Painless Visa Run To Aranyaphrathet / Poipet

[mxyzptlk]

I have a Multi Non O Visa. Yesterday I did my first solo visa run to Aranyaphrathet / Poipet.

I had already purchased a Cambodian e-Visa for 25 USD using the MFA online service @ 5:14 pm and received it by email the next morning @ 8:41am.You need to print 2 copies of the visa - 1 for entry and 1 for exit. This saves any visa on arrival hassle including the "is it 20 USD or 1000 baht" issue. The visa is not stapled in your passport, thus saving a full page. My g/f drove me, and we got to the border aroung 10.30 am. As soon as I got out of the car, I was approached by a tout who offered his assistance, saying that returning to Thailand the same day would cost me 500 baht to have my passport stamped. Armed with info from this forum, I knew that was b*llocks and told him to be on his way. I proceeded on the left hand side of the road through Thai immigration (no queue) to exit Thailand. I then crossed over the road to Cambodia arrivals and got an arrival card from an official who was handing them out. When asked if I was returning to Thailand the same day (I had no baggage at all) I told the officer I was going to the casinos to gamble. There was quite a queue to enter Cambodia, but after about 45 minutes I had an entry stamp in my passport no problems. I then crossed over the road to Cambodian Departures, and after waiting about 5 minutes, I was stamped out of Cambodia. I crossed back over the road to Thailand arrivals and went into passport control. The arrival cards are on the counter to the far right of the room. I Filled in an arrival card and stood in one of the 2 foreign passport queues. After about another 45 minutes, I had another permission to stay in Thailand for 90 days stamp in my passport.

All the officials I encountered on both sides of the border were pleasant and helpful.

Hope this experience is of use to others.....

Edited November 3, 2009 by mxyzptlk

[Nio]

I have a Multi Non O Visa. Yesterday I did my first solo visa run to Aranyaphrathet / Poipet.

I had already purchased a Cambodian e-Visa for 25 USD using the MFA online service @ 5:14 pm and received it by email the next morning @ 8:41am.You need to print 2 copies of the visa - 1 for entry and 1 for exit. This saves any visa on arrival hassle including the "is it 20 USD or 1000 baht" issue. The visa is not stapled in your passport, thus saving a full page. My g/f drove me, and we got to the border aroung 10.30 am. As soon as I got out of the car, I was approached by a tout who offered his assistance, saying that returning to Thailand the same day would cost me 500 baht to have my passport stamped. Armed with info from this forum, I knew that was b*llocks and told him to be on his way. I proceeded on the left hand side of the road through Thai immigration (no queue) to exit Thailand. I then crossed over the road to Cambodia arrivals and got an arrival card from an official who was handing them out. When asked if I was returning to Thailand the same day (I had no baggage at all) I told the officer I was going to the casinos to gamble. There was quite a queue to enter Cambodia, but after about 45 minutes I had an entry stamp in my passport no problems. I then crossed over the road to Cambodian Departures, and after waiting about 5 minutes, I was stamped out of Cambodia. I crossed back over the road to Thailand arrivals and went into passport control. The arrival cards are on the counter to the far right of the room. I Filled in an arrival card and stood in one of the 2 foreign passport queues. After about another 45 minutes, I had another permission to stay in Thailand for 90 days stamp in my passport.

All the officials I encountered on both sides of the border were pleasant and helpful.

Hope this experience is of use to others.....

Since this is your first time, the tout you ran into can expedite getting your passport stamped in Cambodia without you. For 500 baht or even less, as soon as you depart the Thai immigration, these locals will take you to a seating area nearby. They will fill out all your Cambodia paperwork for you. You do not even have to leave your seat, they will then take your passport and have the Cambodia visa stamped in it while you wait in the sitting area(you simply sit there waiting 10 minutes). These touts jump right to the front of the cambodian immigration line (paying some of your 500 to the cambodian immigration officials I imagine for the right to cut the whole line), they bring your passport back to you. Total time spent sitting about 10 minutes. Then you are on your way back into Thailand.

While 500 baht may seem like a scam to first timers, time is money and if you don't want to waste an hour or more the money spent having them get the cambodia stamp is well spent. Sometimes the lines there can be hours long so the 500 baht is a good investment if you want to get in and out quicker than you can do it on your own.

[Redhawk]

Doing a visa run around Songkran, really nice and hot and we are on public holidays, the gamblers are on mass, 500 Baht would be well spent instead of 5 hours dying in the heat.

[mxyzptlk]

Doing a visa run around Songkran, really nice and hot and we are on public holidays, the gamblers are on mass, 500 Baht would be well spent instead of 5 hours dying in the heat.

Don't you mean Loy Krathong ?

Unfortunately, immigration dictates when I do a border run, not me.

Also 45 + 45 = 90 Minutes not 5 hours

[mxyzptlk]

Since this is your first time, the tout you ran into can expedite getting your passport stamped in Cambodia without you. For 500 baht or even less, as soon as you depart the Thai immigration, these locals will take you to a seating area nearby. They will fill out all your Cambodia paperwork for you. You do not even have to leave your seat, they will then take your passport and have the Cambodia visa stamped in it while you wait in the sitting area(you simply sit there waiting 10 minutes). These touts jump right to the front of the cambodian immigration line (paying some of your 500 to the cambodian immigration officials I imagine for the right to cut the whole line), they bring your passport back to you. Total time spent sitting about 10 minutes. Then you are on your way back into Thailand.

While 500 baht may seem like a scam to first timers, time is money and if you don't want to waste an hour or more the money spent having them get the cambodia stamp is well spent. Sometimes the lines there can be hours long so the 500 baht is a good investment if you want to get in and out quicker than you can do it on your own.

Hi Nio, thanks for your views. However, I personally would not be willing to engage or encourage a tout who would push in the front of the queue and p*ss off other people who were patiently waiting their turn even if it was to my advantage. I believe in fair play, and in my opinion the encouragement of these activities will only exacerbate the problem and overall will cause more hassle for lone inexperienced travellers (like myself) and those who just refuse to pay. If we all paid up, we would be back to square one.....

These are just my humble opinions and views and I would not attempt to impose them on others or to make judgement about others who engage the services of such people.

I'll be applying for an 1 year extension of stay in the last 30 days of my current permission to stay and if things go favourably, then I won't need to do a border run again.....