Do I Need Any Visa If I Make Excursions?

[Envox]

Hi,

I would like to know whether I need to apply for any type visa if I plan to spend 45 days in Thailand with occasional excursions to other countries in the region, i.e. 15 days in Thailand, then a few days in Cambodia, another 10 days back to Thailand, then a few days in Indonesia then again back to Thailand (total adds up to 45 days), etc.?

P.S. I am an American (30)?

[Mario2008]

You would get 30 days each tme you travel to Thailand by air and 15 days you travel to Thailand by land. So if you plan it will it wouldn't be a problem. But if you travel to Thailand without a visa, the airline would like to see a ticket out of the country within 30 days of your arrival.

Best is to apply for a tourist visa in the US before your travel, they are free at the moment.

[gotlost]

You would get 30 days each tme you travel to Thailand by air and 15 days you travel to Thailand by land. So if you plan it will it wouldn't be a problem. But if you travel to Thailand without a visa, the airline would like to see a ticket out of the country within 30 days of your arrival.

Best is to apply for a tourist visa in the US before your travel, they are free at the moment.

Just curious as the OP states popping out of Thailand a few times won't he need a reentry permit to protect his visa?

[Mario2008]

You would get 30 days each tme you travel to Thailand by air and 15 days you travel to Thailand by land. So if you plan it will it wouldn't be a problem. But if you travel to Thailand without a visa, the airline would like to see a ticket out of the country within 30 days of your arrival.

Best is to apply for a tourist visa in the US before your travel, they are free at the moment.

Just curious as the OP states popping out of Thailand a few times won't he need a reentry permit to protect his visa?

That depends on is travel plans, he only going for a 45 holiday with some excursions to other countries. Yes, he can apply for a muliple rentry permit on his tourist visa. But that would cost him 3,800 baht. He might not need one, depending on his travel plans and mode of transport. Looks to me he won't need a re-entry permit and afetr his first arrival on a tourist visa can do with visa exemempt entries.

[Envox]

You would get 30 days each tme you travel to Thailand by air and 15 days you travel to Thailand by land. So if you plan it will it wouldn't be a problem. But if you travel to Thailand without a visa, the airline would like to see a ticket out of the country within 30 days of your arrival.

Best is to apply for a tourist visa in the US before your travel, they are free at the moment.

Thank you for the response.

My question is, first, what constitutes a short-time leave from the kingdom, 3 days, 7 days? Second, should the re-entry visa form also be submitted along side the tourist visa in the U.S. or it is only processed once you get to Thailand (Bangkok)? Finally, I'm using MS 2007 and the format on the re-entry visa .doc file is in such a way that words have been cut off horizontally. Is there another source to fetch TM.8 document?

[Maestro]

1. The duration of your trips to countries outside Thailand is immaterial. It is the duration of your stay in Thailand after each arrival in Thailand that matters regarding Thai visas.

2. From your limited information about your travel itinerary it appears that your first stay in Thailand will not exceed 30 days and your subsequent stays will not exceed 15 days but that you will fly to Thailand with a return ticket with a date for your flight out of Thailand later than 30 days after you first arrival by air in Thailand. In this situation, you need a visa to be allowed to board your flight in the USA and as has been said you should get a single-entry tourist visa.

3. With a travel plan as indicated above, you do not need a re-entry permit. If after your first stay in Thailand you plan a subsequent stay of more than 15 days you should get a re-entry permit from any immigration office in Thailand. The applicaton form can be downloaded here in PDF format.

[MTH]

As several have mentioned already, I don’t think you will need to look into a re-entry permit, unless your travels will include a land border crossing followed by a stay in Thailand of more than 15 consecutive days.

It will just be a waste of money and time spent at an immigration office in Thailand. You do not apply for the re-entry visa in the US, you will do that in Thailand.

Since you’re planning on visiting Thailand for a total of 45 days I’d suggest you do as Mario2008 suggests and apply for a tourist visa in the states. This visa will then be used at your first entry, granting you 60 days of stay. As soon as you leave Thailand this permit to stay will be canceled. On your next return to Thailand (after your first excursion), you will then be granted 30 days of stay if you arrive by air, but only 15 days if you arrive by land. So planning your trip and modes of transportation will be useful.

However if you think that your stay in Thailand the second time you arrive will be longer than 30 days (or if you plan on arriving by land, 15 days).

Then apply for a double entry tourist visa back home. That should also be free, but check with your closest Thai consulate/embassy.

Then you will be granted 60 days stay on your second entry as well.

[lopburi3]

Word 2007 should properly display immigration doc forms. What will not work is Open Office (at least in my experience).

[Envox]

1. The duration of your trips to countries outside Thailand is immaterial. It is the duration of your stay in Thailand after each arrival in Thailand that matters regarding Thai visas.

2. From your limited information about your travel itinerary it appears that your first stay in Thailand will not exceed 30 days and your subsequent stays will not exceed 15 days but that you will fly to Thailand with a return ticket with a date for your flight out of Thailand later than 30 days after you first arrival by air in Thailand. In this situation, you need a visa to be allowed to board your flight in the USA and as has been said you should get a single-entry tourist visa.

3. With a travel plan as indicated above, you do not need a re-entry permit. If after your first stay in Thailand you plan a subsequent stay of more than 15 days you should get a re-entry permit from any immigration office in Thailand. The applicaton form can be downloaded here in PDF format.

I'm planning to stay in Thailand, upon my first visit, for up to 10 days, travel to Indonesia for a few days then come back to Thailand. Upon staying for another week, I'm traveling to Philippine for 5 days, returning back to Thailand for a week. Then fly to Cambodia for 2 or 3 days then back to Thailand for the remaining of my stay (total 45 days). All travels will be arranged via flight.

As I said, at every re-entry to the Kingdom, my stay would not exceed more than 30 days (flight). So just to reiterate, I need a tourist visa (single entry) due to the fact that the date of the return on the ticket exceeds 30 days from the date of my arrival but do not need a multiple re-entry visa due to the fact I won't be staying more than 30 days in Thailand while I have my excursions to different countries in the region.

Thanks for the TM.8's PDF format.

[Envox]

You do not apply for the re-entry visa in the US, you will do that in Thailand.

More reason to avoid the re-entry visa.

Since you're planning on visiting Thailand for a total of 45 days I'd suggest you do as Mario2008 suggests and apply for a tourist visa in the states. This visa will then be used at your first entry, granting you 60 days of stay. As soon as you leave Thailand this permit to stay will be canceled. On your next return to Thailand (after your first excursion), you will then be granted 30 days of stay if you arrive by air, but only 15 days if you arrive by land. So planning your trip and modes of transportation will be useful.

Perhaps I should shuffle my excursion to Indonesia with Cambodia as I might (there is a chance) I take the crossing on land from Cambodia and since my subsequent stay in Thailand would be the last (no more excursion after that) and it "might" exceed 15 days (or borderline), I might get in trouble. But if I switch my last excursion from Cambodia to Indonesia, it would definitely be via a flight and grants me a 30-day stay rather than 15.

[Maestro]

...All travels will be arranged via flight...

On every arrival in Thailand by air without a visa you will receive permission to stay for 30 days. It is on arrival by land that you would receive only 15 days.

Now we know that all your excursions from Thailand to other countries in the region will be by air, the first trip being to Indonesia. If you have your ticket to Indonesia already in your pocket at the time when you check in in the USA for your flight to Thailand you will not even a visa for this first arrival in Thailand. As long as you have an airline ticket out of Thailand, to any destination, within 30 days from your arrival you do not need a visa to be allowed to board your flight to Thailand. The IATA rules, by which the airline check-in staff are guided, are here:

http://www.timaticwe...ubuser=DELTAB2C

If, like many other travellers, you plan to buy your tickets for the regional flights in Bangkok you must get a tourist visa before leaving from the USA.

[MTH]

Looks like you’ve got all the visa rules figured out by now, just plan your trip duly and you will have no problems.

Additionally make sure you have a booked an airline ticket out of Thailand before your first 30 days are due.

Or at least apply for a single entry tourist visa, so that you won’t have any problems embarking on your flight out of the US.

[Envox]

...All travels will be arranged via flight...

On every arrival in Thailand by air without a visa you will receive permission to stay for 30 days. It is on arrival by land that you would receive only 15 days.

Now we know that all your excursions from Thailand to other countries in the region will be by air, the first trip being to Indonesia. If you have your ticket to Indonesia already in your pocket at the time when you check in in the USA for your flight to Thailand you will not even a visa for this first arrival in Thailand. As long as you have an airline ticket out of Thailand, to any destination, within 30 days from your arrival you do not need a visa to be allowed to board your flight to Thailand. The IATA rules, by which the airline check-in staff are guided, are here:

http://www.timaticwe...ubuser=DELTAB2C

If, like many other travellers, you plan to buy your tickets for the regional flights in Bangkok you must get a tourist visa before leaving from the USA.

Yes, as I said, hopefully all the excursions would be by air. Notice I said hopefully as there might be a slight chance of entering back to the Kingdom from/to Cambodia via land but it is slim. Nevertheless, it's something I would like to consider and plan ahead in case there is a change of itinerary.

That's why in my last comment, I mentioned that I might switch Indonesia trip (the first excursion) with Cambodia (the last one) because flying to/from Indonesia would give me that 30 day permit as I might beat that 15-day last stay in Thailand by a day or two (10 Thailand + 1 week Philippine + 1 week Thailand + 3 days Cambodia + 1 Week Thailand + 2 days Indonesia ~ 29 days which leaves 45 - 29 = 16 days so if Cambodia is the last excursion and I come by the land, I'll get that one day extra. unless I trim a day from my last trip to Thailand or extend one day to either of my excursions but that can easily also be arranged).

Thank you for your help.