Border Run To Malaysia By Car

[onpermanentvacation]

This is my first border run to Malaysia and I have one main question and a few side questions. Hope someone can help out.

The main question is Do I have to enter Malaysia when I reach the border or is it enough to just get the OUT stamp and then turn around and get the IN stamp? I am asking because I have a Serbian passport and don't want to bother to get Malay visa (I'm in Samui).

Now, if the answer is "you have to enter Malaysia" then my second question is do you think it's OK if I enter Malaysia with a different passport? Because I also have a Bosnian passport and with it I don't need Malay visa. So, could I exit TH showing Serbian (main) passport then enter MY with Bosnian, then exit MY with wich one? and then enter TH again with Serbian?

Complicated, huh?

And another question is Is it OK if I go to the border crossing that's in Satun province? What is the name of the border crossing there and is it OK to go there? Should I leave my car on the Thai side and walk over or...?

Thanks a bunch!

[lopburi3]

Yes you must enter and exit another country and no you can not change passports on any land border.

[raylo]

Yes you must enter and exit another country and no you can not change passports on any land border.

Are you sure about the "no you can not change passports on any land border" statement?

I have done it a few times with Cambodia & Malaysia from Thailand plus Hong Kong - Macau.

There has never been an issue and I wondered about the basis for the statement?

[Maestro]

raylo, at what Thai land border points did you do a border run by leaving with one passport and returning with another passport?

[David006]

Don't know about passport issues but Thale Ban State park border crossing is what you want....near Satun

Wasn't there something a while back about new visa restrictions on some passport holders into Malaysia??? Worth checking though it didn't apply to many.

[lopburi3]

Yes you must enter and exit another country and no you can not change passports on any land border.

Are you sure about the "no you can not change passports on any land border" statement?

I have done it a few times with Cambodia & Malaysia from Thailand plus Hong Kong - Macau.

There has never been an issue and I wondered about the basis for the statement?

Land border crossings are expected to check for exit stamp and in most cases they carefully do so. If you do not have such a stamp in your passport you are not allowed entry (or in the case of being stranded allowed entry as illegal and deported). Only air arrival is not subject to check of departure stamp.

[trogers]

Yes you must enter and exit another country and no you can not change passports on any land border.

Are you sure about the "no you can not change passports on any land border" statement?

I have done it a few times with Cambodia & Malaysia from Thailand plus Hong Kong - Macau.

There has never been an issue and I wondered about the basis for the statement?

Land border crossings are expected to check for exit stamp and in most cases they carefully do so. If you do not have such a stamp in your passport you are not allowed entry (or in the case of being stranded allowed entry as illegal and deported). Only air arrival is not subject to check of departure stamp.

Serbian passport shows the dates you enter Thailand and then leave Thailand.

Bosnian passport does not show the dates you enter Malaysia and left Malaysia. So, the conclusion is that you drop in by parachute into that 100m stretched between immigration points between the two countries.

Logical?

[raylo]

raylo, at what Thai land border points did you do a border run by leaving with one passport and returning with another passport?

I have done both. Left Thailand on 1 passport and entered Cambodia on another. Always came back on same passport I left on because of my visa.

Via air I have come back on a different passport as L3 refers.

I also made a mistake and owe an apology I did not enter Malaysia from Thailand by land with different passports only from Singapore to Jahore.

Always used to cross from Hong Kong to Macau changing passports to get the maximum benefit in each country.

Abject aplogies for misleading about Malaysia

[thailandbluegrass]

Is it really worth all this passport switching etc? Why not just leave Thailand, pay the Malaysia visa and return to Thailand? Like Lopburi3 said you cannot leave one country without entering another country legaly anyways so just cough up the visa fee and be on with it I say like the rest of us do if we want to stay on this side of the steel bars.

[KLExpat]

In the past, it has been possible to exit Thailand, walk to the Malaysian side (there is a footpath and an indoor pedestrian/bus immigration desk separate from the automobile lanes), stamp in to Malaysia, "u-turn" (as the Malaysian customs staff also call it), stamp out of Malaysia and stamp into Thailand. If you wanted to make it more interesting, you could take a taxi (just past the Thai side) a few KM into Malaysia and have lunch. Avoid Sunday afternoons or the end of Malaysian public holidays if you do not want long lines.

At this border, you must use the same passport to enter Thailand as you left Malaysia with as Thai immigration wants to see the fresh Malaysian exit stamp when they stamp you in. This is a point of irritation for me as Malaysian employment visa holders do not need to have their passports stamped on exit or arrival, yet I need to ask for a stamp if I want to enter Thailand.

Malaysia takes a dim view of duel passports, it is not illegal, just highly suspicious to them as passports here are strictly controlled. If they saw the second passport, you would probably be invited to sit down for a long conversation with the police to explain you are not a criminal, spy or terrorist (the only people in their world view who would have duel passports).