I am arriving Chiang Mai for an extended stay on 28th December but am leaving the UK on 8th October to go to Australia first.

The visa form I have from the Thai Embassy in London says that the visa must be activated within 3 months. Is it safe to say that as long as I get my visa after 28th September (or at least before I leave the UK then all should be good

thanks for your help

Sounds right, if you're planning to enter Thailand on 28th Dec, make sure you get the visa after 28th September

Small point, usually it's 90 days 'activation' limit. So best wait until Monday 1st October.

Maybe best to ask for a Thai visa while you are in Australia. Should be the same process as doing it from the UK.

I've used the consulate in Hull and find the service fast and efficient. If you post the forms and passport to them using registered post (or something like that) and include a prepaid addressed envelope as they ask it takes 3 working days e.g. you post it Monday they get it Tuesday, process it and post it back to you and it should arrive on the Wednesday. Not sure how the embassey compares but my guess is that they will be slower.

I would second the above advise

The Hull consulate is excellent, by post turnaround time from sending to receiving your passport back is generally 7 days ish

Or same day if you go youself, an extra GBP10 and you need to make an appointment

Check out their website

The above replies assume that you will be applying for a single entry visa. The 90 day/three month "activation period" (as you call it) is the period all your entries has to be made, so if you are applying for more than one entry you should wait until closer to the date you leave.

For questions that are not specifically Chiang Mai related (such as this one), it's much better to post in the Thai visa forum where the experts hang out.

Sophon

Moved to the Visa Forum

A agree with the suggestion that you get your visa while in Australia.

Their are several consulates in Australia but the honorary's are best. They are the ones that are not the embassy or the consulate in Sydney, They accept mail in applications.

Info here: http://canberra.thaiembassy.org/consulate.html

You don't say what criteria you're using to obtain your Non Imm O visa. This has tightened-up in recent years.

But, if you qualify for a single entry Non Imm O, you'll qualify for a multi-entry Non Imm O visa. Which means, if you mail it in today (20 Aug) to Hull (the honorary consulates seem to be more consumer oriented than the official MFA consulates), then if processed on 24 Aug, your multi entry visa will say "use before 23 Aug 2013" since multi-entry Non Imm visas are good for one year, vice the 3 months of a single visa.

If cost is a problem then, yeah, a single entry is cheaper. But, as has been pointed out, you'll need an issue date of 29 Sep, or later -- and your back is up against your 8 Oct departure date -- which puts the mail application into tight constraints.

If you can afford multi-entry, do it now, and get that checkmark out of the way. And fiddling around in a foreign country (Australia) to obtain a Thai visa doesn't sound too comfortable. Trying to figure out the Oz postal system would strain my ancient brain.

I've used the consulate in Hull and find the service fast and efficient. If you post the forms and passport to them using registered post (or something like that) and include a prepaid addressed envelope as they ask it takes 3 working days e.g. you post it Monday they get it Tuesday, process it and post it back to you and it should arrive on the Wednesday. Not sure how the embassey compares but my guess is that they will be slower.

You don't need to send a prepaid addressed envelope; the £10 extra you pay is for return postage.