billp

There’s no 90-day tourist visa. Tourist visas are for 60 days and can be extended by 30 days in Thailand at an immigration office. Generally you need to upload scans of your passport data page, the pages showing stamps from travel in the past year, a passport photo, a selfie of you holding your passport, your flight and hotel bookings, a recent bank statement, and employment and residence documentation. The Thai embassy in Ottawa may have some particular requirements. I’ve found it’s helpful if you have everything collected in one folder on your computer. Pdf files are now accepted, except for the photos which are obviously jpgs. That means that uploading multiple page documents is now easier.

Take the 45-day visa exemption. If the METV arrives (they send a pdf via email) while you’re in Thailand, just do a border bounce to activate it.

Bangkok taxis are not bound to use their meters for destinations outside the city limits. So a fixed fare is applicable, which is negotiable. I thought it was now 1500 baht from Suvarnabhumi to Ayutthaya, but I could be wrong. Normally, the driver would ask for more and you would try to get it for less.

Apply now for the eVisa. You still have 10 days. I got mine in 8 hours last February. If you don’t receive the visa in time, visa exempt entry is your fallback as others have said, but it’s got problems. The main one is the requirement for proof of onward travel. Strictly speaking, you must have a flight out within 30 days and you could be denied boarding if you don’t. MAYBE the check-in agent will accept your plans to apply for an extension in Thailand, but your fate is in his or her hands. Check-in agents cannot be expected to know the visa regulations of every country, so they follow the rules that come up on their screens.

The author of the article is confusing the 30-day visa exemption with the 60-day tourist visa. There is no 30-day tourist visa. So I’m guessing the Thai government is considering lengthening the visa exempt entry to 45 days. I wish there were an article written by someone who knows what he or she is talking about.