My Adventure Leaving Thailand Via Aranyapratet / Poipet

[Crouton]

I had an interesting time just EXITING Thai immigration into Cambodia at Aranyapratet / Poipet on the 12th. I have a 3 entry Tourist Visa issued from the Thai Consulate in Denver, USA on April 9, 2007. It says it must be "utilized before" October 8, 2007. On my last 30 day extension to my second entry it gave me a stamp good until October 13, 2007.

When I went to exit the border, the immigration told me my visa had expired. I showed him the extension stamp of October 13th expiration and he said that the " utilize by October 8th" meant I had to use all 3 entries prior to that and on October 8th it became no good. I never really gave it much thought but was under the impression i had to enter Thailand by October 8th and each of my next 2x on the visa would be moot. I apologized , explained the extension stamp I got BEFORE October 8th that gave me till October 13. A very unhappy man but he let me through without any fine or nasty stamps.

This, of course , throws off my whole formula , of using 3x 90 on my Tourist Visa and then 3 Visa on arrivals..... but the important part of all this to me is....

Where do I buy the "mickey mouse return bus ticket" at Poipet so I can come back into Thailand on a Visa on Arrival ( my 1st ) since I didn't use a "visa service" or think I needed one with an entry still on my Tourist Visa.

There are no shortage of touts willing to sell me anything there but i'd obviously prefer to get one that Thai immigration will accept.

Thanks,

Crouton

[lopburi3]

All entries must be made by the stamp date on your visa so Immigration was correct. Believe you require an air ticket out of Thailand within 30 days (not a bus ticket) at that crossing. At one point believe they were reported to not even be allowing visa exempt entry (30 day stamps).

[Jingthing]

Ouch!

Sorry that happened to you, but those use by dates for visa use are one of clearer aspects of the Thai visa game.

Edited October 15, 2007 by Jingthing

[tropo]

. I apologized , explained the extension stamp I got BEFORE October 8th that gave me till October 13. A very unhappy man but he let me through without any fine or nasty stamps. This, of course , throws off my whole formula , of using 3x 90 on my Tourist Visa and then 3 Visa on arrivals..... but the important part of all this to me is....

Where do I buy the "mickey mouse return bus ticket" at Poipet so I can come back into Thailand on a Visa on Arrival ( my 1st ) since I didn't use a "visa service" or think I needed one with an entry still on my Tourist Visa.

Why would you expect to be fined? You left Thailand before the expiration of your extension which is perfectly legal. The Immigration official was merely bringing it to your attention that you couldn't use your 3-entry tourist visa to re-enter Thailand as it had already expired. In actual fact those immigration guys were doing you a favour warning you on the way out as it would have been worse if you tried to re-enter under the mistaken belief that it was still valid.

I don't believe they have bogus bus tickets at Poipet. I believe they are strict about seeing air tickets before they issue 30-day visa exempt stamps.

Those tickets are readily available at the Ban Laem border post.

[Fred Sanford]

Ouch!

Sorry that happened to you, but those use by dates for visa use are one of clearer aspects of the Thai visa game.

Indeed, I wish we only had that problem

[tropo]

Ouch!

Sorry that happened to you, but those use by dates for visa use are one of clearer aspects of the Thai visa game.

Indeed, I wish we only had that problem

Yes, if only we had these problems.

Here's a soft introduction of a new problem:

Today I heard they were asking tourist visa extension applicants at Jomtien to show air tickets.

No air ticket = no extension.

More on this later....

The way things are going a lot of us will have no alternative but to leave...and sooner than we expected.

This will no doubt be good news for many others on this forum...I can almost hear them saying: "great, no more permanent tourists".

PS. I'm introducing it quietly here because the person who was refused the extension today will probably start a thread about it soon, however he's in a lot of difficulty over this so maybe he won't have time to post here.

Edited October 15, 2007 by tropo

[Crouton]

I guess I was suprised because when I got my extension they extended it beyond my Visa expiration date ( October 8th versus October 13th). I guess he didn't feel like changing the date on his 30 day stamp. If I had known the 8th was the end of my TV I would have handled things differently.

As to why I would think I would get fined - well I guess technically my visa expired October 8th ( even though the extension was till the 13th) and I left on October 12th so I overstayed 4 days going by the letter of the "law". I guess maybe I'm misunderstanding, was my Visa actually good until the extension of October 13th then ( not just completely dead October 8th)? If so could I have gotten my 3rd entry for 60 days that same day ( October 12th) ? It was actually complicated at the immigration departure. The desk man called over a few other people to sort it out.

Its actually working out somewhat ok after getting out of that hellhole Poipet. I'm in Siem Reap now and Angkor Wat is of course beautiful. The town has nice people as well who speak good English for the most part. The down side though is that I didn't pack to live here so I only have a few things with me - most importantly not much MONEY. I have an account at Krung Thai bank but not having a work permit they refused to give me an ATM card ( no idea why that matters at all - they also won't pay me interest on the money in my account. I'm not complaining though, I had to go to like 6 different banks in BKK just to get a bank to even open me an account. I just don't have a Krung ATM card to access money. I always have to go inside one of the branches in Thailand). Here's the kicker though - I was SHOCKED to see a Krung branch here in Siem Reap. I walk in the branch a very happy man that I can access more money until I get this sorted out and they tell me "we are not online with Thailand branches". I almost fell over right there but now I realize it shouldn't have surprised me in the least.

Finally, I understand Phnom Penh is about the worst rated place to try to get a Tourist Visa. Would your advice be to travel to Phnom and try for the TV or just go to Ban Laem and get a return "bus ticket" to get 30 days in Thailand to sort my belongings and bank account out and leave thailand.

Thanks for the help,

Crouton

[ovenman]

I guess I was suprised because when I got my extension they extended it beyond my Visa expiration date ( October 8th versus October 13th). I guess he didn't feel like changing the date on his 30 day stamp. If I had known the 8th was the end of my TV I would have handled things differently.

Unless I am interpreting your post incorrectly, I think you are confusing two entirely separate things: 1) the date your current entry stamp is valid until and 2) the date by which your visa needs to be utilized. Immigrations extended your current entry stamp (the second entry of your triple-entry tourist visa) until the 13th of October which was absolutely fine. For an entry stamp, it makes no difference what the "utilize by" date is on the visa itself. Your problem was that the third entry on the tourist visa needed to be made by the 8th of October. You should have made your run to the border on the 8th. You would have been given an additional sixty-day entry stamp, which could have been extended for another thirty days.

[lopburi3]

1. Your visa is only used for entry. It's date is meaningless once in the country. If your visa ends September 16 and you enter on the 15th you still receive the normal 60 or 90 days permitted to stay in Thailand. An extension of stay is from your current permitted to stay date - not your visa expiration date.

2. Your visa expired on the 8th - you could not use it to enter Thailand after that date. But you could stay in Thailand until your stamped permitted to stay until date. You were not on overstay.

3. Your bank choice, I know it really was not your choice, is probably one of the least customer service orientated banks in Thailand. Normally you get an ATM card and receive interest on account at Thai banks. But only having a tourist visa makes it very hard to open any account these days.

4. As you had a visa entry before see no reason to endure a tourist visa application in PP. If you need a longer time you could travel to Laos or Malaysia later.

[Priceless]

Crouton, I am afraid you (and many others) are suffering from the confusion about terminology that is so common here. To put it simply, a visa is a permission to enter Thailand, a permission to stay is a permission to remain there after entering. Your visa granted you three entries into Thailand before or on 8 October, your latest permission to stay allowed you to remain until 13 October.

In other words, you had every right to remain until 12 October and there was no reason for you to be fined. What the immigrations officer tried to get across was that you would not be allowed in again on that visa, since it had expired four days earlier.

In my case I entered Thailand on a non-imm O-A visa, which has since expired (on 21 September). However, my permission to stay won't expire until 18 September 2008, since my last entry into the country was on 19 September this year and on my kind of visa you always get one year's permission to stay.

You must regard the visa and the permission to stay as two separate entities, though one is dependent on the other.

/ Priceless

[edit] lopbury3 added his entry while I was putting mine together, making the latter somewhat superfluous.

Edited October 16, 2007 by Priceless

[Crouton]

Thank you for the quick responses. I understand now about the terminology.

Hopefully I won't have a problem with the "bus ticket"at that border. I know a friend of mine got one there within the last month but we all know things can change day to day.

I was reading the other post on here today about the Koh Kong border not even asking about a ticket but not sure I want to travel all the way down there to have a problem ( actually, don't want to ask for a friend to Western Union me more money more than anything).

As for Krung bank - I agree, they suck but they were the only bank to even consider opening an account for me. I literally tried 10 or 12 with a large bag of cash in my hand. I could not believe they wouldn't take my bag full of money. I even talked to managers to make sure this is a bank and they want people's money right?? Here's a large bag full!! ( but politely of course ). Krung even charges me something like 40 baht each time I take my passbook into another Krang branch other than the Sukv Rd one in BKK to withdrawl my own money. Avoid for sure if you can.

Again thanks for the help!

Crouton

[tropo]

Thank you for the quick responses. I understand now about the terminology.

Hopefully I won't have a problem with the "bus ticket"at that border. I know a friend of mine got one there within the last month but we all know things can change day to day.

It may be a bit of a challenge for you to get from Siem Reap to the Ban Laem border post, but as far as can gather they are the only border post with these bogus bus tickets. All the other borders may insist on seeing an air ticket.

Now that you're on the Internet in Siem Reap you could always book a ticket online and go back through Poipet.