Visa for medical care

[Bob Chittie]

I am from the US. Currently here on a 30 day visa free stay. I am scheduled to return to the US shortly. Recently I threw my back out. I'd like to stay here and get ultrasound/acupuncture/massage etc. at much cheaper prices than I will get back home. Will this qualify me for a visa for medical care or do I need to have a heart attack? If I would qualify, what are the steps I need to go through and how many months would I be granted?

I do understand that I can go to the border and come back in for 30 days, but sitting on a bus for ten hours with this back would be ####.

By the way, this is all true and it would be no problem to have the Chinese Doctor verify for immigration that for the last 10 days I've been in her care with needles in my back every other day.

Thanks in advance for any advice you may be able to offer.

[Brian Allen]

Hi Bob

I obtained a Non-Immigrant Visa at Penang a while ago by having my dentist/prosthodontician write a letter outlining a course of oral reconstruction I was having done here and which was scheduled to be spread over a period of eight to twelve months.

The letter was very simple in that it said just about what my previous paragraph said -- to the effect that "B A is my patient and is in the process of having oral-surgical and dental work done that will take eight months to one year to complete."

At the Penang Consulate I was asked to have faxed to the Consulate a copy of the business licence of the hospital on whose letterhead the request was made. That was done and the Non-Immigrant Visa was issued on the day. That is, as the following day was a Malaysian Holiday and the Consulate would be closed, the Consul was kind enough to move the issuing of my Visa forward by a day.

It was -- as has, during more than forty years, been my every dealing with Thai Officialdom -- a very pleasant experience.

But I did have to leave the country and visit a Consulate in order to obtain the Non-Immigrant Visa.

[Penang flights are pretty reasonable, though -- and the trains to Hat Yai and Sungai Kolok [For Kota Bahru] have First Class sleepers]

Best of luck.

Best ones -- B A

[dr_Pat_Pong]

I think you should follow Brian's advice and go to Penang armed with the letters etc. I doubt that you'd convince 'em to extend a 30 day permit long enough based on bad back syndrome. How is your heart ?        

[samuisam]

Threw your back out?  Just HOW exactly???