Now do you see how

[kenkannif]

Good advice?

HOW TO...: Extend your stay

Published on Sep 26, 2003

There couldn?t be a more generous country for doling out long-term visas than Thailand. Even a standard tourist visa lasts for three months. And if that is not long enough, a quick overnight trip to a Thai embassy or consulate in a neighbouring country will get you another three months.

Or if you just want an extra month, you can leave Thailand, enjoy 30 seconds of sightseeing in a different country, then turn around and come back in. In fact, at some border posts, those friendly, fellows in the disturbingly tight uniforms at the immigration checkpoint will even lend you their pen to fill out the entry document to the other country, knowing you?ll have it back to them in a few minutes.

Pedang Besar on the Malaysian border is a model of such efficiency. Motorbike taxi riders on the Thai side will supply you with a Malaysian entry card and let you use their backs as a fairly flat surface upon which to fill it out while riding pillion through the one-kilometre of frontier land before you reach the Malaysian immigration checkpoint. You can even stay on the back of the motorbike while being stamped into Malaysia. The bike then does a u-turn to the Malaysian exit checkpoint - more stamps; still on the motorbike - and zooms you back to Thailand before you can say ?nothing to declare?.

While immigration officers at Thailand?s land border checkpoints usually extend a cheery welcome to tourists returning after 30 seconds abroad to continue the last leg of their 12-year holiday in the Land of Smiles, those bureaucratic types at various Thai diplomatic missions around the globe can be a bit annoying at times. But I suppose you can?t blame them, that is their job.

Depending on what he had for breakfast that morning, the man in charge of the consular section at the Royal Thai Embassy in Singapore has been known to dash out a memo stating that a Thai tourist visa will not be issued for three months after an applicant?s previous tourist visa had expired . . . so there!

The staff in Hong Kong can also be a little tetchy and nosey sometimes; wanting to know why 48 pages of your passport are stamped with used Thai tourist visas. But you can usually bluff your way through it (Thai wife is pregnant; wanted by police, decided to turn myself in; the shelter for the homeless I built needs attention urgently; honest, this is the last time I?ll ask . . . that sort of stuff).

But at the handy and efficient Penang consulate in Malaysia, you?ll get a tourist visa with minimum fuss on the same day. However, don?t ask for a multiple-entry stamp unless you enjoy being laughed at.

Multiple-entry tourist visa? What?s that?

The multiple-entry tourist visa is as rare as it is prized. It is the Holy Grail of tourist visas. When someone gets one of these, they waves their passport triumphantly in the air for all to see and admire. This little beauty generally allows you four entries into Thailand over a period of 12 months. You still have leave the country every three months, but you can wheel around and come straight back in for another three months before anyone knows you have left. But you have to pay extra for each entry when applying for the visa. The price for each entry is usually equivalent to the cost of the visa proper; that is, four entries will cost four times more than a single-entry visa.

A single-entry visa generally costs about Bt1,000.

So how do I get one?

Easy. There are small Thai honorary consulates in unexpected places all over the world that have no such qualms about thumping a one-year, multiple-entry tourist visa into your passport. So keen are they to charge . . . er, I mean please, sometimes you don?t even have to ask!

These honorary consuls obviously realise it takes more than a lousy three months for a decent holiday in Thailand. The fact that they are reaping four times as much in visa fees is probably not even a consideration.

Maybe you are thinking: ?All well and good, but that means I have to head off to some strange city in some strange country, full of strange grumpy people . . . it?s not worth it.?

Nope: Just send them a fax. They will fax you back a tourist visa application form. Fill it in. Courier it and your passport, along with a bank-issued cheque, have a beer, and in a week or so, back comes your passport and a shiny new one-year, multiple-entry visa . . . hooray!

Of course you will need to leave Thailand for 30 seconds to get an exit stamp before you can activate your new visa.

As dodgy as this all seems, it is not. It?s all above board.

Some of the classified ads you see in the newspapers from companies offering lots of no-fuss, super-duper, really long category visas have been known to avail themselves of the services offered by these honorary consuls. Perth, Australia, and Hull (of all places) in England are two such accommodating honorary consuls. But keep it quiet! If too many people find out, it might spoil it for everyone.

Next week: We?ll take a look at lots of other visa categories.

Phil Macdonald

The Nation

[kenkannif]

Posted here Friday morning!

I wonder why it was ignored and then a seperate post started? Hmm I wonder....???

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Somehow it got overlooked at first Ken, then it got well done on the other thread. I think the author drinks.