On February 24th, I took an evening direct flight from Bangkok to Vientiane to apply for my new Thai visa.

Before departure, I recommend buying a pen – you'll need it when filling out the paperwork upon arrival at the Vientiane airport. I like going through passport control in Laos because the officers are always accommodating if I ask them to stamp an old page where there's still room.

I ate at the airport and booked a hotel for two nights near the airport. I walked to the hotel and submitted my e-visa documents online.

The full list of documents I submitted:

1. My photo

2. A scanned copy of my passport (main page, original image, no additional signing)

3. A PDF with a balance of 400,000 exported from a banking app

4. A PDF of my wife's National ID card (both sides). Original images only, no additional signing - that was my mistake. I also added photos of my wife's tabien baan at the end. I think that was unnecessary.

5. A PDF with the marriage certificate (both sides) and Ko Ro 2, which I purchased the day before at the local amphor. Original images only, no additional signing - that was my mistake.

When filling out the documents, I also indicated that I do not live in Laos permanently and listed my permanent address in my home country below my current Lao address.

After submitting all the documents, I received a PDF document containing the QR code for paying the visa fee (2,000 baht) at the consulate.

I uploaded the PDF with the QR code to Google Drive (free). I made it publicly accessible via the link. Then, I shortened the long link using the tinyurl website. This method saved me time and allowed me to quickly print the QR code near the consulate (no internet connection required).

The next day, the consulate requested additional documents. They asked my wife to sign and date a copy of our marriage certificate, and the same had to be done for the copy of her National ID card. I asked her to do this and send me a scanned PDF, which she did. In hindsight, I think I should have submitted these documents right away instead of documents 4 and 5 — I probably would have received my visa faster.

I received my visa (via email) on Sunday, March 1st, around midday and successfully entered Thailand through Nong Khai in the evening. The officer asked to see my e-visa, so I showed it to him using my laptop. That was sufficient.

Thanks for clear detailed report.

Thinking a hard copy print out of eVisa a good idea for others.

I forgot to mention one detail. After I exported the PDF from the banking app, I discovered that the PDF required a password to open. This could have caused problems. So I opened the PDF in the Preview app on my MacBook and selected "Export...". When exporting, I specified that the file should not require a password to open.

There's probably also a way to remove the password from a PDF on Windows.

26 minutes ago, zmisha said:

When filling out the documents, I also indicated that I do not live in Laos permanently and listed my permanent address in my home country below my current Lao address.

What did you provide to show your physical presence in Laos? Entry stamp/visa?

3 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

What did you provide to show your physical presence in Laos? Entry stamp/visa?

Thanks for noticing. I forgot to include that in the list.

I just took a photo of the page of my passport with the Laos entry stamp using my iPhone 13.
It was actually a photo of two adjacent passport pages.

On 3/2/2026 at 10:48 AM, zmisha said:

4. A PDF of my wife's National ID card (both sides). Original images only, no additional signing - that was my mistake. I also added photos of my wife's tabien baan at the end. I think that was unnecessary.

5. A PDF with the marriage certificate (both sides) and Ko Ro 2, which I purchased the day before at the local amphor. Original images only, no additional signing - that was my mistake.

The next day, the consulate requested additional documents. They asked my wife to sign and date a copy of our marriage certificate, and the same had to be done for the copy of her National ID card. I asked her to do this and send me a scanned PDF, which she did. In hindsight, I think I should have submitted these documents right away instead of documents 4 and 5 — I probably would have received my visa faster.

Thanks for the report!

It sounds like they only wanted 1, the original marriage cert and 2, wife's ID card copies signed.

This means having the recent printout Ko Ro 2 and wife's tabien ban unnecessary? Because those were not signed by anyone? You had no invitation letter from your wife?

3 hours ago, zhangxifu said:

Thanks for the report!

It sounds like they only wanted 1, the original marriage cert and 2, wife's ID card copies signed.

This means having the recent printout Ko Ro 2 and wife's tabien ban unnecessary? Because those were not signed by anyone? You had no invitation letter from your wife?

Yes. They wanted only bank statement with 400k, the original marriage cert and wife's ID card copies signed AND DATED.
Looks like Ko Ro 2, wife's tabien ban and invitation letter are no longer required but I highly recommend you take them with you.

7 minutes ago, zmisha said:

Looks like Ko Ro 2, wife's tabien ban and invitation letter are no longer required but I highly recommend you take them with you

Good advice.

One can understand why not required as the Non O eVisa is applied for on eVisa platform and Ko Ro 2 not easily provided.