Vientiane Denying Tourist Visas Now?

[Mario2008]

[To the best of my knowledge this is absolutely incorrect.

The 60 day extension based on visiting wife/child is available ONCE only.

The 60 day exetension is given once per entry and not back to back. But some immigration offices will only give it one time per year.

[lopburi3]

The "one time" (which was never defined) wording was dropped in the Police Order 777/2551 update and now it can be issued many times for new entries (never on itself). Have seen reports of 4 per year limit mentioned by at least one office.

[appropriate]

The 60 day extension based on visiting wife/child is available ONCE only.

Incorrect.

As long as there's a border run between extensions it is unlimited*. One border run, one extension. Then repeat.

I know a few people doing this for over a year.

*At least in BKK immigration office in Chaeng Wattana.

Cheers chaps.

Dominic.

Edited November 28, 2010 by appropriate

[appropriate]

The 60 day exetension is given once per entry and not back to back. But some immigration offices will only give it one time per year.

Which offices are these?

Thanks.

The "one time" (which was never defined) wording was dropped in the Police Order 777/2551 update and now it can be issued many times for new entries (never on itself). Have seen reports of 4 per year limit mentioned by at least one office.

Which office was this?

Thanks.

Dominic.

[lopburi3]

It was a report and do not recall the specific office and no way to know if it was really the office or the person making that decision. For most people a multi entry non immigrant O visa or extension of stay (if qualified) would seem a much better option.

[frenchfarangjomtien]

There is a rule, 6 tourists visa in a row, i know it from someone working there...

But only the guy at the first office when you give your documents will roughly check, so it means that he won't see anything if your passport is new without stamps...

[edgarfriendly]

arent the visas free from any thai embassy?

im heading to schipol tonight, wundering if i cud get it in amsterdam while i check the cup winners.

ef

[Yamojig]

I apologize if this is a bit off topic, but once I get the double entry tourist visa, how much time do I have to use it the first entry to thailand?

Thanks

[appropriate]

I apologize if this is a bit off topic, but once I get the double entry tourist visa, how much time do I have to use it the first entry to thailand?

Thanks

There is an 'Enter before' date printed on it.

By memory this is 90 days from the date you recieve the Tourist Visa.

[appropriate]

Why do all the hassle when they are giving out 2x Tourist VIsa from Cambodia so easy now ! .,

Poipet 2h from BKK then let the agent take the passport then w8 2 night at the casino Hotel then done ! . ,

To be honest I'm not too sure I'd be comfortable giving a Cambodian in Poipet my passport and few thousand baht then waving goodbye to him as he drives off.

Edited November 28, 2010 by appropriate

[direx12]

Yea, who are these "agents"? How do you know they are legit in any way?

[tombkk]

You cannot be in Thailand as a tourist for more that 180 days in a 360-day period, if I am not mistaken. Those times are over.

You are mistaken. That rule was abolished 2 years ago and didn't apply to tourist visas in the first place, only visa exempt entries. Instead peopel no only get 30 days on a vise exempt entry at an airport, landborders are now only 15 days.

Thanks for the heads-up. Apparently, I wasn't up-to-date.

[Maestro]

Yea, who are these "agents"? How do you know they are legit in any way?

"Agent" may seem a big word but perhaps appropriate nonetheless. He fills out the application form for you, you sign it, and he does the running around: brings your passport and application to the Thai consulate and the next day picks up your passport. A perfectly legal (legitimate) procedure. It is not necessary to make the application in person. Many travel agents worldwide offer the same service, often doing it by mail, but it doesn't have to be a travel agent, any individual may do it.

[silp1979]

Can the Visa Exempt entry stamp be renewed indefinitely by leaving and entering the country?

Yes, it can also be extended for 60 days based on visiting wife or child, at an immigration office.

This cycle can also be done indefinitely. VE entry stamp, 60 day extention, and repeat the process again.

Cheers chaps.

Dominic T.

this is true for wife and child only or could it be also visiting freinds????

[Andy92BKK]

Not endorsing anything that is just the way it is,visarunner i have just come back on thursday

These outside agents have no influence on the outcome of a visaapplication.

If one is rejected from the consular staff , these agents can not fix it anymore.

They scam a lot of naive people.

You're wrong here visarunner, the agents have a good relationship with the consular staff as they reinstall the "money for application" system. They not scam, they help and earn money with that.

Of course it's not very clever to use an agent after you have been denied, but using an agent from the beginning is 100% successfull. I use one agent quite some times now and always correct. I have not been refused visa, the reason I use the agent is that I don't want to sit there for hours due to 250-300 people applying. So I give my passport and documents to the agent, pay 2000 THB for a double entry visa and next day at 1 pm he gets me back the passport with the visa. No waiting, no hassle, just 2000 THB.

I feel problems have started since thousands of people coming from Pattaya, BKK etc. are coming to Vientiane (Penang trouble), before it was a quiet consulate with 50-75 people applying per day, now it's a loud mass gathering event that not only annoys the consular staff....

Joe

Hi Joe,

I have to renew my visa in January and I'm interested in using an Agent for it. Could you give me some contact information for it ?

Do you have to go to the border or the agent go there for you ?

Thanks,

Andy

[lopburi3]

You have to enter another country to obtain any legal Thai visa for entry.

[AgentSmith]

Does Phnom Penh hand out double entry tourist visa for free? Even if I already stayed in the country over a year with a non-ed visa? Or would it be better to go to Vientiane?

[appropriate]

Can the Visa Exempt entry stamp be renewed indefinitely by leaving and entering the country?

Yes, it can also be extended for 60 days based on visiting wife or child, at an immigration office.

This cycle can also be done indefinitely. VE entry stamp, 60 day extention, and repeat the process again.

Cheers chaps.

Dominic T.

this is true for wife and child only or could it be also visiting freinds????

With regards to 60 days extensions, no.

Wife or child only.

Edited November 29, 2010 by appropriate

[tingtongmakman]

I just picked up my passport today from the Vientiane Embassy with a nice double entry tourist stamp on it. I have about 10 Visa Exemptions stamps and had been a little worried, unnecessarily I was later told.

I visited yesterday to apply and it is a very interesting operation they are running there, bit of a disaster really the whole set-up seems to be geared towards making people want to avoid going there. I have heard reports that Vientiane is the friendliest of embassies in Thailand's surrounding Countries for Visa applications, if that is the case I would hate to go to PP.

The discomfort of standing in the heat (no shelter) for up to 1 and a half to 2 hours over the two days (application and collection) is enough to drive anyone to the dodgy Visa agents, BHT1000/2000 in hand for the enticing prospect of having your passport, with new visa attached dropped at your hotel the next day. There is no bargaining by the way with these agents, total Cartell. Quick tip, bring an umbrella for the sun.

When I finally did get a number inside when the gates opened at 8.30am, I was approx 165, I watched an embassy official approach many of the people who arrived after me and try to sell lower numbers, THB600, I think was the going rate for faster service, believe it or not! I did not notice anyone go for this offer however so the first blast of numbers ran very quickly

I watched as numerous agents that had nearly jumped on top of me earlier when I disembarked from my Tuk-Tuk outside, totter up to the front of the queue with stacks of passports and application forms, I also noticed cash being passed by them with certain discretion but still visible, this first counter is not one that handles cash, payments are supposed to be processed in another part of the embassy so I cant see any logical reason for this besides bribery. There was one group of Visa runners who arrived with an agent (probably out of a minivan direct from Thailand) and red faced these Farangs were directed to the top of the queue by her where there applications were processed and again money was passed to the official.

Whilst there I noticed many very angry people being refused double Entry tourist Visas, i did not hear of anyone recieving red stamps, the number two in their entries box would be tipexed out by the staff and replaced with a one and they would be told (to many tourist visas). It seemed single entry only if they already have 3 or more tourist Visa stamps, this was the sentiment expressed by many unhappy applicants. Whether the Visa stamps were back to back or not is not taken into account.

I watched them examine a guys Passport on front of me in the queue they had a quick leaf through and told him (one entry only, to many stamps), he had three tourist visa stamps, she seemed to flick through and just land on the pages that had stamps, I think that there is a possiblity someone could could get lucky and they might overlook stamps. This gentleman had a plane ticket home in 3 months time, she igored this itinerary and wasnt interested in any explanation from him relating to the fact that the other stamps were from a previous trip and that he had returned to his home Country for 8 months. His stamps were not back to back.

More than one person turned away angrily Passport still in hand and stormed out, without explanation.

I don't know if I would advise people with many tourist visa stamps to go to the dodgy Agents, Whether or not they have some influence with the staff in the decision process and not just on speed and convenience is debatable? Apparently some of them did express to people that they had influence and they did give some good advice.

I think the most sure fire way to ensure your Visa history is not held against you, is put your passport that holds your previous tourist visa stamps in the washing machine and get a new one before travelling. Someone posted on this before. They have definitely started to crack down on so called abuses of the tourist visa system.

One point I should note is that the embassy was probably busier than usual as it was closed on Monday due to his Majesty the Kings Birthday. Overall for me it was quite painless just alot of waiting around in hot conditions for hours and having to view practices that would result in mob rule if happening in an embassy in my Country. There is no recourse here, these officials English would becomes selective if you tried to complain to anyone.

Their English knowledge certainly doesn't extend to the phrase GET ME THE AMBASSADOR!

[tingtongmakman]

Can I just offer my apologies for my diabolical spelling and grammar errors in my post. Please excuse, this is due to poor internet connection at my hotel and my lack of patience.

Edited December 8, 2010 by lopburi3
quote of previous post removed

[tombkk]

Tingtongmakman: Of course, your typing mistakes are not excused.

Edited December 8, 2010 by tombkk

[PPeter]

Thnx tingtongmakman, your post was useful to me. My triple entry tourist visa (which I got for free at the Dutch consulate) runs out in the beginning of next year. I have 2 other tourist visa stamps in my passport, reading all this makes me doubt if I can get another one. Seems like this visa thing is going to be a problem for many people..

[ilCapitano79]

So this means that me with 5 tourist visas in my passport (even thou Ive been staying in Europe 2-3 months every summer and obtaining visas there) wont be able to obtain tourist visa at any countries here in the region? Or is this only for Laos and Cambodia, Im gonna be needing one single entry Tourist Visa sometime in february. I was thinking of going to Singapore as Ive done that succefully couple of times before, but now as I understand it would be pretty much impossible?

[nev]

As i stated before last thursday i went to lao found embassy closed due to holiday in lao and i was going to do a fast track visa through the guy outside a nice fella taalked him down from 5000bt to 4000bt we started to fill out the form and he counted i have 1 single entry and two double entry tourist visa's said cannot do as there is a new man in charge and 5 tourist visa's is the limit.

I am going back next thursday and will be doing a non-immigrant visa.

[TheGuy]

What about educational visas? My passport is packed with tourist exempt stamps,ED visas and extensions but not a single Tourist Visa. Could I be denied a tourist visa?

[tropo]

i just would have appreciated if i would have known of changed policy at Vientiane embassy.

If you had been reading this forum over the last year or even further back you would have come across many reports of tourist visas being denied in Vientiane. This is not new.

I was having trouble with back-to-back tourist visas from Vientiane as far back as October last year and had to get onto a retirement extension because the writing was on the wall.

[jdinasia]

What about educational visas? My passport is packed with tourist exempt stamps,ED visas and extensions but not a single Tourist Visa. Could I be denied a tourist visa?

Could you? Yes

[crgram]

What about educational visas? My passport is packed with tourist exempt stamps,ED visas and extensions but not a single Tourist Visa. Could I be denied a tourist visa?

Could you be? Of course you could be, but people with 2 or more tourist visas in a row are the ones having problems. Going from an ED to a tourist should work. I did that last year at Vientiane when tourist visas went free. But as always YMMV.

gl,

cr

[tropo]

For 2000 bt to an agent outside you would of got your TV and been happily on your way.

Makes perfect sense, especially as the tourist visas are now free. I invest quite a bit to get to Vientiane and certainly wouldn't be going home empty handed if 2000 could fix it.

[nev]

For 2000 bt to an agent outside you would of got your TV and been happily on your way.

Makes perfect sense, especially as the tourist visas are now free. I invest quite a bit to get to Vientiane and certainly wouldn't be going home empty handed if 2000 could fix it.

The guy outside has no say in it as i have posted before i was quiet willing to do that but the guy outside said new guy very strict 5 tourist visa's no more given,i stand corrected passing on what info i recieved. nev