I'm American and am here on a 30-day stamp. If I leave at Ban Laem, can I get a visa that is good for 60 days plus a 30-day extension upon re-entry to Thailand? If I do this, is there a minimum amount of time that I have to stay in Cambodia? Are there other pitfalls to this?

You cannot get such a visa at Ban Laem (nor at the Cambodian side of that border). Consider going to Vientiane and get a tourist visa there.

Once you have obtained the tourist visa, you can come right back, takes two working days, look in this forum for a thread that has all the details of this particular visa run.

It's further down or on the next page.

Edited August 22, 200817 yr by sjaak327

Thanks very much I really appreciate it. I've looked over the forum a lot but the amount of information here is immense. Now that you have given me a specific location to shoot for it seems much more manageable! Now I am just curious about one thing- am I OK if I do the quick Cambodia run this time, and do the Vientiane one next time? Is there any disadvantage to that? And is the consensus that they are not really enforcing the 90 days in 6 months rule?

Thank you again for your help- I am grateful for the forum!!!

They are enforcing the 90 days in 6 months rule, but this only applies to the free 30 days exempt stamps. Time spent on proper visas (like tourist or non immigrant) do not count towards this limit. If you haven't spend close to 60 days in Thailand on these stamps in the last 6 months, you could indeed do a quick Cambodia Visa run.

You could do it yourself, or choose the various visa run services from Bangkok, Jack gold, thaivsiarun.com and thaivisaservice.com

Edited August 22, 200817 yr by sjaak327

Thanks very much I really appreciate it. I've looked over the forum a lot but the amount of information here is immense. Now that you have given me a specific location to shoot for it seems much more manageable! Now I am just curious about one thing- am I OK if I do the quick Cambodia run this time, and do the Vientiane one next time? Is there any disadvantage to that? And is the consensus that they are not really enforcing the 90 days in 6 months rule?

Thank you again for your help- I am grateful for the forum!!!

The checkpoints at landborders, especially the Thai/Cambodian at Aran/PoiPet and Ban Laem/Daung are enforcing the 90day rule very strictly.

You can do a Cambodian run and afterwards go to Vientiane/Laos to apply for Tourist Visa (Single or Double entry) or apply for a Non immigrant Visa.