Changes To The 30 Day Visa Exemption Rule And The Effect On Chiang Rai

[sceadugenga]

The Visa sub-forum informs us that the 30 day exemption rule will be changed to 14 days when entering from a neighbouring country, for example Lao or Burma.

On the bright side, and still not confirmed, it appears that the 90 day rule has been scrapped.

This is going to make Chiang Rai an attractive residential option for expats living here under the visa run system.

Can anyone foresee an influx of new Farangs?

[wileycoyote]

Good Posting

[konjianghai]

Would any of you mind if CR have more expats?

Personally i dont think they wouldn't live here that fast since CR lack of alot of Expats needs, like International school or anything western standard.

Any low meterialistic expats are welcome to CR in my opinion lolZ...CR is a simple place for simple people.

[garyh]

Is it to hard for the officals to calculate the 90 day rule and therefore dropping it

[lannaman]

The Visa sub-forum informs us that the 30 day exemption rule will be changed to 14 days when entering from a neighbouring country, for example Lao or Burma.

On the bright side, and still not confirmed, it appears that the 90 day rule has been scrapped.

This is going to make Chiang Rai an attractive residential option for expats living here under the visa run system.

Can anyone foresee an influx of new Farangs?

Any ex-pats coming to Crai on account of this will need to bring a might big passport with multiple pages for all those stamps. And what's the betting that Burmese side will increase the 10$ fee.

Keep us posted if you see any more on the 90 day rule.

[goski]

I don't see the effect of anything if you still have the same tourist visa rules. Would people rather go across the border twice a month instead of going to get a new visa in a neighbour country every 3-6 months?

[sceadugenga]

The changes are being discussed at length in the Visa forum, Lannaman. I haven't been there yet so I'm unaware of any up dates at the moment.

What I was considering is who will come here? There are hundreds every day doing tourist visa runs to places like Vientiane for tourist visas. If the 90 day rule goes then they would be looking at a simple border crossing every two weeks. It's a lot cheaper to do that from Chiang Rai than from Bangkok or Pattaya and the savings over a year would be considerable.

Chiang Rai would be an attractive option for anyone trying to live in Thailand on a limited income. These people wouldn't necessarily be worried about International Schools because they couldn't afford them anyway.

[ImageDude]

Would any of you mind if CR have more expats?

Personally i dont think they wouldn't live here that fast since CR lack of alot of Expats needs, like International school or anything western standard.

Any low meterialistic expats are welcome to CR in my opinion lolZ...CR is a simple place for simple people.

Hey, who are calling simple . . .

[pothai]

I year visa in Hull or 3 months in Penang/KL etc is a dam_n site cheaper and more convenient than a border run every two weeks

[sceadugenga]

I agree absolutely if you live in Bangkok but my post was directed at people living in Chiang Rai which is a 50B bus trip from the border town of Mae Sai.

It's quite conceivable that if you left early you could be back before lunch using public transport, if you had your own car then the time would be at least halved.

The point of my post is that, as much as we may like to deny it, there are a number of expats living in Thailand that cannot afford to fly to Hull or even KL/Penang on a regular basis and if the 90 day rule is to be no longer enforced, then living in Chiang Rai would be an attractive option.

[klikster]

I agree absolutely if you live in Bangkok but my post was directed at people living in Chiang Rai which is a 50B bus trip from the border town of Mae Sai.

It's quite conceivable that if you left early you could be back before lunch using public transport, if you had your own car then the time would be at least halved.

The point of my post is that, as much as we may like to deny it, there are a number of expats living in Thailand that cannot afford to fly to Hull or even KL/Penang on a regular basis and if the 90 day rule is to be no longer enforced, then living in Chiang Rai would be an attractive option.

If ease of visa is the motivation, then why not Maesai instead of C'rai .. 5 min visa run and save the Bt 50.

[sceadugenga]

Don't laugh, I know an Aussie who's lived within 50 meters of the border crossing for the past 13 years.

[lukamar]

Don't laugh, I know an Aussie who's lived within 50 meters of the border crossing for the past 13 years.

I can't help myself but is that the closest pub to the border?

[sceadugenga]

Next door to it.

[RubbaJohnny]

Don't bother with dull dirty dusty borongC Rai

Chiang Khong ion the Mekohong is the real deal Burma up the rd and airport untouched by Siamese simpletons in Laos across the river.Communist employees seldom strike as 20 years re-education often deters

Visa runs duty free shop ops French plonk Russian ale and smokes at 80baht a carton

56 restaurants ample guest houses and hotels still being built

This boom town due to the imminent arriavl of of MILLIONS of Chinese tourists once the bridge built

Dont believe me ISUZU building new franchise Lotus Tesco to follow spiralling real estate prices towards Phuket levels even the Ngoo are becoming Boomtown rats

[goski]

Yes, I read about that. There are millions of Chinese trying to break down a wall they built in order to prevent them from entering Chiang Khong. French wine and Turkish delight. 81 geese and a phonebook. The snakes and the rats. Ah, the river of Mekohong, the best hong there is.

[klikster]

Don't bother with dull dirty dusty borongC Rai

Chiang Khong ion the Mekohong is the real deal Burma up the rd and airport untouched by Siamese simpletons in Laos across the river.Communist employees seldom strike as 20 years re-education often deters

Visa runs duty free shop ops French plonk Russian ale and smokes at 80baht a carton

56 restaurants ample guest houses and hotels still being built

This boom town due to the imminent arriavl of of MILLIONS of Chinese tourists once the bridge built

Dont believe me ISUZU building new franchise Lotus Tesco to follow spiralling real estate prices towards Phuket levels even the Ngoo are becoming Boomtown rats

Hmmm .. do they have broadband and cheap rooms/houses to rent long-term?

[ISPY]

Don't bother with dull dirty dusty borongC Rai

Chiang Khong ion the Mekohong is the real deal Burma up the rd and airport untouched by Siamese simpletons in Laos across the river.Communist employees seldom strike as 20 years re-education often deters

Visa runs duty free shop ops French plonk Russian ale and smokes at 80baht a carton

56 restaurants ample guest houses and hotels still being built

This boom town due to the imminent arriavl of of MILLIONS of Chinese tourists once the bridge built

Dont believe me ISUZU building new franchise Lotus Tesco to follow spiralling real estate prices towards Phuket levels even the Ngoo are becoming Boomtown rats

Hmmm .. do they have broadband and cheap rooms/houses to rent long-term?

you live in Cha am don't you....hehe

[klikster]

you live in Cha am don't you....hehe

Yes, but what does that have to do with my question?

Hehe?

[ISPY]

you live in Cha am don't you....hehe

Yes, but what does that have to do with my question?

Hehe?

[sceadugenga]

Very mysterious Klikster, maybe you have a stalker?

[klikster]

Very mysterious Klikster, maybe you have a stalker?

Actually, I know that I do. But with a handle like I SPY, what might one expect?

She seems obsessed with the mystery of how I can live in Cha am and post in the C'rai forum .. so much so that I had to warn her to stop sending me PMs about the same subject.

Maybe she's a "friend" of the former Buddhafly?

[IraqRon]

Very mysterious Klikster, maybe you have a stalker?

I thought it was Klikster asking RubbaJohnny if he, rubbaj, lived in ChaAm and not in CK.

As an aside, I have visited CK many time and crossed to Laos there. It is an attractive, scenic town, but methinks that it may lack a few essentials that CR provides.

Did RJ mean that 500,000 Chinese are coming to CK?? What did he mean by the NGOO (snakes?) becoming boomtown rats.

Now, about that Lao town accross the border, I've forgotten the name, please excuse that, I was there under a year ago and the airport was down to one flight a day out and that to LP I believe, hardly an international airport, land travel very poor, the people in the hotels, restaurants were barely civil, the cigaretts were fakes and would burn the lungs, I could go on, just saying that the Laos side is still rough. Not the reason to move to CK.

[klikster]

Very mysterious Klikster, maybe you have a stalker?

I thought it was Klikster asking RubbaJohnny if he, rubbaj, lived in ChaAm and not in CK.

As an aside, I have visited CK many time and crossed to Laos there. It is an attractive, scenic town, but methinks that it may lack a few essentials that CR provides.

Did RJ mean that 500,000 Chinese are coming to CK?? What did he mean by the NGOO (snakes?) becoming boomtown rats.

Now, about that Lao town accross the border, I've forgotten the name, please excuse that, I was there under a year ago and the airport was down to one flight a day out and that to LP I believe, hardly an international airport, land travel very poor, the people in the hotels, restaurants were barely civil, the cigaretts were fakes and would burn the lungs, I could go on, just saying that the Laos side is still rough. Not the reason to move to CK.

Hi IraqRon,

I was actually asking RubbaJohnny, and anyone else with current first hand knowledge, about CK. My interest would be on the Thai side.

Too bad the those of ISPY's ilk have to clutter the forum with their cruftage.

The town across the river is Baan Huaxai (sp?) and one TV persona knows waaaaay much about the place. Maybe Mac will drop by and offer an opinion.

I (klikster) lived in Chiang Rai from about '96 to '99, and now I live in Cha am.

I'm a little surprised to hear ".. the people in the hotels, restaurants were barely civil .." as I always had a nice approach from the Laos that I have known .. here in SE Asia and the big Lao community near my house in Anaheim, Ca.

[YoungerBrother]

The point of my post is that, as much as we may like to deny it, there are a number of expats living in Thailand that cannot afford to fly to Hull or even KL/Penang on a regular basis and if the 90 day rule is to be no longer enforced, then living in Chiang Rai would be an attractive option.

I agree with you here. Chiang Rai has become more cheaper/attractive for me, because of the new 15 day visa rule. I no longer need to rely on long and ultimate expensive trips to Vientiane.

Below I have calculated the cost of visa runs for a stay of 120 days in Chiang Rai. We can see that repeated visa runs to Mai Sai are TWICE as cheap as one visa run to Vientiane. The difference is 3200 baht versus 6400 baht.

CR to Mae Sai and back:

_______________________

80 THB ; Bus

+ 30 THB ; Red Taxi

+ 350 THB ; 10 USD for Burma immigration

= 460 THB

7 * 460 THB ; 120 days require 7 visa runs

= 3220 TBH

CR to Vientiane and back:

_________________________

* = estimate

1500 THB ; *Bus CR to Udon Thani and back

+ 80 THB ; *Transport between bus stations

+ 160 THB ; *Thai-Lao International Bus

+ 1200 THB ; 35 USD Lao Visa on Arrival

+ 1000 THB ; *Hotel/GH, food, transport in Vientiane

+ 2000 THB ; Thai Tourist Visa double entry

+ 460 THB ; Visa run to Mae Sai after first 60 days

= 6400 THB

Just my 2 cents,

YB

[Bastian]

actually to cover 120d you need 9 visaexemptionstamps, as they count the first and the last day, so you only get 14d periods.

you are systematically neglecting the opportunity cost of the time you spend, but never mind that.

[goski]

And so subjective as well! Mentioning food costs and such in Vientiane but not any Liquor/Entertainment buys in Mae Sai. Not fair. Besides I get the bus fare for half of the price mentioned to Udon.

Yes, and the time is correct. Effectively you get 14 day periods because you stamp out and in during the same day. Then you have 4140 baht according to mentioned Mae Sai budget for a 120 days.

I take the bus for 990 baht back and forth to Udon and thus I end up with 5890 baht for the Lao budget. 1750 baht difference and then I don't have to go to Mae Sai 9 times. Only 2. Luckily, 1750 baht is not so essential that I will die in case I have spent that extra amount.

Saving is important for some so don't buy any wine, liquor or cigarettes at Mae Sai! But then again expats don't drink so much do they....

[YoungerBrother]

Thanks all for the correction on the 14 days issue !

YB