Where to do my visa run?

[nickcapolla]

Hello,

 

This is my current situation.  

I had 30-day tourist visa, extended on immigration for another 30 days. My visa is ending on 18th. I live in Bangkok.

On this Thursday (18th) I need to leave Bangkok to some other country. My plan is to get a 60 days visa. From that country I'm not flying back to Bangkok, but to Phuket.

 

So my question is - Where should I go? I'm leaving from Bangkok, but arriving at Phuket. 

If I'm well informed, I will need to sleep somewhere for 1 night, since it will take some time to get my visa.

 

I was searching the internet and I found these two, but kinda bad options

 

1) Bangkok - Udon Thani > Laos (6 am flight, 10:30 at embassy in Laos), get my visa there, spend one night, the second day fly Laos > Bangkok > Phuket

2) Bangkok - Penang. (have to fly 3 pm Thursday, will leave to Bangkok on Friday, then to Phuket. but without the visa, since there are only flights coming after embassy is closed and I would need to spend 2 days at Penang

 

What is my other option? I'm looking for something, which will take me not that much of time (1-night max) and I can fly from that location to Phuket as well. So I don't have to come back to Bangkok and then fly to Phuket.

 

Any help is really appreciated, thanks a lot

[starship]

Hi,

 

I don't think you may have time to catch the flight to Phuket. Looking quickly at Airasia (I have not checked others) the only flight to Phuket leaves Vientiane at 2.30p.m. You cannot collect your passport/visa until starting from 1.30pm on the following day you submit it. Therefore Penang seems the best option if you only want to stay one night (that's assuming you arrive early enough to submit your passport the same day).

 

The other option if 60 days is enough for you, is to repeat what you have done already and do a border run. There is an early morning van from On Nut that goes to Cambodia and/or Myanmar, then extend for 30 days as before. You can do two border runs per calender year at land borders, although best to limit these if you intend to stay in Thailand long term.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by starship
grammar

[Jeremy50]

Why not spend a few days in Laos instead of rushing off to overpriced rip off Phuket? The sleeper train is the best way to get there from Bangkok[buy the ticket a few days before you depart, and always the bottom bunk], you'll be at the embassy by 9am. Get a hotel by the river, NOT the La Ong Dao near the embassy, it's a terrible dump. The return sleeper from Nong Khai leaves at 6.30 pm, and gets into Bangkok about 7am.   PS.  Nobody in their right mind takes a long distance van journey in Thailand.

[ubonjoe]

1. Air Asia has a flight at 17:45 from Udon Thani to Phuket but  you would barely have time to make from the embassy to the airport when pickup your passprt,

You may be able to get connecting flights that would allow you do it via Bangkok.

2. You would not be able to get your visa until Monday if you applied for the visa on Friday at Penang.

You could check for flights to and from Ho Chi Minh City to apply for the visa at the consulate there,

[nickcapolla]

 

Hey guys,

 

first of all, thank you so much for your effort. It's really nice to see people are still helpful somewhere. So after gathering info from various sources, I come up with this.

 

Since my condition is to be on Friday at Phuket, I have only these three options:

 

1) On Thursday do a border run with the van to Cambodia for 2000 baht, and then on Friday fly to Phuket from Bangkok. (Total costs +- 3500 baht)

(https://www.thaivisaservice.com/)

2) On Friday morning fly somewhere out of Bangkok (Malaysia,Vietnam,Cambodia...) and then from there Immediately to Phuket. (Total cots +- 5000 baht?)

3) On Thursday fly to Kuala Lumpur/Singapore, spend there one night, see the city and on Friday fly from there to Phuket (Total costs +- 7000 baht?!)

 

--- 

I will only get stamp to be in Thailand for another 30 days and then will extend for another 30 - then will fly somewhere for the 60 days visa, since I can't repeat the process above, because this will be 2nd time me coming to Thailand with 30 days classic visa and if I'm correct you are able to do this only twice a year.

 

I would still love to go somewhere to get 60 days visa, but I can leave soonest 22 pm of Wednesday from BKK and have to be by 22:00 Friday at Phuket - you think I can still somehow make this done? (Yes, I'm talking about today)

[JackThompson]

8 minutes ago, nickcapolla said:

2) On Friday morning fly somewhere out of Bangkok (Malaysia,Vietnam,Cambodia...) and then from there Immediately to Phuket. (Total cots +- 5000 baht?)

Note that if Malaysia, you may get visa-free entry, which saves 1500 vs Cambodia's stamp.  Vietnam's visa/stamp cost depends on your passport-country.  You could combine this with the night out (HCMC or KL).  The metro-train transit-system in KL is nice, so easy to get from airport to hotel to nightlife and back around without trouble.

 

Your #1 would work (they use a friendly land-border) - but I'd be dead-tired if I did that double-whammy.

[ubonjoe]

 

19 minutes ago, nickcapolla said:

1) On Thursday do a border run with the van to Cambodia for 2000 baht, and then on Friday fly to Phuket from Bangkok. (Total costs +- 3500 baht)

That appears to be good option. You would be making the trip to the Myanmar border which is better since you will not get a full page sticker for a Cambodia visa on arrival since you just only get a small stamp for Myanmar.

 

19 minutes ago, nickcapolla said:

I will only get stamp to be in Thailand for another 30 days and then will extend for another 30 - then will fly somewhere for the 60 days visa, since I can't repeat the process above, because this will be 2nd time me coming to Thailand with 30 days classic visa and if I'm correct you are able to do this only twice a year.

The 2 visa exempt entry (not a visa of any kind) rule per calendar year rule is only at land border crossings. There is no written limit by air.

[nickcapolla]

49 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

Note that if Malaysia, you may get visa-free entry, which saves 1500 vs Cambodia's stamp.  The metro-train transit-system in KL is nice, so easy to get from airport to hotel to nightlife and back around without trouble.

 

 

So I'm thinking about this (picture). Fly on thursday afternoon to KL, see the city, then even see the city in the night (so no need to find a hotel) and around 3 AM to go to airport back to catch my morning flight to Phuket and sleep on airport/plane.

 

Any tips how to get thier money? If from ATM or just exchange bahts beforehand? Do I need anything with me to be able to fly another day back to Phuket (screen of my internet banking?) and also any tips what to do in KL?

 

 

 

[nickcapolla]

54 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

 

That appears to be good option. You would be making the trip to the Myanmar border which is better since you will not get a full page sticker for a Cambodia visa on arrival since you just only get a small stamp for Myanmar.

 

1

I'm not sure, but can I do that with that service I linked? Or can you recommend me one? So If I'm correct I can at 4 am to go Myanmar and be around 2 pm back and it will cost me total 2000 baht? Or can you please more explain? 

 

The plan above visiting KL in total cost with the flight back to bkk from Phuket is 5500 baht + expenses.

If I pay 2k baht and go Myanmar and then fly bkk>phuket>bkk, then it would be 2000 + 2000 = 4000 baht and that's almost 30% cheaper

[ubonjoe]

24 minutes ago, nickcapolla said:

I'm not sure, but can I do that with that service I linked? Or can you recommend me one? So If I'm correct I can at 4 am to go Myanmar and be around 2 pm back and it will cost me total 2000 baht? Or can you please more explain? 

I recognized the link you posted. Plus the 2000 baht you mentioned is for a run to Myanmar. Cambodia is 2400 baht.

Quote

We meet 04:45am with a departure at 05:00am. For daily trip to Kanchanaburi/Myanmar border we will use VIP Van in most cases. Border Kanchanaburi has many advantages (better price, no waste a page for visa sticker and it is closer to Bangkok). 

And: Kanchanaburi/Myanmar: Westerner & Japanese THB 2,000

 

[Jonmarleesco]

HCMC would work, but I have no idea whether you can fly direct from there to Phuket. 

[JackThompson]

2 hours ago, nickcapolla said:

So I'm thinking about this (picture). Fly on thursday afternoon to KL, see the city, then even see the city in the night (so no need to find a hotel) and around 3 AM to go to airport back to catch my morning flight to Phuket and sleep on airport/plane.

 

Any tips how to get thier money? If from ATM or just exchange bahts beforehand? Do I need anything with me to be able to fly another day back to Phuket (screen of my internet banking?) and also any tips what to do in KL?

 

 

 

KL is modern - money-exchanges and plenty of ATM machines at the airport.

 

I am not sure of your full travel-history to Thailand.  I notice your original post said you "live in Bangkok."  If you have a history of longer-stays in the past year or so, be aware that some airport IOs are not happy to issue repeat visa-exempt entries.  Both Bangkok airports are now potential nightmares for this case, but we don't have many reports of Phuket to go by - so hard to say. 

 

The one advantage of entering by safe land-crossings, is they generally just look at the 2x per-year rule for land-based visa-exempt entries.  If you have spent significant time here in the last year or so, I would go that route. 

[nickcapolla]

Hey guys, This thread can be closed, but I wanted to thank you all for your time.

 

In the end I took van to Myanmar border. We left at 5am, and were back at 2 pm. It was interesting experience and very easy one. And tomorrow I fly to Phuket. So thanks to all of you.

 

Anyway for the future, I have now 30 days tourist visa, after that I'm gonna extend for another 30 days. And what do you think should be my next step? Do the same procces again (around 15th of december) or It's better to fly lets say to Penang and make my 2months visa there? I guess thats probably better.

 

Have a nice day everyone.

[ubonjoe]

5 hours ago, nickcapolla said:

Anyway for the future, I have now 30 days tourist visa, after that I'm gonna extend for another 30 days. And what do you think should be my next step? Do the same procces again (around 15th of december) or It's better to fly lets say to Penang and make my 2months visa there? I guess thats probably better.

 

You have a 30 day visa exempt entry not a tourist visa.

Unless that was your 2nd visa exempt entry at a land border crossing this year you could do another one in December and then extend it for 30 days. Then do the tourist visa in Penang, Vientiane or someplace else.