A Good Visa Run Service In Pattaya?

[Richb2004v2]

Today I went to my local immigration office to get a 10 day extension to my 30 day Visa, as I have done several times before. It seems the ten day extension is now only a seven day extension for the same money. Seven days is not enough, as my flight back to work is in ten days.

What visa runs are offered in Pattaya and how much do they cost? Can anyone recommend a good service?

I might not use it this time but might be a better option for the future instead of 1900 Baht for 7 days.

Any suggestions?

[funfun]

Today I went to my local immigration office to get a 10 day extension to my 30 day Visa, as I have done several times before. It seems the ten day extension is now only a seven day extension for the same money. Seven days is not enough, as my flight back to work is in ten days.

What visa runs are offered in Pattaya and how much do they cost? Can anyone recommend a good service?

I might not use it this time but might be a better option for the future instead of 1900 Baht for 7 days.

Any suggestions?

i just posted on your other thread, be very carefull about a jog to cambodia etc as you might end up in no mans land?

your other quick option might be an embassy in say kl or pennang, but for 3 days?

cant you change your flight? save a lot of hassle for the futre comings and goings maybe?

[theseveredhead]

When you book a run few compaies have their own vans. This is esp true now w/ low season and visa issues.

here's one that alwyas has worked well for me. On Soi Bukhao near BriEnjoy Hotel/Travel (north), same side (near soi 15???). B1700 everyday.

runs are taking longer as the vans go father afield for punters as they are fewer.

[Shagwell]

Another popular run is called Cambodia Inter on Soi Buakow south of Diana on the East side of Buakow. 1700 includes lunch.

Edited July 27, 2007 by Shagwell

[tropo]

Another popular run is called Cambodia Inter on Soi Buakow south of Diana on the East side of Buakow. 1700 includes lunch.

That's they one I'll be using next month. I haven't been on their Cambodia run yet but they are very reasonably priced and the only mob that don't rip off the Filipinos expecting a full 1000 baht plus stamp charge....they charge her only 500 baht for transport, but are still asking for a stamp charge of 250.

How are they going with requirements? Are they doing it with a Cambodian bus ticket purchase or must all runners show air tickets?

[Meg_2003]

How are they going with requirements? Are they doing it with a Cambodian bus ticket purchase or must all runners show air tickets?

You will have to pay 200 baht for a bus ticket at the border (rip off! )

I also go with Cambodia inter, as I personally know the boss, Nisan.. They are very good and charge just 500 for an extra person going..

[onzestan]

Overstay Baht 500/day payable at airport immigration.

Make your own calculation

cheers

onzestan

[theseveredhead]

hey tropo - that seat could be taken up by someone paying full freight.

why dont you send her off on the yellow bus to poipet? its only about b250 i suppose by now. or she can dyi to pailin via chantaburi for peanuts as well.

i wont say how my visa company deals 'with it all' you can see it when you see it.

7 days = 3500B, more than double not to mention showing up overstay for a week +, pretty darn flagrant.

cambodia inter...hmmm, wonder if its the same place im using. the free lunch is good as long as its thai. not some pathetic whitebread disaster. bfd - good thai food - b25.

Edited July 28, 2007 by theseveredhead

[tropo]

hey tropo - that seat could be taken up by someone paying full freight.

why dont you send her off on the yellow bus to poipet? its only about b250 i suppose by now. or she can dyi to pailin via chantaburi for peanuts as well.

i

I miss your point, or is it humour?

She does pay "full freight". Work it out:

I pay 1,700. Of that 1000 is for the visa (maybe more) and the rest for transport.

She pays 750 because she doesn't need a Cambodian Visa. The 250 for a stamp fee is probably just an excuse to hike up her fare.

Either way the visa service is making the same.

Edited July 28, 2007 by tropo

[Kerryd]

I used to use a visa run company (5 Star), but then realised that I could do it myself just as easy. I started getting my landlady's daughter to drive me to the border. The paperwork is easy, and on a good day from start to finish I could be done in 15 minutes.

By leaving a little later in the morning, you miss the hordes of visa run companies. No movie to watch during the trip, but you have your choice of places to stop and eat on the way.

1,100 baht for the Cambo visa and entry/exit stamps, plus gas and what ever I pay Bo for the trip. Cost wise it's probably similar to what I'd pay using a company, but this way is more convenient, and you don't have to deal with some of the more "illustrious" visa runners.

[Meg_2003]

hey tropo - that seat could be taken up by someone paying full freight.

why dont you send her off on the yellow bus to poipet? its only about b250 i suppose by now. or she can dyi to pailin via chantaburi for peanuts as well.

i

I miss your point, or is it humour?

She does pay "full freight". Work it out:

I pay 1,700. Of that 1000 is for the visa (maybe more) and the rest for transport.

She pays 750 because she doesn't need a Cambodian Visa. The 250 for a stamp fee is probably just an excuse to hike up her fare.

Either way the visa service is making the same.

Tropo is correct.

1,700 baht minus the 1,100 for the Cambodian Visa is 600 baht.. So the visa shop is making the same amount of profit whoever takes the seat..

[theseveredhead]

tropo is not correct. the visa is us20 (says it on the sign at ever xing). when i used to diy i never, ever paid b1000. that is the farang sucker price. ill let you guys do the math and as the dollar falls, you/she are getting even more ripped off.

yellow bus about 125 ea way incidently. i used to do this (9 hours) but the yellow bus became really full and returns late at night. this would cost me b1250 all in. i have not done thi srun in a long time.

i did the run thru rayong-chantaburi-pailin but that wa smore hassle and only saved one hour. now i just use a b1700 service -but back to doing it proper way (penang) as i used to do yrs ago -but at least i culd get a multi.

this single thing in penang make thai visas VERY expensive.

ps: no attempt at humour there or here. just the fact's maa'm

Edited July 30, 2007 by theseveredhead

[theseveredhead]

yes. i would like to confirm - i use pattaya inter.

[gharknes]

nip down to whetherspoons pub on soi bukeow just beside the family mart at the top of soi diana, you'll see 2 red telephone boxes outside, go in and have a chat to find out what exactly it is you need for the remainder of your stay, in my opinion they have the best service, good busses and offers of free food departure and the return.

[libya 115]

I used to use the 'Sportsman' pub visa run service on Soi 13, Pattaya Beach Road. It was 2400 baht, but they used to go to a very quiet Cambodian border 'Pong Nam Rawn' and it was quick. Plus it was a VIP bus with room for those of us with extra long legs and a lunch thrown in with Scotch eggs!

Recommended!

[Kerryd]

Recommended!

You're Alive !!!

Bummer. We were just about to go rooting through your stuff and stealing/selling anything worthwhile !

[tropo]

tropo is not correct. the visa is us20 (says it on the sign at ever xing). when i used to diy i never, ever paid b1000. that is the farang sucker price. ill let you guys do the math and as the dollar falls, you/she are getting even more ripped off.

Tropo is correct.

1000 - 1200 baht (it varies with the company) is what the visa run services charge customers to GET your Cambodian visa, regardless of the $20 fee the government actually charges.

How they divide up the additional 330 - 530 baht is not my business. They (the visa run serives) quote me a price and I have the choice to take it or leave it.

The intention of my post was to explain to you that they (Cambodia Inter) don't make more or less money with a Filipino at the rates I stated.

I would not choose to do the run on my own when some companies are still charging so little for the service.

Edited August 1, 2007 by tropo

[Meg_2003]

tropo is not correct. the visa is us20 (says it on the sign at ever xing). when i used to diy i never, ever paid b1000. that is the farang sucker price. ill let you guys do the math and as the dollar falls, you/she are getting even more ripped off.

yellow bus about 125 ea way incidently. i used to do this (9 hours) but the yellow bus became really full and returns late at night. this would cost me b1250 all in. i have not done thi srun in a long time.

i did the run thru rayong-chantaburi-pailin but that wa smore hassle and only saved one hour. now i just use a b1700 service -but back to doing it proper way (penang) as i used to do yrs ago -but at least i culd get a multi.

this single thing in penang make thai visas VERY expensive.

ps: no attempt at humour there or here. just the fact's maa'm

Sorry - You are wrong.

I am friends with the owner of Cambodia Inter, have known him a couple of years now, and I also know the driver guy. Every time I go, I SEE him hand over 1,100 baht for each passport to the Cambodian's who sort out the Visa forms ect at the border.

Maybe its $20 for the Visa, but Cambodia Inter is charged 1,100 baht per person for the Cambodia Visa. (Ok, its actually 1,000 + the extra 100 baht that everyones gotta pay)

Your argument was that Cambodia Inter will make less money from someone just paying for a seat rather than going for an actual Visa run, not the different in price if you go alone and get your own Visa.

Next time you go, Whilst you are waiting at the wooden table in Cambodia, Just watch how much the driver hands over whilst the passports are being sorted out on the table.

Edited August 1, 2007 by Meg_ken2003

[theseveredhead]

all i am simply saying is that if you or she did the trip on your own, youd be charged us20 if you can deal with the visa guys.

yes, that is my argument. i would be utterly shocked to find that these guys pay that sum of money. in fact... my hunch is that they pay the usd = to us25.

if they are paying that sort of money. that leaves b600 pp on about 9 seats = b5400.

petrol has to be 1400, auto lease/insurance 1500, pay driver b600, asstd misc costs assoc with travel, waste, bribes...b500, storefront b200, office costs (internet/telnet, staff, amadeaus, a/c...) b700.

i dont see anyone making any money here.

incidently - i have heard about this b100 for donkeys years. maybe the agency pays it. i have never ever paid it nor even been asked.

i stopped doing the run on my own only becasue it took an extra 2 hours and no w/ traffic/construction what it is heading up thru chonburi ... final time was actually 6hrs each way. ive a friend that used to just stay the night at the border. its not as though its difficult although unless you speak some khmer admittedly you may get stuck with the b100 cost and if you do not have a us20 bill, you will have to pay b1000. but that is the fun of living abroad - learning all these things. id feel an utter fool if all i knew was - book a run, get into bus, be led by nose ... i can though see why youd want youre gf to do it by service. having said that i used to meet bunches of girls from rp doing it themselves in poipet.

Edited August 2, 2007 by theseveredhead

[Kerryd]

petrol has to be 1400, auto lease/insurance 1500, pay driver b600, asstd misc costs assoc with travel, waste, bribes...b500, storefront b200, office costs (internet/telnet, staff, amadeaus, a/c...) b700.

I'm not sure on the break down of their costs, but when I was going on my own (with the landlady's daughter in her car), fuel (round-trip) was about 500 baht (basically topped up her tank on the way there and that was it).

Not sure about drivers wages, I'd suspect maybe half of what you quoted (300b/day), that would still work out to around 9,000 a month.

Still, probably not making huge profits in an event.

incidently - i have heard about this b100 for donkeys years. maybe the agency pays it. i have never ever paid it nor even been asked.

When I was going on my own, I asked a Cambodian Immigration officer about this extra 100 baht fee. He said it was for the entry/exit stamps. How ever, if I was to stay for a day in Cambodia, the 100 baht fee would be waived. Normally the visa run company pays for this as a part of your total fee.

i stopped doing the run on my own only becasue it took an extra 2 hours and no w/ traffic/construction what it is heading up thru chonburi ... final time was actually 6hrs each way. ive a friend that used to just stay the night at the border. its not as though its difficult although unless you speak some khmer admittedly you may get stuck with the b100 cost and if you do not have a us20 bill, you will have to pay b1000.

I actually started going on my own to save on the hassles and delays caused when using the visa run companies. It seemed that every trip was leaving late as "runners" would show up at the last second. Some so hung-over (or still drunk) that you didn't want to be sitting next to them for long periods. (On one run, this guy and his wife appeared right out of it. We stopped at an intersection on Sukhumvit, and the guy tried to get out of the van, saying he'd wait there and take the next one. At the rest stop he refused to get back in the van until someone told him if he stayed there, the police would arrest him. At the border, the two of them (both on overstay) tried walking into Cambodia without going through the Thai immigration booth first. I finished my business and was just about to go to the bus when they came out of the immigration office (having paid their overstay finally), and then they tried to get on the bus, even though they hadn't gone through the rest of the procedures.)

Every time we got to the border, there's be a half-dozen or so other buses already there, and large line-ups going each way (I hate lineups).

As I mentioned before, by going it "alone", I was able to leave later in the morning, no line-ups at the border, stop along the way to shop/eat, and still be home in the early afternoon.

[theseveredhead]

i stopped only because of the traffic/construction, bus times ffrom pattaya erratic and low season run one bus early which was often booked out. on return, the bus was often full.

i totally agree with you though kerry - drunks and ner'dowells sure. im just going back to what i used to do yrs ago which is visa in penang (i used to do a runner after two months rather than give immigration b1900 and be insulted in the process) and a trip across the border.

now ill be stuck doing the extention

[Loosescrew]

I'm here to throw flowers at Cambodia Inter on soi Buakow. I had heard a 2 stamp tourist visa was possible in Laos. So I went to see Nissan at Cambodia Inter and he has booked me a door to door (taxis, hotel, visa, flight) from Pattaya to Vientiane for 15,000 all included.

Now I'll be covered for the next 6 months. I'll happily do it again in November.

I've used this shop for many travels near and far and I recommend them too.

[libya 115]

I'm here to throw flowers at Cambodia Inter on soi Buakow. I had heard a 2 stamp tourist visa was possible in Laos. So I went to see Nissan at Cambodia Inter and he has booked me a door to door (taxis, hotel, visa, flight) from Pattaya to Vientiane for 15,000 all included.

Now I'll be covered for the next 6 months. I'll happily do it again in November.

I've used this shop for many travels near and far and I recommend them too.

Why not travel to your home country and get a NON-O (valid 12 months) + 3 months if you time it right? Air fares to home country about 30,000 baht return?

I am sure that is saving hassle.

[Loosescrew]

I'm here to throw flowers at Cambodia Inter on soi Buakow. I had heard a 2 stamp tourist visa was possible in Laos. So I went to see Nissan at Cambodia Inter and he has booked me a door to door (taxis, hotel, visa, flight) from Pattaya to Vientiane for 15,000 all included.

Now I'll be covered for the next 6 months. I'll happily do it again in November.

I've used this shop for many travels near and far and I recommend them too.

Why not travel to your home country and get a NON-O (valid 12 months) + 3 months if you time it right? Air fares to home country about 30,000 baht return?

I am sure that is saving hassle.

Air fares are 50,000 return not to mention 24 hours of transit and serious jet lag. Then after a few days I'm homesick for Thailand. I also don't qualify for the Non O I believe. If I were English, I would run to Hull and get it done but running to Laos doesn't bother me. Only 1:20 from BKK.

When I do the next Laos run in November, I will do it myself and the costs will be significantly less but I'm not bothered in the least having every hassle covered for 15,000.

Edited May 16, 2008 by Loosescrew

[edwardandtubs]

Wow, this 1700 baht company is ultra cheap if it includes the cost of the visa. It's much cheaper than using public transport and staying the night in Koh Kong (which is what I did last time). Incidentally, if you are doing the visa run on your own I would recommend using the eVisa service from the Cambodian government website. The cost is $25.

[bingo2]

I use the one at witherspoons very good never had any problems.