Thai Visa Upon Arrival

[innaroot]

Hi

I am hoping you could answer this query for me as I cannot find a definate answer anywhere.

I am enquiring for my girlfriend who is currently in India and will be arriving in Bangkok in March of this year. Her flight will be from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

She is a British citizen, and she has no visa. I believe she plans to stay in Bangkok for a few days and then head straight to Cambodia, so therefore won't really be in Thailand for that long.

I read somewhere that you can get a 15 day visa, but need to prove you are leaving the country within 15 days of arrival, which she cannot do as she has no train/coach etc booked yet.

Basically I need to know what will happen if she arrives in Bangkok with no visa? Can she buy one on arrival?

Really hope you can help, as this could really spoil her trip, and want to give her advice before she deaprts for Thailand.

Regards

J

[toddmeister]

As a British citizen she gets a 30 day visa exemption on arrival. Is she flying into BKK on a one-way ticket? If so she will need to show proof of onward journey out of Thailand within that 30 days. This may be an issue with the airline which she is flying into BKK with rather than the thai immigration. So really she need to check the airlines policy regarding this

[lopburi3]

She should obtain a tourist visa prior to travel to Thailand. As they are currently free it should not be a large expense and will avoid any airline flight issues.

[innaroot]

Hi.

Yeah she has a one way ticket to BKK, and the next proof of travel is her flight from Singapore to Sydney, which is two months on from her arrival into Thailand. What would happen if she were to arrive at BKK with no visa and no proof that she is leaving the country within 30 days? Any idea if she could obtain a visa from the Thai embassey in Colombo (Sri Lanka)?

Is there a chance the airline won't let her fly, if she hasn't got a visa?

Thanks

J

[Maestro]

1. In the six years I have been reading this forum I have never seen a post saying that someone was refused entry into Thailand because of arrival without a visa and no onward flight ticket.
   
2. I see no reason why the consular section of the Thai embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, should refuse your friend a tourist visa.
   
3. Yes, there is a chance that the airline would not give your friend a boarding pass, ie refuse to let her fly, if she has no visa and no onward flight within 30 days from arrival in Thailand. It depends on how closely the airline follows the IATA guidelines.
   

[Jawnie]

As a UK citizen, she doesn't need a visa and can avail herself of the visa exemption, as others have said. Someone said she should just get a visa, which is not bad advise, either. With the visa exemption, she'll need to leave Thailand every 30 days so if she is in Thailand for two months, she'll need to leave once and then re-enter using the same visa exemption. I've entered three consecutive months utilizing the visa exemption and never been denied boarding in the third-party country because I didn't have an onward ticket. I did have to leave Thailand at the end of each 30 days and then re-enter Thailand. No one seems to know how many visa exempt entries a person can make before immigration questions your Thailand status and/or refuses entry using that exemption. As I said, I did it three times in a row with no problems or questions.

Frankly, the two provisions are somewhat contradictory: one requiring an onward ticket vs. an open-ended stay on the visa exemption. Hence, all the confusion on this point. If she will be here two months, she'll need to leave once using the exemption. A visa in not a bad idea in that case since it will allow her to stay two months without the need to leave. If she'll only be in Thailand a few days or a couple of weeks, she won't need the visa and can just 'show up' in Thailand and claim the exemption at passport control. It's really simple. Of course, getting a visa is simple, too, but not worth the effort of running around in Colombo, I'd say.

Edited February 13, 2011 by Jawnie

[lopburi3]

I will point out that I have seen reports of entry being denied for travelers from Africa (but not first person as few post here) on flights from there but not on other routes unless it thrown up as a challenge.