Wnated to aplly for non immigrant o family in savannakhet and ended up crossing for an exempt sunday march 22

[CantKeepAGoodManDown]

I have joined after considerable lurking over the past few days to respond to this and other questions given my recent experience.

 

I posted this as a response in another topic but figured it may merit its own topic, I hope this is acceptable.

 

What happened to me yesterday would not have been possible had I waited another few hours, let alone another day.

 

I am also very curious as to the experience of @heist who is picking up his non o in savannakhet today and returning home. Hope his trip goes well.

 

I was scheduled to apply for non immigrant o (family) at savannakhet, I was unable to arrive in savannakhet to submit my application friday, so instead I flew sunday 22 march via airasia to nakhon panom and took the airasia shuttle to the bridge.

 

My current non o visa expires on 25 march,  no extension option left.

 

I was greeted by a taxi driver with excellent english who showed me the newly issued order for the closure of the border sunday 22 evening. I was told I could not exit the country. I was told this by an immigration official in the terminal in no uncertain terms.

 

As that was not what I wanted to hear, I went to the information counter inside and explained I had spoken to savannaket consulate friday and they informed me I would be ok to submit for non o monday.

 

I was informed at the border  the embassy was closed monday. I would assume that only pick ups of documents would be acceptable, but the border would be closed sunday night. Not sure how that worked for people already in laos.

 

I was referred to an older woman at desk 1.

 

I explained again.

 

She looked over my visa application, consulate issued laos visa, my stamp history etc, and told me that I had to go and come back now and be happy with 30 days, this was after about 20 minutes of talking and contrary to what other officials milling about the terminal had told me.

 

She told me to expect problems getting into and back out of laos but said I could come back into thailand if I were quick. That was good enough for me. After 3 temerature checks and a stamp from a guy in a thai quarantine uniform, she stamped me out.

 

On the laos side, I was greeted with concern.

 

I explained again.

 

My laos visa, procured thursday, was heavily scrutinized, 3 officials had an involved discussion on what to do with me while laos returning hime were processed around me and I was not given an entry card to fill in.

 

A fourth official was called and I explained again my desire to go to the consulate which was to be closed and that I only wanted to bounce in and out.

 

They told me i would not be allowed back in to thailand. I explained again that I had just been through this in thailand and was operating under their instruction to go out and come back in.

 

I was stamped in, asked them about the entry card and they just waved me though without one.

 

I turned around to go back through the foot traffic side and all kiosks were closed.

 

I went back to the guys who stamped me in and they took me into an office where 3 older guys looked at my passport for like 20 mins. I was told I would not be allowed back into thailand that I was the only foreigner they had let in today.

 

I explained again.

 

Eventually, one guy took me out to a kiosk in the  the car lanes, where thais were returning home, with cars waiting behind me they asked me where my entry card was.

 

The guy with me said I did not have one and to just let me go, he left.

 

Laos official stamped me out, charged me 100 baht for overtime processing because pedestrian border was closed and no card.

 

Met some younger thais on other side working as interns for thai lao company who were being sent back to thailand.

 

They had a minvan to take them back to thaI side and gave me a ride.

 

On the other side, I was pulled aside and had to provide a travel history for the last month, laos was the only country other than thailand I had visited.

 

Temperature checks were done, entry card stamped to indicate I was "clean".

 

Upon returning the crusty but cool older woman  who stamped me out smiled and said you made it. You are lucky

 

She stamped me in, with no further requests for documents, I had insurance and clinic issued cert saying no symptoms, they were never requested nor offered by me.

 

I got a flight online and a minivan back to nakhon panom, and was back in bkk on my sofa 15 intense hours after I left.

 

It took extreme patience and politeness to get it done.

 

I told my story many times to every new official I encountered. 

 

I stressed repeatedly I did not want an overstay and I was aftaid of the smart bmw. That got a laugh.

 

I needed to speak both thai and english depending on who in as talking to, often a mixture of both, on on all I waied my best wai, something I never do. It was returned by all as well.

 

My thai is good, not great, but without it I dint think I would have even got out of thailand let alone back into laos and back in.

 

The thai side was much more organized than the laos side who were solely concerned with letting their own back in and thais out.

 

Obviously, it was a time between policies and persistence was required to make anything happen. 

 

What a day.

 

Btw, I will not continue posting to thaivisa in any regular sense, I just wanted to share.

[steve187]

2 hours ago, CantKeepAGoodManDown said:

My current non o visa expires on 25 march,  no extension option left.

was that a multi entry non imm 'O' visa that expires on the 25th, or a single entry or a permission to stay stamp or extension, because as it reads you should have received a 90 day stamp, so i assume as you didn't, you did not have what you posted above

[Puchaiyank]

Thank you for sharing your adventure.  You are quite lucky to have as many immigration officials cooperate with your visa needs.  

 

I suspect there are others who have tried the visa run to Laos with a much different outcome...

[Chrysaora]

4 hours ago, CantKeepAGoodManDown said:

Btw, I will not continue posting to thaivisa in any regular sense, I just wanted to share.

You are much too sensible to post here.  Take that as a compliment. 

You didn't say if you wore a mask throughout the trip.  Did you?

[heist]

Well done on getting in and out. Really happy to hear you made it. 

The Consulate called me on Sunday to say come and get your passport NOW because the bridge is closing that day. They were trying to round up every foreigner in Savannakhet and get them home asap. 

Also had travel insurance and medical certificate but neither was requested - just had to do the TM8 at the border and pose for a photo with the quarantine guys. Ironically my wife had a temperature so they rechecked it twice, told her to splash some water on her face then let her through. She's a teacher though so she does bring home a few colds every now and then. 

In any case we've going into isolation for 2 weeks just in case. Wore masks the whole trip, frequent hand washing and avoiding leaving the hotel room apart from the trip to the consulate. 

Anyway, huge thankyou to the staff at the consulate for the warning and opening on Sunday so everyone could get home. 

At the border it seemed like they just wanted to get everyone through as quickly as possible. Even the Thai immigration officer who spent a good 5 minutes going off at me when she stamped me out of Thailand had little to say when she stamped me back in.