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.

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.

Tourist visas are really the answer for the trip you’ve outlined. I don’t understand <<surprised by the level of supporting documents at the end of the application>>. What documents are those exactly? All you need to send are data page of passport, a passport picture and one of the child holding the passport, flight bookings, and a declaration which you can sign on behalf of the child. (I’m trying to remember, I think I had to send scans of my passport showing no stamps for international travel in the past two years.) Obviously employment is moot. Sponsorship is moot in most cases anyway, I don’t know why they have it in there for a tourist visa.

20 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Who cares what its called.... Its perfectly obvious to anyone with a brain what it is and whats being discussed... 

What I was reacting to is the idea that the British jargon is “universal,” “international standard.” It’s not. Far from it. Of course we understand (or can figure out) that a zebra crossing is a crosswalk, a lorry is a truck, a jumper is a sweater (and not a little girl’s sleeveless dress), but a good chunk of the world does not use those terms.

Oh and by the way, reacting to another posting, Canadian English tends to be straight-out North American Standard, not British, despite a few variant spellings that follow the British style. 

11 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

the majority of English speaking countries have been calling pedestrian crossings marked by black and white stripes painted on the road "Zebra Crossings" for many many years and for extremely obvious reasons ; and we will go on calling them by an accepted, long used and universally (and internationally) understood name

In fact they’re only called that in the UK and a few former colonies. Definitely in the United States and Canada they’re universally called “crosswalks.” As a Canadian, when I first heard British people refer to “zebra crossings” I had to figure out what they were talking about. I think Singapore and India do call them zebra crossings. Australians say “pedestrian crossings.” This is a prime example of British people assuming their home-grown jargon is universal. (Another is VAT, for example. In many other countries that have value-added tax it’s called GST — Goods and Services Tax.)

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4 hours ago, webfact said:

the significant characteristic of BA.2 is that there is no spike deletion at the 69-70 position.

 

Incredibly poor journalism not to explain the meaning and significance of this bit of jargon that was just thrown in. Usually, if you press them, scientists will explain in terms the general public can understand.

OZ457, OP, I’m having a similar issue here in Berlin. I’m trying to get a visa for a trip beginning early February. The embassy website first said appointments were required 6 to 8 weeks in advance. So I emailed for an appointment in December and got an auto-reply “All booked out in December.” So I emailed again for a date in January and this time got a reply “Appointments all booked out,” period.

But meanwhile, the embassy has posted that it would launch a new online e-visa process on November 22nd which would not require in-person attendance. They posted a link to the manual for this new process and it looks fairly straightforward. So I’m going to wait until mid-December so supposedly the kinks are ironed out, and try that. Still lots of time until my flight.

And that’s what you should do too. Your fallback is still entering visa-exempt for 30-day with a throwaway flight out of the country as others have advised, and getting an extension at Immigration while in Thailand.

22 hours ago, dj230 said:

I went to central embassy the other day and it was mainly just luxury clothing stores

In Central Embassy basement is “Eathai” a huge food court focused on Thai street food and regional cuisine. https://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2015/07/03/bangkok-food-court-eathai-central-embassy/

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Can anyone reference for me the scientific papers where they have tested the effect of mixing different vaccines?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01359-3

”The Pfizer–BioNTech booster seemed to jolt the immune systems of the Oxford–AstraZeneca-dosed participants, reported Magdalena Campins, an investigator on the CombivacS study at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. After this second dose, participants began to produce much higher levels of antibodies than they did before.”

If you had two different Covid-19 vaccinations, like for instance AstraZeneca and then an mRNA shot like Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, apparently Thailand is not recognizing this as being fully vaccinated. A number of countries are now doing this routinely including Germany (as I was — AstraZeneca and Moderna) and Canada. This is due to supply shortages and concerns about AstraZeneca’s efficacy and side effects. 

All current preliminary data shows that combining a vector vaccine (like AstraZeneca) and an mRNA vaccine brings efficacy at least as high as two doses of an mRNA shot. Some scientists think efficacy may be even higher because the protection is coming from two different angles with two different technolgies, but that’s not yet been scientifically proven. Some Canadian provinces have even been encouraging people with first shots of Pfizer-BioNTech to accept Moderna as their second dose due to a supply bottleneck, with experts there saying the two mRNA vaccines are “interchangeable.”

Now I’ve picked up a news story from Denmark, that the Thai embassy there refused to accept a Covid-19 vaccination passport with doses from two different vaccines (AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNtech) because the WHO does not yet recognize “cross-vaccination.” And authorities there refused to allow the woman to get a third shot. 

Read it for yourself: https://scandasia.com/cross-vaccinated-nordic-residents-can-not-enter-thailand-without-quarantine/

Every resident of China has to register at the local Public Safety Bureau. So it will be easy to control which city someone is coming from. This could be done by airline check-in agents before the person is allowed to fly, so no language barrier. Just like the airlines have controlled for visas and/or proof of onward travel for years.

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Regardless, I don't care about vaccines and I will not get one myself.

Here’s hoping that when a vaccine is available, they’ll make it mandatory for all those entering Thailand or applying for visa extensions.

The Berliner Morgenpost is a long-running big-city daily newspaper owned by the Springer Group, with of course a website as all have nowadays, not a “local online news agency.”

The article dates to March 6th when it was still possible to travel in Thailand. When I left Thailand on March 26th, I was surprised at the lack of any form of health control when I arrived at Frankfurt Airport. Here in Berlin, almost no one is wearing a mask. A few people are learning how to sew their own masks. There is no hand gel being offered all over the place like in Bangkok, in fact rather a shortage of hand sanitizer at the moment. With the fine spring weather in the past week, many people are out in parks, and young people in particular are often disregarding social distancing regulations.

Still, someone must be doing something right, because infection rates are relatively low for Europe, and in Berlin there have been only 40 fatalities so far. Overall, Germany has about 3000 deaths compared to 15,000 in neighbouring France.

As above, all 18 countries with VOA are included in the suspension including those small islands. Apart from the obvious concerns regarding travellers from China and India, the rationale may be to end the Visa on Arrival scrums at the airports, which was an obvious choke point to pass on the disease.

I posted the link confirming 10,000 baht on another forum, and one of the moderators there insisted that there have been numerous reports of IOs asking to show 20,000 baht for visa exempt entries.

So, anyone here ever been asked for 20,000 on a visa exempt?

Jackdd, many thanks.

@Jackdd, sadly, I can't read enough Thai to understand the document you posted. Does it specifically mention visa exempt? Because many people seem to believe you now need 20,000 baht to enter on visa exempt.

My impression is that the shorter periods of stay — visa exempt, VOA and transit visa — are still 10,000 baht as they always were. Just the tourist and other longer-stay visas require 20,000.

The requirement is 20,000 baht per FAMILY. About $630 US.

How about Canary Islands? Temperature ranging from 20-25°C year round. Can be quite cool in the winter but never really cold. The two main islands have real cities in the north and busy tourist strips on the south coasts. Lots of English-speaking expats and visitors.

You have to show bank statements for a single-entry tourist visa??? I’ve never had to do that, including just last week in Berlin.

On 1/4/2019 at 6:20 PM, arithai12 said:

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Did you read my post at all? Only if you’re traveling on a protected connection – one ticket, one PNR can you remain in transit. If you have two separate PNRs, you have to clear Immigration, claim baggage and re-check-in. Then you need a visa.