Tourist Visa After Entering The Country As Visa Exempt

[marivoul]

Hi,

I am a US citizen still living in the USA. At the end of Feb I plan on going to Thailand and travelling around southeast asia for several months up to a year. Ideally I would like to base myself out in Thailand and be able to leave and re-enter the country when I feel like it.

From reading around this forum so far I have determined that the most flexible option would be to apply for a new tourist visa every 3 months in Laos/Vietnam.

My question is - do i need to apply for a tourist visa now before I leave the US or should I use my 3 free 30 day entries and THEN apply for a 60 day (90 days with extension) tourist visa in Cambodia. I am thinking of saving money.

Also, if within the 90 day tourist visa period I decide to go to Vietnam for example would I be able to get back into Thailand on my original visa?

Thanks for the advice.

[lopburi3]

The most flexible would be a multi entry non immigrant O visa and I would call around to some of the smaller honorary type consulates and see if you could qualify for that. That allows unlimited entry/exit for a year and up to 90 day stay on any entry.

A tourist visa entry is 60 days maximum and ends if you leave the country. You would need a number of them and each time you leave it ends. To keep alive would require purchase of re-entry permit and that would only keep the current 60 day stay alive in any case.

If non immigrant not available a tourist visa to start and then a combination of tourist visas and visa exempt entry would probably do it. You should have visa for first entry as visa exempt requires onward ticket within 30 days and airline may check that. I would not use more than 60 days visa exempt (keep one 30 day entry in reserve for emergency use).

[jackbox]

Your best bet is to get the visa before coming to Thailand. The embassies and consulates in the USA will generally issue a 3 entry Tourist Visa valid for 180 days (90 days if 1 or 2 entries). I got them several times from the LA Consulate in the past. Each entry is about $60.00 now due to recent increase on this type of visa. If you are in LA you can go to Thai consulate. Also most of the Honaray consulates will issue the visa while you wait in about 15 minutes and are very user friendly. You can find link to honorary consulates on the DC Thai embassy website.

The most flexible would be a multi entry non immigrant O visa and I would call around to some of the smaller honorary type consulates and see if you could qualify for that. That allows unlimited entry/exit for a year and up to 90 day stay on any entry.

A tourist visa entry is 60 days maximum and ends if you leave the country. You would need a number of them and each time you leave it ends. To keep alive would require purchase of re-entry permit and that would only keep the current 60 day stay alive in any case.

If non immigrant not available a tourist visa to start and then a combination of tourist visas and visa exempt entry would probably do it. You should have visa for first entry as visa exempt requires onward ticket within 30 days and airline may check that. I would not use more than 60 days visa exempt (keep one 30 day entry in reserve for emergency use).

[lopburi3]

The visa fee is $ 30 per entry.

Source Royal Thai Consulate General Los Angeles