Visa fees going up in consulates abroad

[MaiChai]

Returning to LOS in a few weeks, and thought I might renew my non imm 'O' before it goes up. Sent off for a visa app form from the Liverpool consulate, and they have included a note with the form. Here is its contents:

Please note that visa fees are to rise from 26th August, as shown below. Applications received for travel after this date will be charged at the new rates.

Tourist visa - 25 pounds per entry.

Non-Immigrant visas - 40 pounds per single entry

                              90 pounds for multiple entry

Current fee prices:

Tourist - 8 pounds per entry.

Non-immigrant -  15 pounds per entry

                      30 pounds for multiple entry

For the non-immigrant thats a wopping 300% increase. Ouch. Thailand can no longer be considered cheap.

The form says visas will be processed and returned within 48 hours if you are travelling in the next month.

You'd better be quick!

[PREM-R]

Quote source MaiChai 15.Aug.03 (Note from Liverpool Consulate)

Please note that visa fees are to rise from 26th August, as shown below. Applications received for travel after this date will be charged at the new rates.

Tourist visa - 25 pounds per entry.

Non-Immigrant visas - 40 pounds per single entry

                             90 pounds for multiple entry

NEW FEE RATE FOR VISAS (Source george 5.Aug.03)

In reference to Thai Ministerial Regulation No. 27 (B.E. 2546) which was issued by the Immigration Act B.E. 2522, the new fee rate for Thai visas has been proclaimed in the Royal Gazette.  The new fee rate as listed below will go into effect on August 26, 2003:

Transit Visa  US$20.00

Tourist Visa  US$25.00

Non-Immigrant Visas:

- Single Entry              US$50.00

- 1 Year Multiple-Entry  US$125.00

Once again we have a conflict of information, george quotes the Royal Gazette  'TR visa per entry 25USD (approx.15.50GBP)'

MaiChai quotes Liverpool Consulate 'TR visa per entry 25GBP (approx.40USD)'.

Is the figure quoted in the Royal Gazette applicable world wide or do different countries have different rates for visas?

Clearly there is a big difference in cost between 25USD and 25GBP.  ???

[dr_Pat_Pong]

The Ministerial Memorandum listed the fee variations in Thai baht, and they were published in the Royal Gazette and become law effective as of 26 August. It is the task of Thai Embassies around the world to convert Thai baht into local currencies sensibly rounded.

The armchair critics are reminded that this is the first visa price change in 17 years. The Ministry might have done it progressively, but it didn't. Having regard to the lengthy period between increases, it is a realistic rise. We might not like it, but realistic it is. Think back to costs in 1986.

[Luma]

The new fees at Royal Thai Embassy, Stockholm, Sweden:

Tourist visa: 200 SEK/entry

Non-Immigrant: 400 SEK/entry

1 SEK = approx. 5 Baht

[PREM-R]

1 entry TR visa in USA 25 USD (approx. 1000 THB)

1 entry TR visa in Sweden 200 Krona (approx. 1000 THB)

1 entry TR visa in UK (Liverpool) 25GBP (approx. 1,675 THB)

source dr_pat_pong 'It is the task of Thai Embassies around the world to convert Thai baht into local currencies sensibly rounded.'

:laugh:

[MaiChai]

dr_pat_pong thinks its a fair price. I think its a scam. I have Thai children and a Thai wife, why do I have to go through all this red tape and cough up 90 quid every year? OK, its fair that I should do it once, but why every year? I don't agree with the way it works, and how foreigners are treated in Thailand. I should be entitled to stay because I am married to a local/have Thai children with Thai citizenship. In the UK we wouldn't treat foreign wifes married to UK citizens like this. We treated them as equals...

Maybe if you stay too long you come to accept it Dr? Or do you get some benefit out of the existing contrived scheme?

Grumble, grumble. Equality for foreign spouses, etc, etc.

[MaiChai]

Well if you are the main earner for your family, then it follows that your wife and children would be entitled to treatment. Sometimes people forget what NI was intended for.

Now illegal immigrants and refugees, well thats another story...

[PREM-R]

As the new Visa rates were announced in the Royal Gazette in Thai Baht, could somebody post the amounts announced (in Thai Baht). From some of the posts on this subject it would appear that the correct figure for a one entry TR will be 1000 Baht. As Dr_p_p says, the amount should then be 'sensibly rounded' into the local currency of the Embassy/Consulate concerned.

Where I still have a problem with all this is the 67% difference in cost of a TR quoted by Liverpool UK Consulate when compared with the cost of a TR purchased in USA or Sweden. I could understand a small difference when allowing for exchange  rates but 67% just cannot be correct!

(Below  is a 'pop-up' which appears when you exit the website of the Thai Consulate in Hull)

Visa Fees - 1st August 2003

Please note that all visa fees have been revised by the Government of Thailand and the following fees become effective on all applications received on and after 01 September 2003:-

Tourist Visas  Single Entry £25.00

Double Entry £45.00

Triple Entry £60.00

Quadruple Entry £70.00

   

Non-Immigrant Visas Single Entry £40.00

Multiple Entry £90.00

Visas can be applied for through the post or in person. Postal applications should be sent by Royal Mail Special Delivery and must include a pre-paid Special Delivery envelope for us to return your passport in. If you wish to visit our office in person please telephone 01482 581668 to arrange an appointment. There is an additional charge of £10 per visa for this service.

Note that the 25GBP charge is shown for a single TR visa but that the charge for subsequent entries is on a diminishing scale per entry. Also note the date of implementation, 1st September 2003(not 26th August 2003)

The more I try to find out, the more confused I get! ???

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Some currency variations over the past 17 years accounts for some seemingly inexplicable cost differences.

[MaiChai]

The lady called from the Liverpool consulate today; a nice soundling lady with a polite scouse accent. Anyway, she wanted to know where my marriage certificate was, I pointed out that I had included my daughters birth certificate, which I prefer (less chance of being kicked back), and had she not seen it? I then asked her if she could read Thai (I pointed out I could), she said no.

So its comforting to know the folks handling your paperwork can't even read the docs you send. So you might as well send in anything you like, or even make up your own docs with a bit of creative photo editing on a computer. Maybe the lady is on minimum wage and the Thai concept of running a business kicks in: pay your staff as little as possible and charge your customers as much as you can?

While I was on the phone, I asked why the visa prices had risen so much. She replied that it was in response to the visa prices now charged by the UK for student visas; apparently 190 quid. I pointed out that there was a different between a student and someone who is married to a local/has children with local citizenship. Anyway, I left it at that, as I did not want to be rude to her, as its not her fault that the prices have gone up so much. I'm not sure how true it is, but thats what she said.

[PREM-R]

Sorry to keep on about this but having spent some time looking at the websites of Thai Embassy/Consulates around the world (most of which have not been updated for years, nor have mention of the impending Visa price increases) I find that a TR in the USA will cost 1,040 Baht per entry, in Switzerland 1,046 baht per entry and in Japan 1,045 per entry.

These figures are remarkably consistant, yet a UK issued TR will cost 1,675 Baht.  DR_p_p says currency variations over 17 years may be to blame for the difference, but surely the US dollar, Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc have all fluctuated during the last 17 years yet their convertion rate to Thai Baht is almost exactly equal.  As a farang in Thailand I am used to being 'ripped off' but I find it hard to take that we Brits are being charged more than Americans, Japanese or Swiss for our Visas.

[valentinoxxx]

Just to clear it up; The price of a tourist visa to Thailand from the UK is now £15 per entry, effective from the 26th of August.

[wilson steer]

I feel sorry for my Uncle Billy. He comes to the LOS every Christmas/New Year for 6 weeks.

In the old days he got a 30 day visa free of charge upon arrival, then bought a 14 extension for 500 baht and one time a nice guy at immigration gave him 19 days for 500 baht because he is an OAP.

Now he has a choice of a tourist visa in the U.K. 25 pounds plus registered envelopes each way and the stress and the paperwork and the photograph, Total cost around 35 pounds, plus the anxiety of the wait for return of passport.

The alternative is the automatic 30 day visa and a 14 day extension for 1900 baht 30 pounds, and I guess that this time, that nice immigration guy won't give him that 'extra' day or so which the six week holiday might require.

[PREM-R]

valentinoxxx   I hope that you are right with your post that UK TR visas are going to be 15GBP but the information from Thai Consulate Hull does not coincide with yours!  Where did you get your information from?

(Below  is a 'pop-up' which appears when you exit the website of the Thai Consulate in Hull)

Quote  

Visa Fees - 1st August 2003

Please note that all visa fees have been revised by the Government of Thailand and the following fees become effective on all applications received on and after 01 September 2003:-

Tourist Visas  Single Entry £25.00

Double Entry £45.00

Triple Entry £60.00

Quadruple Entry £70.00

 

Non-Immigrant Visas Single Entry £40.00

Multiple Entry £90.00

Visas can be applied for through the post or in person. Postal applications should be sent by Royal Mail Special Delivery and must include a pre-paid Special Delivery envelope for us to return your passport in. If you wish to visit our office in person please telephone 01482 581668 to arrange an appointment. There is an additional charge of £10 per visa for this service.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

A personal interest in visa fee increases Mai Chai ?   At the very least,  I'd see a contribution like that from you  as offensive.  It makes me wonder why nobody checks visa  fees applicable   to the rest of the world, including the fees applicable to to Thai's from countries where the noisiest people come from

[plachon]

Wahay Maichai! Dr PP's got the hump with you again and is stirring old s...t. At least he didn't wipe your posts off the board though (need I say more?). Coming from a "noisy" country and being one of the ones miffed about the jump in visa prices, I'd just like to say this once more. Thailand's economy heavily depends on tourism and ex-pats living here. Britain has a more diversified economy and can afford to lose some inflows from countries that are high-risk for coming for more than a holiday. We're all price-sensitive creatures and 400 % price jumps are steep in anyone's book (bar Dr PP's it seems). Some people will be put off from coming / staying, or others may just curtail their visit (cut out the extension). Ordinary people who rely on these people's income will be hurt as a result. The govt. may make some more income,but I doubt if it'll be plowed back into better service at the embassies / consulates. The price jumps are just the thin end of a very big wedge which is being driven in by the present non-laissez faire regime. Some may like it, others may not, we've all got our own opinions. But don't get too sanctimonious about other's Dr PP - I clearly remember you advising someone that a bottle of Scotch might do the trick in getting their visa approved in an earlier posting.

Wonder how long this post will be allowed to stay?