Question About Tourist Visa

[johnnybot123]

Hi,right i have recently booked my ticket to Thailand leaving from England,and will be applying for my tourist visa in the next few days,i will be applying for a double or triple entry visa not quite sure yet,a triple entry visa can last 180 days i know that ,my air ticket is over the 180 days on my return by one day by the time i get the visa,could this be a problem with a double or triple entry visa,this might sound a bit petty but i want to get things correct.?

i was also thinking as another option if i was to get a double entry from England 180 days and then apply for another 60 days in hong kong once the 180 days are finished,would this be a good option ?

one of the reasons i am having these problems is i am being told diffrent things ,many people on here say u will always get your 30 day extentions after your 60 days weather it be a double or a triple entry,but speaking to a lady in the consulate she said it depends on the imigration officer if they give you the 30 days extention or not when u apply?

Thanks.

[chris5346]

firstly you need to find out how long the visas are valid for , it's either 3 months from issue or 6 months from issue,

the validity isn't the time you can spend in thailand it's the time for when you allowed to enter.

the time you can spend is 60 days + 30 day extension on the first entry and the same again on the second entry making a total of 180 days. you may also be able to add a 7 day extension on top of the 30 days if you want to stay a little longer but you 'll need to double check on that one.

extensions are very easy and no problem to get depending where your staying of course.

what dates are you flights ?

also you need to bare in mind that once the visa is put in your passport the validity clock is ticking so if you only have a 3 month validity then maybe getting 180 days stay maybe tricky.

you maybe ok with just a double entry especially if it has a 6 month use by date.

are you aware no visa will let you enter thailand for a continous 180 days you need to pop out and into thailand several times.

send some more info. and can advise your options.

have a good time in thailand

[chris5346]

looking at the londons thai embassy web site :

http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/45

it says that single entries are 3 months validity and double or triple's 6 months like you kind of said.

so with a double 6 month validity you can enter and get 60 days then add 30 days and then try to add another 7 days then pop out the country and re-enter any time with in 6 months from when the visa was issued (see enter before date on visa) to repeat the same 60 day + 30 day extension + maybe 7 days extension.

so you have to enter thailand and write your visa number on the arrival card to get 60 days stamped (check they stamp for 60 days)

then between say day 40 and 59 goto an immigration office to add 30 days (cost 1900 baht and need 2 photos) the 30 days will get added to the 60 not start from when you do the paperwork.

they will put another stamp with a date where you will have to leave thailand or try to extend another 7 days.

you then have to leave thailand either by air or land crossing.

you can come back into thailand on the same day or have a gap between if you want to visit a different country ( also maybe an idea to stay out of thailand a while - if you can't or don't want to extend the 7 days you could have a gap of say 5 days then your total would be 185 days between flights from uk)

so with a double you have to extend twice or maybe more and do one border crossing.

depending on how long your total trip is you maybe better off with a triple 60 + 60 + 60 is the 180 days and if you spend a little time out of the country on the two border crossings you may not need any extensions at all .

many options available .

[wayned]

The trick is how you use the visa. If you get a double entry 6 month visa and use it right, you can get 180 days, but you must leave Thailand 1 time. If you overstay 1 day the overstay fine will be 500 baht. But when you leave Thailand, if you spend a couple of days in the neighboring country and then come back into Thailand, your extra day would be covered with no overstay. On first entry you would get 60 days, then extend for 30 days at any immigration office in Thailand, cost 1900 baht. Leave Thailand and pay neighboring country visa feee, Burma is 500 baht, Malaysia free, Laos & Cambodia ?. Upon reentering you would get 60 days exyendable for another 30 days for 1900 baht, If you get a triple entry you're totally covered, but might have to leave Thailand twice. You can make either one work, but ensure that it is valid for 6 months not only 3. As chris said the clock starts when the visa is issued, It only controls how many times that you can enter during the validity period, not how long you can stay, so it's all in how you use it.

[chris5346]

i see your flights are 181 days apart so that should be no problem with a double,

but if you would prefer to do an extra border crossing instead of the two extensions then go for the triple,

if you coming upto the north of thailand popping into burma is very easy and cheaply done - can fly to chiang rai and less than one hour to the border ( but i wouldn't recommend staying in burma overnight because usually they only issue you with a day pass visa for 500 baht).

malaysia is free entry but you would probably have to fly there and back ?

laos is beautiful to travel through 35 $ for a visa and flights are expensive.

cambodia is ok you could visit the temples in siam reap for a few days ?

depends what you like doing if you plan to travel get the triple, also with the triple you can always stay longer than 180 days upto 270 days if you extend.

if you just want to stay in thailand and do a simple out and in border run on the same day then you'll have a one day overstay at the end of your trip and you'll probably have to pay a 500 baht fine at the airport when you fly home, no major problem hundreds of people do that.

one other problem some people come across recently is being able to board the plane in the u.k with some airlines they sometimes check you visa and make sure your return flight is with in that time, so you need to be able to explain your covered and you plan to extend with the double or if a triple should be no problem, the visa will expire while your still on holiday but your permission to be here will be valid and legal.

if a double you just need to know how to use the visa well and do the border crossing on the correct date.

if your planning a flight to a neighbouring country for a border crossing you could book one early and can show that to the check in people at u.k maybe ?

i'm not sure about this last bit but they may see that you have a flight 181 days apart and be worried you may break the thai immigration rules if you don't extend or do the border crossings.

any question please ask,

good luck

[IAMHERE]

Any chance your plane is arriving late at night? if so wait til after midnight to go thru immigration, that would cut your in country stay by one day. If your plane is leaving early in the morning from BKK then get there and go thru immigration before midnight if you can. Anyways, wouldn't it just be a matter of paying 500 baht for an over stay of one day at the airport?

And I thought you can go to immigration and get a 30 day extension then after that a 7 day extension.

[Mario2008]

An extension of a tourist vis ais almost never denied. (The only case I heard of was a person who had 3 overstays in a row).

A double entry tourist visa means you get a permission to stay for 60days, which you cna extend by another 30 days for 1,900 baht. That you leave the country and return for another 60 day plus extension of 30 days. If you leave and retun the same day, the last day of your first entry and the first day of your second entry are one and the same day, so you only get 179 day out of it. If you go for a few days in a neighbouring country you will have solved your problem. Alternatively you can get a triple entry tourist visa or exetend the second entry on your tourist visa by another 7 days after the 30 day extension, for again 1,900 baht.

[wayned]

Mario,

I have not seen the extra 7 day extension being discussed , obviously because of the cost, but in some cases it might be desirable to know that you have that option. On a double entry visa, is the 7 day, after the 30 day, availble on both entries? First entry: 60+30+7, exit/re-enter, second entry: 60+30+7 = total 193 days? In the past you could extend a 60 tourist visa for 59 days: 30+15+7+7 = 59 but I thought that they changed that when the raised the price of each extension from 500 to 1900 baht.

An extension of a tourist vis ais almost never denied. (The only case I heard of was a person who had 3 overstays in a row).

A double entry tourist visa means you get a permission to stay for 60days, which you cna extend by another 30 days for 1,900 baht. That you leave the country and return for another 60 day plus extension of 30 days. If you leave and retun the same day, the last day of your first entry and the first day of your second entry are one and the same day, so you only get 179 day out of it. If you go for a few days in a neighbouring country you will have solved your problem. Alternatively you can get a triple entry tourist visa or exetend the second entry on your tourist visa by another 7 days after the 30 day extension, for again 1,900 baht.

[Mario2008]

The 7 day extension is not a real extension, it is officially a time in which immigration takes your application for an extension in consideration. As there are no grounds for the consideration, your application will at the end of the 7 days be denied.

It is more up to the officer, and many require that you can show a ticket out of the country within those 7 days. So sometimes you might be lucky and can extend each entry with another 7 days, but most times immigration will only allow the last entry to be extended by 7 days on show of the ticket out of the country.

[wayned]

Thanks

Did the 59 day extension sequence disappear when they raised the cost to 1900 baht?

The 7 day extension is not a real extension, it is officially a time in which immigration takes your application for an extension in consideration. As there are no grounds for the consideration, your application will at the end of the 7 days be denied.

It is more up to the officer, and many require that you can show a ticket out of the country within those 7 days. So sometimes you might be lucky and can extend each entry with another 7 days, but most times immigration will only allow the last entry to be extended by 7 days on show of the ticket out of the country.

[Mario2008]

That question I don't know. All I know is that currently a tourist visa can be extended by 30 days. There is no 15 day +7 day + 7 days.

[wayned]

It must have been discontinued when they raised the price. I'm looking at my passport which has three back to back tourist visas, the first a 3month single entry and the other two 6 month double entry. All three allowed initial entry of 60 days and all three were extended for 30+15+7+7 for each entry. So for each entry I really received 119 days permission to stay. All of the extensions were issued by Samui Immigration prior to 2000. Sorry for getting off track.

That question I don't know. All I know is that currently a tourist visa can be extended by 30 days. There is no 15 day +7 day + 7 days.

[lopburi3]

There have not been any of those 15/10 day extensions in recent years. It is now 7 days to get out of Dodge (Gunsmoke TV series 1955-75 talk).