Savannakhet? Forget About It!

[Mai Krap]

Im writing this from Savannakhet Laos, There have been many postings stating it is easy to get a tourist visa here. I want to set the record straight. It is not easy, not in the least, as a matter fact it is as of this week one of the hardest places to get a Visa.

They are asking for 6 months of bank statements to verify income just for a 60 day tourist visa. Anyone who cannot give these is just flat being denied the 60 day visa and being given a 21 day visa for one thousand Thai Baht. I have a O visa so no worries for me but there was plenty of very angry people at the consulate and some very heated conversations about the situation. If you are planning to get a 60 day visa I recommend you have your letter headed original bank statements to prove you that you have finances, I suspect they will not accept Internet copies as they have a new policy of not accepting any copies other than your passport which is handed in with your original passport during the application process. The agent was only accepting official documents and no copies, This includes Marriage Certificates, Birth Certificates, Tabien Ban Documents and the lot.

[Maestro]

Im writing this from Savannakhet Laos...They are asking for 6 months of bank statements to verify income just for a 60 day tourist visa...The agent was only accepting official documents and no copies, This includes Marriage Certificates, Birth Certificates, Tabien Ban Documents and the lot.

For an application for a tourist visa? Are you quite sure you understood correctly?

--

Maestro

[cali4995]

There has always been talk that they would only allow two tourist visas per calendar year,

at least when doing this through the tour companies. I hate to say it but there seems to be

a pattern here, where these places (much like Penang) get turned into commercial visa

centers and then they do an about-face and everything becomes very ugly. I certainly

hope there was some misunderstanding here, because Savannakhet and Vientane are

the only Thai embassies/consulates in bordering countries which could even be classified

as friendly, well up to now anyway. Is a transit visa what they were trying to give you?

When you get back or have a chance to elaborate further please do. This is breaking news.

[Maestro]

...Is a transit visa what they were trying to give you?

The OP was relating hearsay:

...there was plenty of very angry people at the consulate and some very heated conversations about the situation...

--

Maestro

[LivinLOS]

A 21 day visa ???

[Badbanker]

I would like to confirm that everything that has been said here is true!

My best friend was in the pack of people that were rejected at Savannaket on Tuesday.

He literally said that dozens of people were turned away.

They ARE asking for a proof of income from a bank statement with at least 40+ k baht per month in any bank account. This was to get a 60 day tourist visa! My friend has money and so he was able to print out a bank statement from the internet which delayed his return an extra day.

Again MANY people were turned away!

Many people that had travelled a long way to get a visa and were angry were given a 21 day visa for 1,000 baht!

Even people that had a Thai wife and Thai children in tow with all the correct documents for a non O were turned away! I will say again if you want to get a non O take ALL of your "original" documents as copies will NOT do!

I think Savannakhet is now off the list of places to go for any visa.

Badbanker

[sriracha john]

In light of the scan of the lengthy list that the Phnom Penh embassy requires for tourist visas that was posted in another thread, it's entirely believable that Savannakhet would require something along the same lines.

It's gone from a sleepy "1 visa a day" office located in a hotel lobby to a major commercial visa center (I like cali's description) in just a few years. Unsurprising that there are ramifications to this transformation.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

A 21 day visa ???

there really is no such thing as a 21 day visa.

[Badbanker]

A 21 day visa ???

there really is no such thing as a 21 day visa.

Yes you are right!   But as you know each embassy/consulate is its own independant fiefdom and when you are surrounded by 100 farangs (some of which had already spent a long weekend in Laos) that are really pis_sed off about not getting a 60 day, it stands to sense that they do give a visa albeit a 21 day visa to everyone and not get lynched!

21 days to a lynch mob mean the consulate visa issuers get to go and eat somtam again!

BB

PS MY buddy has just got in and is sleeping off the effects of the bus from Muldaharn!  More later!

[stevemiddie]

Now that Vientienne seems to be the consulate of choice at the moment I can imagaine that once they become inundated with " tourists " they too will start applying stricter rules.

[eljeque]

I would have arrived there on Sunday if I had not read this.

Vientianne, here I .... we come.

[kevc]

Even people that had a Thai wife and Thai children in tow with all the correct documents for a non O were turned away! I will say again if you want to get a non O take ALL of your "original" documents as copies will NOT do!

I think Savannakhet is now off the list of places to go for any visa.

Badbanker

I know they will only give one Non O per year, I only found out because when planning to go for my second in one year I decided to go with a visa company and they informed me, nothing was said at Savanakhet when I got my first with them and they could tell by the stamps that I lived in Thailand and wasn't on an extended holiday.

[cali4995]

The madness continues. It's like some domino-theory with embassies

one-by-one succumbing to the dark side. Immigration and the various

consulates behaving as if they were a two-headed monster without any

common brain-link. The only reason I can think of for the 21-day thing

is to just barely put everyone into the new calendar year. They seem

to be concerned about people working in the kingdom illegally, but yet

in the very recent past, issuing tourist visas to those groups obviously

working in the education field without any questions asked. So now, we

just impose more blanket restrictions on everyone. How typical. This is

really getting to be about the last straw. These inconsistent policies and

constantly changing implementation are giving everyone a migraine.

[cali4995]

As an adddendum, on the jack golf website I see they have already put-up

a notice that the Lao "tourist visa tour" has been suspended. Maybe the

situation will resolve itself in time. In an attempt to be understanding with

the consular staff, if I had 60-70 passports regularly dropped on my desk

for processing, it would start getting on my nerves also.

[The Professor]

As an adddendum, on the jack golf website I see they have already put-up

a notice that the Lao "tourist visa tour" has been suspended. Maybe the

situation will resolve itself in time. In an attempt to be understanding with

the consular staff, if I had 60-70 passports regularly dropped on my desk

for processing, it would start getting on my nerves also.

so Jack's golf to Laos is out but thaivisa's visa run packages to Penang are in. You know, the visa run packages that started exactly a month b4 Penang went by the way side

[technocracy]

I have to say reading this doesn't comes as much of surprise! Like has been said all the consulates around SE Asia which were easy have changed to the hard route - but like cali4995 when 'tours' for visas are dumping huge piles of passports on tables what do people expect? I know it doesn't affect me since I don't live in Thailand but reading on here how the word goes around which consulates are 'easy' it doesn't suprises me one bit that they change.

The Vientiane consulate I drive past quite frequently and pretty much everytime there is a large queue on the pavement waiting outside. If everyone starts decending here you can pretty much guarantee they'll get fed up with it and stop being so easy going.

The thing everyone has to remember nobody has the 'right' to visa in any country - sad but true. So as angry as you maybe being told no you can't have a visa you have absolutely no ground to demand one.

[The Professor]

Maybe you should start talking up Loas then dude. I visited for the 1st time a short time ago and thought the place was grrrreeaat

[PattayaParent]

A 21 day visa ???

there really is no such thing as a 21 day visa.

Yes you are right! But as you know each embassy/consulate is its own independant fiefdom and when you are surrounded by 100 farangs (some of which had already spent a long weekend in Laos) that are really pis_sed off about not getting a 60 day, it stands to sense that they do give a visa albeit a 21 day visa to everyone and not get lynched!

21 days to a lynch mob mean the consulate visa issuers get to go and eat somtam again!

BB

PS MY buddy has just got in and is sleeping off the effects of the bus from Muldaharn! More later!

But why would anyone pay 1,000 baht for a 21 day visa when you can just walk back across the border and get a 30 day visa for free???????????????????????

[lopburi3]

1. Visa exempt entry is not open to all.

2. Crossing the border and return does not provide a visa so you are subject to the 90 days in six month rule.

[The Professor]

Also, once application is submitted and fee paid,no refund would be forthcoming if rejected or a switcheroo to the 21 day job occurs

[cali4995]

If we follow the chronology of events since OCT '06, none of this is a surprise. They want

to limit the number of visa exempt entries so do they make visas on arrival available to

everyone and just charge 1,000 baht a head? No, everyone must pre-obtain a special

visa from a Thai embassy/consulate. So the volume of applications goes up ten-fold,

eventually they are so overworked, they throw up their hands in disgust and just start

rejecting everyone. Absolutely no advance planning for circumstances they created.

[Capantha]

If we follow the chronology of events since OCT '06, none of this is a surprise. They want

to limit the number of visa exempt entries so do they make visas on arrival available to

everyone and just charge 1,000 baht a head? No, everyone must pre-obtain a special

visa from a Thai embassy/consulate. So the volume of applications goes up ten-fold,

eventually they are so overworked, they throw up their hands in disgust and just start

rejecting everyone. Absolutely no advance planning for circumstances they created.

Sad thing is its only gonna get worse!

[cali4995]

Maybe you should start talking up Loas then dude. I visited for the 1st time a short time ago and thought the place was grrrreeaat

Yes Professor, I'm starting to think people like Technocracy are the smart ones for just bypassing

all this nonsense. Stay in Laos or Cambodia and if you want to come back and visit a few days

now and then, well fine. It sure doesn't look like this is going to be getting better anytime soon.

[Mai Krap]

I have no idea why the rules seemed to change so fast over there or if there was any particular reason it was based upon like to many teachers showing up or whatever. Normally I would try to comment and say "Yea, They changed the rules because?" or something to that fact but there is just not a fashionable answer here. It was nothing that was well thought out or understandable from my observation, If anything it seems they are trying to run people out of Thailand who have been hanging around on tourist visas but at the same time it seems it is getting harder to get a non immigrant visa too.

The 21 day Visa was a Transit Visa. I have never seen or even heard of a 21 day Transit Visa before this week. I don't believe it is anything new, Im just stating I never saw one before. One guy had came all the way from Chiang Mai to Savannakhet for a 60 day visa and went back to Chiang Mai with a 21 day visa for one thousand baht plus expenses. I don't think the money was at all a issue for him but a sixty year old guy riding a bus for 36 hours one way for a 21 day visa? Thats a steep price to pay in sore butt. He said he would never go back to Laos and would fly down to Penang from now on but it sounds like Penang is not without its own headaches, personally I have never been there.

Everything I have written about concerning this is first hand experience, I was there, Its what I personally saw and experienced, it was not a second hand account.

As far as why someone would not just get a thirty day VOA? Some people already have 3 and I was told yesterday on the phone when I called to relate what happened to a old friend that at Poipet Cambodia they are asking for forward travel tickets before they give a 30 day VOA. While this is second hand information I was also told by the same source who was there last month at the Consulate in Phnom Penh that people were being denied any Visa and just being turned away. This is not anything new as both the Embassies in Cambodia and Vietnam have a long history of denying Visas for any number of reasons.

[Mai Krap]

Im writing this from Savannakhet Laos...They are asking for 6 months of bank statements to verify income just for a 60 day tourist visa...The agent was only accepting official documents and no copies, This includes Marriage Certificates, Birth Certificates, Tabien Ban Documents and the lot.

For an application for a tourist visa? Are you quite sure you understood correctly?

--

Maestro

That is 100% correct, 6 months of bank statements for a tourist visa.

[Mai Krap]

...Is a transit visa what they were trying to give you?

The OP was relating hearsay:

...there was plenty of very angry people at the consulate and some very heated conversations about the situation...

--

Maestro

No, I was there, It was what happened. Needless to say some people were very pissed off to receive a 21 day transit visa which can be extended for 7 days for 2,000 baht instead of a 60 day tourist visa which can be extended for 30 days for 2,000 baht.

[Mai Krap]

A 21 day visa ???

there really is no such thing as a 21 day visa.

I never heard of one before either but it is a 21 day "Transit Visa" that is limited to a seven day extension.

[sniffdog]

http://www.jackgolf.com/en/news/136.php

http://www.jackgolf.com/en/news/138.php

Edited December 13, 2007 by sniffdog

[cali4995]

Maikrap thanks for the update. I think it's a fair assumption that the tour companies

have precipated a negative attitude at Savannakhet. From my perspective, it looks

like they're just going to keep coming up with additional requirements. I mean if

they don't want to issue tourist visas, they're not going to period. From here, the

flood of people will then turn to Vientiane and in a month or so, probably the same

thing will happen up there. I would've expected the warning stamps to come first?

[Mai Krap]

This is the latest on Jack Golf about their adventure into Savannakhet, not good!

http://www.jackgolf.com/en/visa_run/index.html

JACK'S

60DAYS TOURIST VISA

TOUR TO LAOS

This tour is to acquiring a single entry of Thailand tourist visa which allows you to stay 60 days and can be extended 30 more days at immigration bureau.

ORIGINAL V.I.P COACH! STAYING No.1 HOTEL!

We go to the border SVANNAKHET, which is located 680km away from Bangkok.Not only getting visa, but we want you to enjoy this trip! We prepare room in No.1 and 2 hotel with 2 breakfast!

THIS TOUR HAS BEEN SUSPENDING

Please call us if you need tourist visa urgently.