Quick Question Re: 30 Day Visa Free Entry

[Hanaguma]

Canadian citizen here. I am planning a 6 week trip to the LOS this summer. Sometime in the middle of my trip I need to decide how to renew my 30 day visa free status- either a visa run to Laos or an extension at the immigration office.  
 

Question is this; Will I have trouble when I first enter Thailand? I will only have 30 days entry, but my return trip ticket will be about 40 days later.  Or will the immi people just assume that I will get a renewal/do a visa run? Asking if I will need to book a "throwaway" flight out of the country during my stay. 

 

Thanks!

[ubonjoe]

You can extend your 30 day visa exempt entry for 30 days at immigration without a problem.

 

The airline can ask to see a ticket out of the country within 30 days. That can be a one way ticket to anywhere or you could get a temporary onward ticket online (search for onward ticket).

[Hanaguma]

Quote

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

You can extend your 30 day visa exempt entry for 30 days at immigration without a problem.

The airline can ask to see a ticket out of the country within 30 days. That can be a one way ticket to anywhere or you could get a temporary onward ticket online (search for onward ticket).

Thanks. I was looking into a refundable ticket to use as an onward ticket and they are getting hard to find! Most airlines have either fees to get a refund, or in the case of LCCs, no refund at all. So far I think only Malaysian Airlines has a fully refundable ticket, if you purchase the correct one.  

[ubonjoe]

6 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

Thanks. I was looking into a refundable ticket to use as an onward ticket and they are getting hard to find! Most airlines have either fees to get a refund, or in the case of LCCs, no refund at all. So far I think only Malaysian Airlines has a fully refundable ticket, if you purchase the correct one.  

Try getting the temporary onward ticket I mentioned (try this site onwardticket.com that costs $14).

[DrJack54]

If in Bangkok for extension you will go to IT mall Laski

[nana kid]

IT Mall   Laski    Please explain

[ubonjoe]

20 minutes ago, nana kid said:

IT Mall   Laski    Please explain

There is new immigration office there that does visa exempt entry 30 day extensions.

Info here: https://bangkok.immigration.go.th/en/courses/muangthongthani-will_be-closed/

[DrJack54]

21 minutes ago, nana kid said:

IT Mall   Laski    Please explain

Actually type in IT Square Laski and you will see location. 

It's on the 3rd floor.

There are photocopy machines.

You can make an appointment.

If you enter visa exempt you will obtain your 30 day extension to visa exempt entry at that office. 

 

[steve187]

i don't see the point of obtaining a 30 day visa exempt entry, paying for a throw away ticket of some sort to keep the airline happy, then having to travel within Thailand to an immigration office to obtain a 30 day extension 1,900thb, instead of obtaining a tourist vis 60 day stamp on entry in your home country, unless of course they are hard to get in some countries, maybe the op has this problem, i see they are 50cad

[AlbionBob]

Came in with KLM 10 Days ago in same scenario.  Staying 56 days, but entered on Visa Exempt.  KLM did not query lack of onward flight within the 30 days.  Immigration Officer asked at Bangkok.  I just stated that "I get extension".  She stamped me in for 30 days.  I will go to Jomptien in the next week or so for the extension.

[biggles45]

It may be that a consulate/embassy in their country is a great distance, or has a strict requirements regime to issue.

In my case the embassy is 120km away, by public transport. The big killer is that they take at least 2 working days to issue, so I have to hotel stay 2 nights or go home and return

[10years]

Of course it makes sense to get a e-visa online rather than spend a good part of a day trekking to Laksi. And I personally dread any dealings with immigration. But pre-pandemic you could get a TV in 15 minutes. Now you have to have 15 days. In my case I decided on the spur of the moment on a late Friday to go to Thailand on the following Tuesday. That's one working day to get a visa. So I had no choice but to board the plane w/o a visa.

 

I flew on Philippine Airlines. My return flight was a month and a half away, but got no grief. On PAL and JAL, you can book a return flight within 30 days, then when you're here in LOS, change the return flight to a later date. Some airlines aren't charging any change fees. 

 

On my arrival card, where it asks the duration of your visit, I put 30 days. The IO said to me, oh, you didn't get a visa. I see, you're only staying 30 days, then stamped me in. But as I passed him, I told him I would have to get an extension since I had no time to get a visa.

[geisha]

Some Thai embassies are a real pain. I tried for a month to get an evisa visa back in January as did a friend of mine . He left without his visa ( paid for),and seeing this I didn’t bother and came in exempt. My fiend received his after he arrived in Bangkok. I just did the extension. This was Paris.

The government really need to wake up some of these embassies. They are loosing a lot of money over this reluctance to respect visa demand .

[Hmunker]

23 hours ago, steve187 said:

i don't see the point of obtaining a 30 day visa exempt entry, paying for a throw away ticket of some sort to keep the airline happy, then having to travel within Thailand to an immigration office to obtain a 30 day extension 1,900thb, instead of obtaining a tourist vis 60 day stamp on entry in your home country, unless of course they are hard to get in some countries, maybe the op has this problem, i see they are 50cad

Well don’t think they are hard to get as most are done online now(e visa).But they want to see pre-booked flight in/out of Thailand and some accommodation pre-booked too.So if you want to go to Thailand at a few days notice don’t think you will get visa back in time.Also if want to stay a bit longer will have to change return date with airline.So that will be a cost too.