Tourist Visa Extension

[sceadugenga]

Visa Resume.

Arrived Thailand 2nd Oct 2006, granted 30 day exemption.

Visa run to Mae Sai 30th Oct, exemption renewed.

Visa run to Mae Sai 28th Nov exemption renewed.

Tourist Visa granted 27th Dec at Vientiane for 60 days.

OK, a common tale these days. This visa expired on the 25th of Feb, so I headed for Mae Sai immigration yesterday armed with the information supplied by members of this forum that I would receive an extension on payment of 1900B.

The officer there told me not to worry, just go to the border and cross over and I would receive a 30 day exemption on return.

I decided it was in my best interests to point out that it was less than 90 days since my last visa exemption ran out.

He said not to worry all would be well, so I followed his advice and saved 1400B, the difference between 1900B and the Myanmar immigration fee.

Now it's not going to bother me next time around if there's a problem as I'll be in Australia in two weeks time applying for some sort of visa with more permanency than a tourist one.

I was just curious to see whether this experience fell with in the guidelines we thought were set out last year

[soap]

i went to mae sai today to apply for my one year marriage visa(no problem)

while i was in the office i asked the head office policeman a question.

is it possible to do 3x30 day border runs,

then go out the country and return on a tourist visa 60+30day

then do another 3x30day border runs before going out again for another tourist visa?

yes was his reply

he said if you do 3x30 day visa runs then obtain a 60day tourist visa you will get another 30 days extention (cost 1,900b) you can also get an extra 7 days (cost 1,900b)

he said if you stay more than 180 days from the start of your 3x30 day visa runs to the end of your tourist visa extentions you can then go and do

3x30 day border runs again.

i also said to him,if the total stay was 178 days could i pay the overstay to bring it up to the 180 days

he said yes you can.

the officer was a very nice guy who seemed to know what he was talking about.

hope this is of help to some people

[cali4995]

Visa Resume.

Arrived Thailand 2nd Oct 2006, granted 30 day exemption.

Visa run to Mae Sai 30th Oct, exemption renewed.

Visa run to Mae Sai 28th Nov exemption renewed.

Tourist Visa granted 27th Dec at Vientiane for 60 days.

OK, a common tale these days. This visa expired on the 25th of Feb, so I headed for Mae Sai immigration yesterday armed with the information supplied by members of this forum that I would receive an extension on payment of 1900B.

The officer there told me not to worry, just go to the border and cross over and I would receive a 30 day exemption on return.

I decided it was in my best interests to point out that it was less than 90 days since my last visa exemption ran out.

He said not to worry all would be well, so I followed his advice and saved 1400B, the difference between 1900B and the Myanmar immigration fee.

Now it's not going to bother me next time around if there's a problem as I'll be in Australia in two weeks time applying for some sort of visa with more permanency than a tourist one.

I was just curious to see whether this experience fell with in the guidelines we thought were set out last year

thanks for sharing your experience there friend, not only did you manage to defy the 90 day in 6 month rule, you basically blew it out of the water and immigration told you to go ahead and break their own law. great, so what can we conclude from all this? 1) obviously, sophisticated "days calculating" software has not been installed on immigration's computers 2) maybe you'll get an immigration officer who is in a good mood or maybe you'll get one who just had a fight with his wife 3) at the end of the day, you can't possible know what will happen until you show up so you'd better have a plan "b". don't get me wrong buddy, i'm happy it worked out well for you. i joke about it but of course it is the "thai way". don't try to understand it, just go with it the best you can.

[sceadugenga]

Mate, anyone who spends time in this country without a plan B is asking for trouble, I usually have a plan C in the early preparation stages tucked away as well.

I'm glad you understood the implications of the 90 day rule being nonchalantly thrown into the too hard basket.

Like soap I was also very impressed with the service I received at the Mae Sai main immigration office.

[cali4995]

Mate, anyone who spends time in this country without a plan B is asking for trouble, I usually have a plan C in the early preparation stages tucked away as well.

I'm glad you understood the implications of the 90 day rule being nonchalantly thrown into the too hard basket.

Like soap I was also very impressed with the service I received at the Mae Sai main immigration office.

yes, it does sound like mae-sai immigration officers deserve a congeniality award. the one troubling thing, and i understood you intended to get a longer term visa anyway. if you had not planned on doing so, next month you would have been in defiance of the rules again? i'm going to stop thinking about this and work on developing my plan "c" as you suggest. hot air balloon across the mekhong or something

[lopburi3]

Bad advise. Overstay may include doing jail time if you are caught by normal police. If you are not you will still have a record of overstay in your passport. This may or may not have significance today but tomorrow who knows. Never include overstay in your plans.

[cali4995]

Bad advise. Overstay may include doing jail time if you are caught by normal police. If you are not you will still have a record of overstay in your passport. This may or may not have significance today but tomorrow who knows. Never include overstay in your plans.

only a light hearted joke lopburi, i've never overstayed even one day and don't intend to ever do so. i apologize if that had the tone of a serious thought.

[lopburi3]

Was not aiming at you in any way. It is often suggested as an easy way out even by officialdom. But the consequences can be severe and the option to be lenient should remain with Immigration for those that inadvertently make mistakes. The more people who do this the less likely it will remain a simple process and hate to see the day a real tourist has to miss his flight to attend court and be formally fined. There is also the negative perception that red stamp will give immigration officers in other countries.

[zooland]

hi, is quite not true , my friend ( USA Man) was yesterday in masei and he got only a 4 days visa , there tell him to go home.... what he do before: last year after Okt. make 2 times VOA , then he make a Tourist visa in KL get 60days, then he get a 30 days extension in chiangmai , but yesterdays he was in masei border and think he can get a again a 30 days VOA ( he use only 2 times after Okt.) , but no just 4 days VOA.

what now ??

have someone the same problem ..... and what he can do??

please help

[cali4995]

hi, is quite not true , my friend ( USA Man) was yesterday in masei and he got only a 4 days visa , there tell him to go home.... what he do before: last year after Okt. make 2 times VOA , then he make a Tourist visa in KL get 60days, then he get a 30 days extension in chiangmai , but yesterdays he was in masei border and think he can get a again a 30 days VOA ( he use only 2 times after Okt.) , but no just 4 days VOA.

what now ??

have someone the same problem ..... and what he can do??

please help

It's confusing because even at the same checkpoint, on different days, with possibly different Immigration officers, you get arbitrary decisions which not only seem to conflict which each other, but they stray from the wording of the actual Immigration law. Initially, I was completely understanding of their need to make revisions to the Immigration code but these mistakes, which seem to only penalize tourists are just wrong.

I believe other Thaivisa members have reported getting a 2nd tourist visa since these Oct 1st changes came into effect. I'm not sure how you should interpret the Immigration officer's verbal statement "go home". Supposedly, the 1st of the original 2 objectives was to get people to apply for official tourist visas at embassies/consulates so they could be screened on a more thorough database. As this has been done, obviously this gentleman isn't a security threat. The 2nd objective was to get people staying long-term on the proper visa. Perhaps this is where Immigration is making a judgement call. The system "is what it is" right or wrong. If you are denied a visa-exempt entry, your remaining options are to get a tourist or longer term visa or return to your country of origin.

[lopburi3]

You enter at the discretion of the immigration officer involved. True for any country. I suspect this person set off warning bells for some reason and got the hard stick rather than the pillow. Entry without visa is not the 'breakfast of champions' these days so I would not be making runs to non-borders trying my luck. He has 4 days to visit Vientiane or another Consulate to obtain a tourist visa and will probably not have a problem returning with that.