A colleague at the university is Malaysian and she tells me she must return home every month to get a permit for her car, since it has a Malaysian license plate.

She says the immigration and customs officer told her no one can get a permit for more than a month. So she must make the 5 hour drive to and from the border, time and gas wasted.

Is there a way around this?

I'll bet fox would know the answer to this.

Here:-

http://www.thaivisa.com/car_malaysia_border.0.html

suggests that you can stretch things up to 6 months. I don't know how current the information is though.

Hi,

The Thai Customs have a very peculiar way of doing things, especially when Malaysian and

Singaporean vehicles cross over the border to Thailand. They called it or term it as temporary

importing a vehicle into the country. That is to say, a 30 days permit for the vehicle for International

Passport holders for Malaysian and Singaporean vehicles. For Malaysian Border Pass holders,

a seven day permit is given for the vehicle. On top of that it is compulsory for the vehicles to purchase

a ' Third Party ' Motor Insurance ............. for one week, three months or one year, as the case may be.

This so called Third Party insurance only covers the death of the other party and it does cover the damages

of the vehicles.......... stolen, lost, damaged, or otherwise.

Same procedures when the Thai vehicles enter Malaysia. That is to say the same terms and conditions as applied

to Malaysian/Singaporean vehicles. Driving licence from the three nations are valid and accepted. In closing, the vehicle also needs a visa run, so to speak.

http://www.thaivisa.com/car_malaysia_border.0.html suggests that you can stretch things up to 6 months. I don't know how current the information is though.

Knowing how slowly the bureaucratic wheels often grind, if one is close enough to the border to make crossing every thirty days feasible, that sounds like a better option to me than messing around with the outlined extension application.