I Have To Pay For A Tourist Visa

[Latindancer]

I am just about to go to Thailand to stay 3 months.....60 days on a tourist visa with a 30 day extension. Currently I'm in in an Australian capital city and just phoned the Thai Consulate. They informed me that if I do not show them a copy of a ticket out of Thailand within the 60 days, they will charge me $45 for a tourist visa.

Since I'm on a budget, and also hate feeling like I'm being ripped off, how can I get around this ?

If I show them a ticket out of the country and then show up in 3 months for another ( I have to return here for a few days then ), will they keep some sort of record or file they can check, and then see that I actually stayed longer, cancelling the flight I showed them the ticket for ? If so, I guess they can only give me grief when I try the same thing again on my return.....however this could be very inconvenient if they delay my visa.....I will have a flight booked and may not be able to get on it. I will have everything teed up to only be here a few days......

They say that the visa will be ready in half an hour...........maybe not much checking is done ?

[monty]

First I ever hear that you need an outbound ticket to get the free tourist visa!

[Mario2008]

The embassy will not check if you will stay 60 days or longer. If you change your departure date later on there will be no problem.

[lopburi3]

Don't use that Embassy/Consulate. Obtain from another Consulate such as Brisbane or Perth which you should be able to do by mail.

[lopburi3]

The point is a tourist visa is designed to allow a 30 day extension of stay so making it a requirement to have a flight out within 60 days is crazy. I know some closer Consulates do this (and also crazy but more understandable as they believe it is a long term stay) but for Embassy to do this in Oz to a citizen of that country for no apparent reason (has not seen passport) seems totally against stated policy of increasing tourist arrivals.

[endlessimage]

I had to pay for a double entry tourist visa in Brisbane. Wouldn't give me a triple and wouldn't budge on tthe payment either. No ticket required and done in person in about 5 minutes.

[lopburi3]

A single entry and a double entry are not the same bird. Very few places will issue a double entry without some form of payment.

[thaiphoon]

The 'free tourist visa' policy from MFA applies to single entry tourist visas only ... but for some reason the visa factory in Vientiane issues double entry free of charge

[Latindancer]

Don't use that Embassy/Consulate. Obtain from another Consulate such as Brisbane or Perth which you should be able to do by mail.

I had to pay for a double entry tourist visa in Brisbane. Wouldn't give me a triple and wouldn't budge on the payment either. No ticket required and done in person in about 5 minutes.

Actually, I'm in Brisbane. I might just get the 60 day visa and see what happens then. My girlfriend wants to go to Laos, so my ticket out of the country could be to there.

However it's a bit irritating that they want me to pay for a tourist visa when the government is promoting them as free.

[thaiphoon]

You could always obtain a re-entry permit at Thai immigration to keep your 60 day permission to stay alive if exiting the country for short break (cost 1000 baht single entry). Can also obtain 30 day extension of stay at Thai immigration if that helps too (cost 1900 baht). Or in Vientiane obtain double entry tourist visa - they are currently free.