Consecutive visa exempt stays

[andrew12345]

We (30-something husband and wife, two small children: all American) have a 90 day trip all booked to Thailand, arriving September 6. We made the mistake of thinking the E-Visa site would list all the requirements for the visa. But the site fails to distinguish between different visa types, and nearly two weeks after our seemingly complete submissions, we got letters asking for FBI background checks, landlord tax IDs, etc. But we had booked with AirBnB! Today I find buried in the Washington DC Thai Embassy site that for a 90-day special tourist visa, AirBnB is not allowed!

 

An option is to try to get a 60 day visa and then hope to extend. But we don't have the 15 days we'd have to allow for processing. And we'd have to buy plane tickets out of Thailand on the 60th day which we may not be able to refund. I also sent one of the documents the embassy website says is required off to another government agency for another purpose and can't get another copy in the next couple days. The E-Visa submission instructions did not mention it. I may be able to get it in a week though.

 

So I'm considering two options:

 

1. A. Enter Thailand on September 6 with 30 day visa exemptions

1. B. Leave Thailand altogether after 30 days. eating half of the lodging cost for the middle part of the trip (fortunately the cheapest part of the trip), which cannot be refunded

1. C. Go somewhere else in Asia, probably Indonesia, until day 60 of the trip

1. D. Return to Thailand for the last 30 days on another visa exemption

 

2. A. Enter Thailand on September 6 with 30 day visa exemptions

2. B. Cross a border by plane after 30 days one way or another (days 29-61 of the trip are scheduled for Chiang Mai). Re-enter the same day with another visa exemption

2. C Again cross a border by plane on the 60th day, reentering the same day, for a third consecutive visa-exempt stay

 

How likely is option 2 to work? Can two consecutive visa-exempt stays be granted like that? I see that I am allowed 2 entries via land/sea crossings per calendar year but that such entry only allows 15 day stays, so it would have to be by plane. Where should we fly to from Chiang Mai for same-day return?

 

Thanks!
 

[FriendlyFarang]

You can apply for a 30 day extension with your visa exempt entry, so for 90 days total you have to leave/re-enter only once. So you can choose if you do it after 30 or 60 days.

 

3 minutes ago, andrew12345 said:

I see that I am allowed 2 entries via land/sea crossings per calendar year but that such entry only allows 15 day stays, so it would have to be by plane.

This info is wrong, by land you also get 30 days.

Edited August 24, 2022 by FriendlyFarang

[andrew12345]

Thanks. Which is more of a sure thing: the 30 day extension of visa exempt entry, or a new 30 day visa exempt period?

[ubonjoe]

1 minute ago, andrew12345 said:

Thanks. Which is more of a sure thing: the 30 day extension of visa exempt entry, or a new 30 day visa exempt period?

The 30 day extension is easy to get for a fee of 1900 baht.

[BritTim]

25 minutes ago, andrew12345 said:

Thanks. Which is more of a sure thing: the 30 day extension of visa exempt entry, or a new 30 day visa exempt period?

They are both a sure thing.

[ChomDo]

3 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

The 30 day extension is easy to get for a fee of 1900 baht.

Didn't they just announce that the 30 day extension will be changed to a 45 day extension or was that only for the first stamp?

[ubonjoe]

19 minutes ago, ChomDo said:

Didn't they just announce that the 30 day extension will be changed to a 45 day extension or was that only for the first stamp?

It is only for the visa exempt entry. No change to the 30 day extension.

[ChomDo]

4 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

It is only for the visa exempt entry. No change to the 30 day extension.

Oh ok then it won't help me. If I remember correctly the starting date for the new 45 day entry stamp was sometime in October?

[darrenr]

Sorry if this off topic if you have a 30 day visa on arrival , is day 1 of the 30 days counted as the day of arrival , so if you arrive at 8pm at night that is counted as day 1 ?

thank you 

 

[ubonjoe]

2 minutes ago, darrenr said:

Sorry if this off topic if you have a 30 day visa on arrival , is day 1 of the 30 days counted as the day of arrival , so if you arrive at 8pm at night that is counted as day 1 ?

thank you 

You appear to be asking about a 30 day visa exempt entry since a visa on arrival is only for 15 days after paying a 2000 baht fee for it.

The 30 days starts on the day you enter the country.

[andrew12345]

How close to the end of the 30 day visa-exempt period should one be before one applies for the 30-day extension of visa-exempt travel?

 

Thanks!

[DrJack54]

1 minute ago, andrew12345 said:

How close to the end of the 30 day visa-exempt period should one be before one applies for the 30-day extension of visa-exempt travel?

 

Thanks!

Couple of weeks is the norm.

You can try earlier....the immigration office will either process or tell you return later

[FriendlyFarang]

16 minutes ago, andrew12345 said:

How close to the end of the 30 day visa-exempt period should one be before one applies for the 30-day extension of visa-exempt travel?

 

Thanks!

No fixed rule, you could apply for the 30 day extension just after entering Thailand, but some immigration offices might refuse to give you the extension then and tell you to come back when it's closer to expiry, no idea why they do it though...

I would recommend to just go in the last one or two weeks, then you shouldn't have a problem. If it's important for you to know tell the people here which immigration office you will attend, maybe somebody can share their experience with this specific office.