 300-meters) from the Mekong River...where there are loads of great eateries and watering holes.

Postscript: A return tuk-tuk ride to and from the Thai Visa Office should cost you no more than ฿100, which includes the cost of the driver waiting for you whether you're in line for 10-minutes or 3-hours! Don't be hustled into paying ฿250 as ฿100 is more than adequate.

provide proof of pre-existing travel outside LOS during the first 60-day period of arriving back into Thailand and my multiple-entry requests were both granted.

But most of the posters here do not have any such travel plans. They are using tourist visas to live in Thailand long term and thus will not be likely to obtain more than one entry.

I've gotta take issue with this. How on earth would you know what MOST posters travel plans are ?

Secondly to suggest that tourist visas are being used for long term stay in Thailand is really raising a red flag. Why do that. (rhetorical)

I've stayed here years on long term visas and have no wish to abuse the tourist visa easy as it may be to do.

I think you stated many a time that multi entry tourist visas are available in Penang, for whatever flimsy reason, but not so in Laos , Cambo and KL.

This thread is getting out of order

I don’t know who is first credited with saying “a week is a very long time in politics” but 60-days is a really long time in visaland where, pre-existing travel arrangements – can and do unfortunately either change or get cancelled.

Let me share with you that I certainly don’t abuse the system but I most certainly use the existing mechanism to request what I need.

All I can say is that the key here is satisfying the provisions of the aforementioned ‘duck test’ and having a rhetorical ‘Plan B’ (in this instance having my Thai partner accompany me in order to speak for me), should your ‘Plan A’ fail.

You’re welcome cali but I can’t believe that I am the only one being permitted multiple-entry tourist visas. You know – there must be an ‘element of truth’ about what the First Secretary told my partner. I mean people don’t think they’re going to get a multiple-entry visa...so they don’t even bother to ask.

In this case and also in my first proper visa run to Kuala Lumpur last November, all I did was provide proof of pre-existing travel outside LOS during the first 60-day period of arriving back into Thailand and my multiple-entry requests were both granted.

It’s true, I think my partner’s intervention played a big part in Vientiane but IMHO I also believe that with any multiple-entry visa application, the powers that be (at each respective Royal Thai Embassy) who’ll inspect your application will simply employ the ‘duck test’ (if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck) and so long as you have all the accompanying paperwork – you should walk away with a result.

On the note of the exchange rates you were getting last week it was high at the beginning and has gone back down over the week. However I've never saw 291 on offer - which exchange was this at (I am guess not the one by the side of the visa booth?)?

The ₭291 to ฿1 rate referred to was stuck on a window pane approximately 10-meters behind and to the left of the visa booth as I entered Laos. FWIW after departing the border area, I never did see such a high-rate again.

I don't know the reply to your question but as you recieved the visa the day you activate it by going back to Thailand with a 1 month exptension even though the visa is only valid for 3 months, you get nearly 6 months stay with 1 visa run. All legaly !

Exactly right Krub and technically, if I so desired - I wouldn't have to do another Visa Run to Vientiane until sometime next year...in May (60TV + 30EXT + 60TV + 30EXT + 30VE + 30VE + 30VE); although saying that I would have to go to either Aranyaprathet or Ban Laem (Pong Nam Ron) four times during this period.

Hi

You seem to have received a 2 emtries tourist visa. Is it valid for 3 or 6 months ?

The tourist visa is valid for a 3-month period. FWIW and please correct me if I'm wrong but I think the only places that issue 6-month visas are North America, the EU and the Antipodes.

You’re absolutely right in what you say cali; it was a great piece of insight (the “Dirty Passport” comment) I would never have realized that’s how Thai immigration labels me (and the tens of thousands of other farang in my position) had my partner not accompanied me. So now I’m beginning to understand just why my passport was unceremoniously tossed back in my face one time at Aranyaprathet!

Okay then to answer your question, “Yes”; I received a multiple-entry tourist visa and as it happens so too did an American lady standing in line with us who simply chanced her arm at the last moment.

As I wrote in my report...the First Secretary told my partner that the Thai Embassy was more than happy and prepared to issue me “10 entries” (slight overkill), but I think it was more a case that the Thai official felt embarrassed by being called to task and wrong-footed by a fellow Thai national (my partner). FWIW had I gone to Vientiane alone, I wouldn’t have dared complain as I would surely have been reminded that being neither Thai nor Lao – I was not entitled to use the Consular Section there period!

You're currently getting 278,500kip to a 1000baht - which is nice, it was 285 the previous week.

FWIW the money exchange at the Laos border coming through was quoting ₭291 per ฿1, whilst the banks were giving ₭282 and the shops ₭285 respectively.

We heard that they are not giving multiple entry visas and the not happy about all the people trying to attain visas there.

FWIW I had no problems obtaining a multiple-entry Tourist Visa when I visited Vientiane earlier last week. If you click here, you can read what actually happened. I hope this helps!

I have found the Thais working in the Vietienne embassy to be unpleasant at times.

Thanks for your response jasreeve17. The irony about what you say - which contradicts what I wrote about the friendliness of Laos people - is that all the people you'll probably come across at the Royal Thai Embassy (The Visa Acceptance Clerks and Cashiers), are all Laos! The First Secretary explained to my partner that this apparent unpleasantness was probably due to the fact that most of their Laos employees are quite shy and inexperienced at handling so many people.