Tourist Visa

[MysteryX]

You have to get your first tourist visa in Canada. Call the consulate where you plan to apply how long it takes. With mail applications, most consulates meil your passport with the visa back within 24 hours.

Try for a tourist visa valid for two entries. If you outline your planned itinerary in a covering letter with your application, your chances of getting a double-entry tourist visa can be enhanced. Your later actual travel does not have to coincide with your planned itinerary for purposes of visa application. For example, planned itinerary:

10 NOV fly from Canada to Thailand. Tourism in Thailand.

08 JAN travel from Thailand to Malaysia. Tourism in Malaysia.

06 FEB travel from Malaysia to Thailand. Tourism in Thailand

05 APR fly from Thailand to Canada.

Actual travel:

10 NOV fly from Canada to Thailand.

27 JAN extension of stay until 07 FEB

07 FEB do a border run (leave Thailand and return to Thailand on the same day)

20 APR extension of stay until 06.05.2007

Please note that you do not have to wait until the last day of your 60-day permission to stay to apply for an extension of stay. It is advisable to do it a little early, as the 30-day extension is always calculated form the last day of your current permission to stay, not from the date of application.

After the second 60+30 days you can decide to fly back to Canada, to continue flying to a neighbouring country for a new tourist visa (you will probably get only a single-entry visa), or to do visa-exempt border runs giving you 30-day permission to stay on each entry.

It is the visa-exempt stay in Thailand that is limited to 90 days within 6 months. Any stay in Thailand on tourist visa entries does not count towards this limit of 90 days.

At embassies/consulates in the region the rule usually is to submit the visa application in the morning and pick up your visa in the afternoon of the subsequent working day.

Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Vientiane are ideal places in the region to apply for a new tourist visa.

--

Maestro

//Edit: For some strange reason (I have an inkling why) my reply overwrote the original post of MysteryX. -- Maestro

Edited October 24, 2007 by Maestro

[Maestro]

You have to get your first tourist visa in Canada. Call the consulate where you plan to apply to ask how long it takes. With mail applications, most consulates mail your passport with the visa back within 24 hours.

Try for a tourist visa valid for two entries. If you outline your planned itinerary in a covering letter with your application, your chances of getting a double-entry tourist visa can be enhanced. Your later actual travel does not have to coincide with your planned itinerary for purposes of visa application. For example, planned itinerary:

10 NOV fly from Canada to Thailand. Tourism in Thailand.

08 JAN travel from Thailand to Malaysia. Tourism in Malaysia.

06 FEB travel from Malaysia to Thailand. Tourism in Thailand

05 APR fly from Thailand to Canada.

Actual travel:

10 NOV fly from Canada to Thailand.

27 JAN extension of stay until 07 FEB

07 FEB do a border run (leave Thailand and return to Thailand on the same day)

20 APR extension of stay until 06.05.2007

Please note that you do not have to wait until the last day of your 60-day permission to stay to apply for an extension of stay. It is advisable to do it a little early, as the 30-day extension is always calculated form the last day of your current permission to stay, not from the date of application.

After the second 60+30 days you can decide to fly back to Canada, to continue flying to a neighbouring country for a new tourist visa (you will probably get only a single-entry visa), or to do visa-exempt border runs giving you 30-day permission to stay on each entry.

It is the visa-exempt stay in Thailand that is limited to 90 days within 6 months. Any stay in Thailand on tourist visa entries does not count towards this limit of 90 days.

At embassies/consulates in the region the rule usually is to submit the visa application in the morning and pick up your visa in the afternoon of the subsequent working day.

Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Vientiane are ideal places in the region to apply for a new tourist visa.

--

Maestro

[MysteryX]

In your example, you ask for extension after 77 days while your visa is valid for 60 days. Is this a mistake or it can work that way?

By specifying the itinary I can get a double-entry visa. I suppose the only difference is that one becomes invalid as soon as I leave the country, while the other one allows me to leave and re-enter once. If I don't want to leave more than once every 3 months, it doesn't matter which one I get. Is this correct?

[Mahout Angrit]

A double entry tourist visa will allow you two entries, both must be within the validity of the visa (usually 6 months from date of issue, but check it). Each entry can be extended by 30 days in country.

If you wish to leave before a permission to stay has expired you can apply for a re-entry permit within Thailand which will reactivate the entry you exited on until the original expiry date of the permission to enter.

You have to use the last entry before the expiry date of the VISA so you could re-enter Thailand a couple of days before the VISA expiry date and get the second entry of 60 days which is extendable.

So if you left home just after the visa was issued you could be OK to leave Thailand almost 9 months later (having spent 6 months in Thailand) provided you spent about 3 months travelling outside of Thailand in the middle of your trip