Nong Khai Border Bounce. Avoid !!!

[persimmon]

OK thanks ...what about the bus from the border into town ?. There is a money exchange counter in the basement at Central , Udon ...I suppose I could get a few thou / million ? kip to see me ok for a couple of days .

[Nick Carter icp]

4 minutes ago, persimmon said:

OK thanks ...what about the bus from the border into town ?. There is a money exchange counter in the basement at Central , Udon ...I suppose I could get a few thou / million ? kip to see me ok for a couple of days .

 

   Take small Thai notes, its difficult to exchange 1000 Baht notes 

[Phillip9]

2 hours ago, persimmon said:

There is a money exchange counter in the basement at Central , Udon ...I suppose I could get a few thou / million ? kip to see me ok for a couple of days .

Don't change more than you will use for sure.  It's difficult or maybe impossible to change kip back to baht or anything else.  Personally I would just keep my money in baht.  You can pay for just about everything in vientiane with baht.

[thai006]

9 hours ago, persimmon said:

OK thanks ...what about the bus from the border into town ?. There is a money exchange counter in the basement at Central , Udon ...I suppose I could get a few thou / million ? kip to see me ok for a couple of days .

They're a lot of laos ATM around the border or they have an exchange corner too after you pass laos arrival  I think you can't get laos kip outside the country lol 

[Briggsy]

12 hours ago, persimmon said:

OK thanks ...what about the bus from the border into town ?. There is a money exchange counter in the basement at Central , Udon ...I suppose I could get a few thou / million ? kip to see me ok for a couple of days .

You are best getting your kip in Laos. You may struggle to obtain kip in Thailand.

 

The general rule is pay in the currency that is quoted whether that be dollars, baht or kip. You will usually be quoted in kip for most things. If you then say, "Can I pay in baht?" the answer will be yes but the exchange rate will be poor.

 

There are one or two items that cannot be paid for in baht. I was not allowed to pay for the bus to Khon Kaen from the Vientiane bus station in baht, had to pay in kip. That was a hassle.

 

So, to summarise, get some kip as soon as you can after crossing into Laos.

[Rob Browder]

On 12/29/2024 at 7:46 PM, Briggsy said:

I very much doubt hoteliers in Vientiane care much about visa runners and they certainly don't dictate Thai immigration policy.

 

This is part of a 30+-year trend to balance the promotion of mass tourism whilst restricting people staying for a long time outside of the in-country immigration system. Expect it to continue and to become tighter. The trend has been one way for a very long time. I could probably quote over 20 points at which the system has tightened up.

 

The instruction will have come from somewhere within the Immigration Police.

The trend is to ensure those staying more/much on Tourist-type entries (and some extensions) pay immigration via an agent to do so.  Each "tighten up" has included a path to an agent-option.  They just want to line their pockets.   There will likely be "agent service" reported at this formerly "no problem" border, soon.

 

On 12/30/2024 at 5:24 PM, Tod Daniels said:

Once they switched to 60 days they eliminated the guaranteed land entries and you are no better off entering by land than you are entering by air anymore.. 

On the contrary, I beg to differ.  A "walk back to Laos" experience is a helluva lot better than the airport-treatment - put in a detention-cell and "shipped" where ever. 

 

Just book a couple nights there, and return - no big problem.  If in a rush, use immigration's agent-service partners for same-day return in-perpetuity - by air or land.

 

Back in the day, I would have loved a known "7-days out" policy or similar (even 30 days out) for tourist-type returns, just to KNOW what the deal was. 

 

The horrible "2 time limit" on land-borders forced people to risk the airport jail-cells for the other 8 months of the year (old VEs = 30+30 X 2), or a new passport every year to apply for more Tourist-Visas.

 

Even jumping the hoops, one never knew what would happen on return, other than look on "thaivisa" for "clues".  Two-days out + 60-days + 30 extension each-round is a piece of cake,compared to all that.

[sandyf]

On 12/31/2024 at 10:10 PM, DrJack54 said:

Post recent report of  rejection of 30 day extension to a visa exempt or tourist visa entry.

Simple.

Otherwise your claim is pointless 

 

What claim exactly?

In 2014 the government asked that Immigration take a more flexible approach to foreigners wishing to remain in the Kingdom. This led to a police order that allowed foreigners to apply for a 30 day extension, nothing in the police order says they would be entitled to it, but you are free to think otherwise.

False assumption to be looking at rejections, those that are unable to apply are effectively rejections you don't know about. If criteria is met, no extension application would be rejected.

Prior to Aug 2014 there were no 30 day extensions available to a visa exempt entry and any application for a further temporary stay was entirely at the discretion of the IO.

The 30 day extension was an initiative from the government of the day that could be repealed as easily as it came about.

[DrJack54]

5 hours ago, sandyf said:

In 2014 the government asked that Immigration take a more flexible approach to foreigners wishing to remain in the Kingdom.

History lesson not required.

The tread is about visa exempt entry at Nong Khai.

 

A member posted the following.....

 

"Have you heard of any reports of people being refused a 30 day extension on their Visa exempt stamp"

 

Answer: currently you will be given a 30 day extension. Cost 1900b .

Obviously some docs may be required eg TM30. 

 

You stated....."If criteria is met, no extension application would be rejected."

 

Pretty much in agreement. 

[Caldera]

6 hours ago, sandyf said:

This led to a police order that allowed foreigners to apply for a 30 day extension, nothing in the police order says they would be entitled to it, but you are free to think otherwise.

 

In practice, we never really see any reports of a rejection of a 30-day extension for a visa exempt (or tourist visa) stay. Not even from individual and potentially "rogue" immigration offices. That has been consistently the case ever since they became available for those entering visa exempt. Considering how inconsistently different immigration offices apply the rules in other matters, that in itself is a remarkable fact.

 

The question whether an applicant is formally "entitled" to such an extension borders on the irrelevant for that very reason; they are routinely given without fuss as long as a proper application is submitted. 

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, Caldera said:

In practice, we never really see any reports of a rejection of a 30-day extension for a visa exempt (or tourist visa) stay. Not even from individual and potentially "rogue" immigration offices.

You may not have seen reports, I however have witnessed at least one person who was not given a 30 day extension, I am not certain that they were given a 7 day extension as I did not eavesdrop on the full conversation, they were denied a 30 day extension.

That this was unusual is true, that 30 day extensions are almost always granted is also true. That they are always given is not true.

[DrJack54]

2 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You may not have seen reports, I however have witnessed at least one person who was not given a 30 day extension, I am not certain that they were given a 7 day extension as I did not eavesdrop on the full conversation, they were denied a 30 day extension.

Please. 

Hardly useful as you have no idea why the 30 day extension was refused. 

Could have been as simple as incomplete paperwork.

The 7 days is not an extension it's a leave Thailand within 7 days.

 

[raz0r21]

4 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You may not have seen reports, I however have witnessed at least one person who was not given a 30 day extension, I am not certain that they were given a 7 day extension as I did not eavesdrop on the full conversation, they were denied a 30 day extension.

That this was unusual is true, that 30 day extensions are almost always granted is also true. That they are always given is not true.

 

Probably incomplete application... I have seen a guy sitting next to me at lak si immigration get sent out for not having a tm30. Was told to come back next day.

[Caldera]

8 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You may not have seen reports, I however have witnessed at least one person who was not given a 30 day extension, I am not certain that they were given a 7 day extension as I did not eavesdrop on the full conversation, they were denied a 30 day extension.

That this was unusual is true, that 30 day extensions are almost always granted is also true. That they are always given is not true.

 

That's usually one of three things: Either a missing/outdated TM30 notification or someone who tried to apply for an extension a 2nd time for the same entry or someone coming from a country that aren't given 30-day extensions. There's a surprising number of people who show up poorly prepared without knowing the rules and requirements.

 

But I've been following this closely here and elsewhere, and I've never seen a credible report of an arbitrary rejection (an IO using their "discretion" to reject a 30-day extension application).