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Posted

I have a one year non O visa (retirement) valid till Dec 2006. Went over the border at Mae Sai the other day. The official this time tore out my departure card and stamped me out. Coming back in I had to do the paperwork and got stamped in till Dec 2006. No problem for me as I already had a re entry permit (multiple , as it happens.) A mate of mine with the same visa was thinking of heading up there next week but he doesn't have a re entry permit and is afraid he'll only get one month at the border and forfeit his retirement visa. He reckons, though that the official shouldn't have torn out the old departure card as I was only going for a few hours and I already had a non o visa. ........like in the old days.

Any ideas anyone. Cheers.

Posted

Huh? You cross an international border but he should not take out the departure card? Sorry; maybe it is because I don't know what you mean by "like in the old days". Cheers!

Posted

So in other words if you go over the border in Mae Sai for an excursion with a non O visa make sure you have a re entry permit. The farang sitting here with me here have never had to use a re entry permit at Mae Sai before. By olden days I mean about a year ago.

Posted
So in other words if you go over the border in Mae Sai for an excursion with a non O visa make sure you have a re entry permit. The farang sitting here with me here have never had to use a re entry permit at Mae Sai before. By olden days I mean about a year ago.

It's been a while since I've been to Mae Sai. The times I went was not for visa but just visiting a few hours. The passport was looked at, payed the border crossing fee and they issue a temporary travel permit. Didn't touch anything in the passport or stamp it nor did I have a re-entry permit. Pretty common 'back then'. :o

Posted
Huh? You cross an international border but he should not take out the departure card? Sorry; maybe it is because I don't know what you mean by "like in the old days". Cheers!

He is right.

You used to he able to do a short trip without being stamped out of Thailand.

Thai Immigration would stamp a copy of your passport and that would do on the

Myanma side, for a few hours that day.

So now we need a re-entry permit........... Oops. :o

Posted (edited)
I have a one year non O visa (retirement) valid till Dec 2006. Went over the border at Mae Sai the other day. The official this time tore out my departure card and stamped me out. Coming back in I had to do the paperwork and got stamped in till Dec 2006. No problem for me as I already had a re entry permit (multiple , as it happens.) A mate of mine with the same visa was thinking of heading up there next week but he doesn't have a re entry permit and is afraid he'll only get one month at the border and forfeit his retirement visa. He reckons, though that the official shouldn't have torn out the old departure card as I was only going for a few hours and I already had a non o visa. ........like in the old days.

Any ideas anyone. Cheers.

So when you handed the immigration official (on your way out of Thailand) the copies of your passport pages and said you were just going across for shopping, what exactly did he/she say to you?

/sm

Edited by Lordfoul
Posted

Yeah Lordfoul, I told her I was only going for a few hours. In any case I wasn't carrying any luggage so that I was only heading for an excursion would've been pretty obvious. On re entry the official didn't ask me why I'd been stamped out.

I went with two other guys and we all had to get only one copy of the front page of our passports.......not two as previously. When I queried the photocopier she said this was the new procedure. My Thai partner had to go a few kilometres back up the road to get all the relevant paperwork. The photocopy caravans near the border post are now gone.

Posted

I went to MaiSai with a group of farangs.

They were all allowed to visit Tachilek no problem, and no removal of TM card.

This was about 9th November

Posted

I forgot to add that no payment is required any more to the Thais. The Burmese require 250 baht.

Posted

... This post is merely ment to straighten out some possible confusion to me and someone else, who may be reading this thread, in search of how to do visa runs.

All comments above - related to officials NOT taking out the departure card - relate ONLY AND NOTHING BUT ONLY to 1-year visas --- right or wrong?

Posted

Yes, I think we might have some confusion here.

If you cross into Tachilek on a day pass to do some shopping you have not officailly left Thailand.

Your passport remains on the thai side, you are not stamped out and your TM card is not removed.

If you are doing a visa run then you must leave thailand officially get stamped out, stamped in and out of Burma, and then back into Thailand

Posted

Well Thetyim, that is not what happened to me (one year visa) and my two farang friends (tourist visas with weeks to run). All three of us had our TM cards removed, we were stamped out and we left our passports with the Burmese, not on the Thai side. The one photocopy (not two anymore) we kept in place of the passports whilst in Burma.

We made it clear that it was a day trip only and not a visa run.

Is this happening to anyone else or did we simply run into an official who didn't have a clue?

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