Savannakhet? Forget About It!

[Mai Krap]

....just a personal point of view;.....I think all of the "visa runners should somehow try to get it into their heads that they should start making plans for pastures new,.....Thailand doesn't really need second rate teachers,beach bums/farang bar owners,exploitive buisness persons,gap year students...as Bernard Trink warned many years ago making it too easy to live here would just bring the riff raff.............stop complaining and GO HOME !!!!!!

WOW, COOL, I started a thread where someone throws Bernard Trink into the argument!

You left out alcoholics, Viagra addicts, and golf enthusiasts!

Tropo has it right about the 30 day visa runners, thats where the extra people came from. I used to think it was done to create revenue but lately I believe someone just thought it was a good idea. They never considered the blow back and to date are just kite flying the system, never mind inconsistency or even crying. No matter what happens the next six months will be interesting times indeed.

[cali4995]

The official financial requirement for a tourist visa is: (from mfa.go.th)

Evidence of adequate finance (20,000 Baht per person and 40,000 Baht per family)

I can understand opening a Thai bank account and depositing 20k in there, I can even

see perhaps showing a bank statement from your home country to demonstrate this.

When they start making up the arbitrary requirements like 6 months of statements

showing income, which doesn't appear publicly anywhere. The whole thing starts to

get a little messy. How can you plan for requirements which aren't posted anywhere?

[tropo]

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.

How long can they hold out? It's looking like all tourist visa runners will converge on Vientiane soon with Penang, Savannakhet and KL out of the equation.

[dee123]

.....before you give me a "100 LINES" or threaten me with detention ...I will explain why it gets my goat up, the fact that people who are married to Thai's and have family etc have no priority over persons who for instance have bought a holiday home in Thailand, can you just tell me why I should not feel this ain't fair ???

[stevemiddie]

.....before you give me a "100 LINES" or threaten me with detention ...I will explain why it gets my goat up, the fact that people who are married to Thai's and have family etc have no priority over persons who for instance have bought a holiday home in Thailand, can you just tell me why I should not feel this ain't fair ???

T.I.T

[dee123]

.....before you give me a "100 LINES" or threaten me with detention ...I will explain why it gets my goat up, the fact that people who are married to Thai's and have family etc have no priority over persons who for instance have bought a holiday home in Thailand, can you just tell me why I should not feel this ain't fair ???

T.I.T

riff raff

[tropo]

.....before you give me a "100 LINES" or threaten me with detention ...I will explain why it gets my goat up, the fact that people who are married to Thai's and have family etc have no priority over persons who for instance have bought a holiday home in Thailand, can you just tell me why I should not feel this ain't fair ???

It's a bitch, but people should consider this before they get married to a Thai. There are other options in Asia if marriage is considered a necessity. In the Philippines, for example, you can stay with your wife even if you're penniless. Some countries value the family unit, others consider money more important...that's life.

[dee123]

...."TIT" ....OR..."THATS LIFE" from you ......cor blimey your arguments really hold tight under scrutiny

[cali4995]

Contrary to being granted special privileges, being married to a Thai national

seems to hold the foreigner to a higher degree of accountability without any

tangible benefits. But, if you've gone that route you really can't blame others.

Aside from perhaps a meaningful relationship with your wife, I don't think you

can expect much priority treatment. Should be carefully considered before.

Edited December 19, 2007 by cali4995

[dee123]

Contrary to being granted special privileges, being married to a Thai national

seems to hold the foreigner to a higher degree of accountability without any

tangible benefits. But, if you've gone that route you really can't blame others.

Aside from perhaps a meaningful relationship with your wife, I don't think you

can expect much priority treatment. Should be carefully considered before.

so basically I should stop whinging.......hmmm ??? I wonder where I heared that ??.......Oh yeah it was ME in my first post.........thanks everyone I was right

[eljeque]

Back to the original topic.

Should it be easy enough to show up at Savanakhet for a 60 day (possibly a double-entry) tourist visa AS LONG AS the applicant has a bank book showing several hundred thousand baht in it?

[cali4995]

That's sort of the quandary. Without publicly posted information on the

actual current requirements, it's hard for anyone to be sure? How much

of a balance? Or in the case of proving income for the last 6 months,

how much income? Can it be a local account or does it need to be an

account/statements from your home country? The consulate website

for Savannkhet http://www.thaiembassy.org/savannakhet is

essentially a static page with no updates. The only info we have to go

on was the OP's observations, which I don't dispute but none of it is

very clear is it? An awfully long way to travel with so many unknowns.

[Firefan]

Eh.. reading through thread I think we need to clarify that I would presume that any (be it Thai or not) account statement will do - because WE ARE TALKING ABOUT TOURIST VISAS! Nobody expects a "tourist" to have a Thai bank account (be it "long-stay-tourist" or not).

Secondly; the "6 months" requirement is probably mostly to ensure that it was not a "faker" account made for just visa-purposes as we have seen with the retirement "visa", so any print or book should work, as long as not a brand new account((less than 6 months old) of course.

Cheers!

[cali4995]

The official financial requirement for a tourist visa is: (from mfa.go.th)

Evidence of adequate finance (20,000 Baht per person and 40,000 Baht per family)

In the original post it was stated internet statements were viewed with skepticism,

a Thai bankbook, held in your hand, does seem more definite proof of security.

It actually makes sense for tourists to have local bank accounts, if more people

did this we would see less theft from hotels and safeboxes.

What we really need is an update from someone who has been there recently

and obtained a tourist visa, can give us the facts not maybe/if's probably.

[technocracy]

Just as a thought here but since this Jack Golf company has stopped his visa tours and the consulate isn't getting inundated with coach loads again . . . maybe give it a few weeks and things might just slacken a bit?

As I stated previously in the post if all the rank and file of visa companies head up here to Vientiane I think the reaction will be pretty much the same. Funny on the mention of Africans - the queues I often see outside the Vientiane Consulate are made up of about 75% African.

Paul - as much as I agree that it's most likely the tour companies that have screwed peoples visa chances here I think what you've been told about the Lao and Viet folks using the consulate is off the mark. You are right in general about Lao folks using border passes however in general Lao people actually have a border pass book which is just stamped in the same way as a passport - but that said the Thai consulate has absolutely nothing to do with the issuing of them as these are Lao documents issued at Lao offices.

The only reason Lao people would be going into the Thai Consulate is for work permits to work in Thailand. I guess this would be the same for the Viet as well - since they don't need visas either to enter Thailand for tourist purposes.