No Stamp At Mae Sai

[james24]

Hi there

I recently did a visa run to Mae Sai. My visa expires on 23rd march this (non imm o) so I nipped up there and got three months which is granted me stay till June sometime. Now while I was up there I met a guy and he was visiting Burma for shopping. He said he didnt want a stamp in his passport as it would cancel his visa so he had a photocopy of his passport a couple of photos and a bit of money and as far as I know he did his shopping. He said he'd done it before and a guy at work also said this is possible.

Now my question is can I do this? Like I said Im on the last three months I can get with this visa and the visa exp date is on 23rd March basically two days, but if I could do this that would be great.

[Jdietz]

AFAIK you should be able to get a 'temporary border pass' which is good for the day.

[james24]

cool, will that effect my visa at all? And how much is it? Also what is AFAIK...?

Cheers

[steve187]

AFAIK = as far as i know

[james24]

cheers any ideas regarding the rest of the q's??

[earlofwindermere]

I believe that it was only 200 baht. This method of crossing the border is what nearly everyone does if they go to the casino at the Golden Triangle as well.

[Sojourner]

I believe that it was only 200 baht. This method of crossing the border is what nearly everyone does if they go to the casino at the Golden Triangle as well.

Can someone walk me through the procedure please. I don't need anymore stamps in my passport as I'm running short of pages and yet I like to do my wine shopping at the duty free up there. Thanks.

[rodcourt49]

You can go over on a half day pass by using your Thai Driver's Licence as proof of identity..still have to pay the 500 baht whereas Thais pay from memory 40baht.

[Sojourner]

You can go over on a half day pass by using your Thai Driver's Licence as proof of identity..still have to pay the 500 baht whereas Thais pay from memory 40baht.

So just showing my Thai driver's license at the Thai Immigration side of the bridge is OK? Do they give me some kind of a paper so I can get back into Thailand? After that pay the $10 to the Myanmar folks? Will they keep my license and issue a paper passport? What about coming back?

[james24]

yeh that seems to easy. When you say Thai drivers license does that mean my motorbike licence is ok? It seems a bit flimsy. The guy I saw photocopied his passport page. So all in all it should be about 700 baht right? with minimal id?

[james24]

Ok gonna be going there on wknd. Hope this isnt a waste of time. Can anyone tell me for definate that this wont affect my visa? Do I really just need photocopies of a passport and some cash? Could someone in admin clarify not just for me but for everyone...

Thanks again :-)

[naamjai]

for some other information have a look at this, post 15 and 16 :

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/entry-Permit...l&hl=maesai

[james24]

cheers that is really helpful, it still leaves the question whether this will affect my visa. Im on the last 3 month leg as my mul non imm o is now past its exp date.

Cheers

[naamjai]

cheers that is really helpful, it still leaves the question whether this will affect my visa. Im on the last 3 month leg as my mul non imm o is now past its exp date.

Cheers

with the "vip-pass", it will not affect your visa. they will not give you any stamp into your passport. while

you are crossing the border, the thai immigration will keep your passport. maybe you reread the links in

my previous post ...

naamjai

[james24]

cool just wanted to clarify, will give an update when done :-).

[prism]

Went to Mai Sai last week and did the VIP pass thing. I made 2 copies of my passport. I then gave 100 baht (Maybe they'll take less), my passport and and the copies of passport to the Thai immigration window at the border. They stapled a VIP pass to the copies and kept my passport. I then proceeded to the Myanmar immigration post, gave them the copies and VIP pass, paid my 500 baht (they won't take U.S. dollars when you use the VIP pass). They stamped the copies, gave them and the VIP pass back and off I went. Upon return to Thailand, I just showed the guards my VIP pass, skipped the stamp queue and walked around to the same window that I left my passport with and collected it. No stamp and saves time returning to Thailand.

[james24]

brill, going this wknd, when u say photocopy passport, Im assuming you mean the photo page, dont tell me the whole thing ahhhhhhhh!

[prism]

brill, going this wknd, when u say photocopy passport, Im assuming you mean the photo page, dont tell me the whole thing ahhhhhhhh!

Just the photo (face) page is required.

[james24]

cool :-)

[mythBuster]

Yes it is possible. Take a day pass. You need to make two copies of your passport, you lave your passport with Thai immigration and you take the copies (Stamped) to the Burmese side of the border, you pay the regular fee and get the funny card. After returning you get the second copy back which you return to Thai immigration and you get your passport back. Very simple and if you do not know simply ask the officer in charge, they are very helpful.

[oxo1947]

Does this situation only exist with Mae sai....(all of Myanmar ).. .. I am on the Thai side of the Lao boarder---is there anything similar for there ? Is the same thing available for Cambodia ?....or any other country??

[true blue]

I believe that it was only 200 baht. This method of crossing the border is what nearly everyone does if they go to the casino at the Golden Triangle as well.

they charged me 500 baht last time i went to casino.and i had just done a border run in mai sae about 3 hours before.

[james24]

yep all was fine, I payed the Thais 100 baht but I was with a thai friend and she said that the card I got which was written in Thai had no mention of 100 bht, so perhaps u dont need to...?

[bifftastic]

I believe that it was only 200 baht. This method of crossing the border is what nearly everyone does if they go to the casino at the Golden Triangle as well.

they charged me 500 baht last time i went to casino.and i had just done a border run in mai sae about 3 hours before.

One place right near the golden triangle on the Thai side (Sob Ruak), charged me 500 baht (commission!) and a further 500baht for the myanmar immigration guys! Copied my passport (no stamps) and I got a nice salute from the guy in the Thai immigration office Thai g/f paid 50 baht, that was for a trip to the 'win win' casino in myanmar, which was rather disappointing actually!

next time we went for free to the chinese casino (equally disappointing) taken by a chinese trading company a bit further out of Sob Ruak to the east, they asked for my passport but didn't care that I didn't have it! no-one looked at any documents that time, copied g/f's ID card and then just took us over to a small jetty with a Laos flag on it (no uniformed staff, nobody checks anything) drove us to the casino and then back to the market by the river. All done by chinese nationals, boat driver and two car drivers on the Laos side. This is only for the casino/market trips, you can't go anywhere else, it's like a huge construction site, all chinese development with huge hotels and new wide roads

On a third occasion we took the kids for a boat ride on a longtail from the river front in Chiang Saen, again ,no documents needed, up and down the river for a while, over to the same market for an hour then back again, 400 baht (i think)