Hi

I'm a newbie to the forum and have a quick question.

I entered Thailand on 6th October on a 3 month single entry tourist visa. I plan on extending the visa come the 6th December at the Chiang Mai immigration office. I do want to stay beyond the 6th January when my visa will expire.

I want to get another 3 month tourist visa so I can stay in Thailand until April. I'm not sure if it will be cheaper/more convenient to do a visa run every month. I assume I would need to fly in and fly out again to get the 30 day visa which could get expensive.

Or to fly somewhere and apply for another 3 month tourist visa. I want to go to the cheapest country that has a quick turn around time and wanted to hear your opinions on which neighbouring country this is.

Thanks in advance!

My latest visa run to Laos may give you an insight,much depends on where you are and how you want to go about it,fly,bus etc etc

You should not wait until the 6th to extend - go about a week early - you lose no time as extension will still start at the end of current stay.

Most people from Chiang Mai use Vientiane in Laos as there is scheduled bus service or you can fly domestic to Udon and border is less than an hour drive (with easy transport). Thai Consulate provides next workday service (submit in morning and pick up next afternoon).

Vientiane Laos.

Thank you all for your help.

I thought I would have to fly out of the country for some reason so knowing that I can go by bus will greatly reduce costs.

If I wait one week prior to my visa expiring it will be around NYE. Would it matter if I went mid December to get the new visa?

You will lose several weeks of the extension you paid for from December 6th but it is up to you if you will still have enough time with the new visa entry/extension for your period of stay.

You can also fly domestic to Udon if you want to at much less cost than an international flight to Vientiane.

hi,

if you entered thailand on the 6th october your permission to stay is 60 days which takes you upto the 4th december,

if you extend 30 days that takes you to 3rd january,

here's a link to the thai embassy in vientiane where you can check to see if they are open. they are also closed weekends, sometimes they get very busy just after a holiday and mondays / fridays can be busier.

http://vientiane.thaiembassy.org/vientiane/en/

you may want to consider applying for a double entry tourist visa whilst your there for an extra 1000 baht which will allow you to stay longer than next april .

another option is to forget about the extensions and just get a double entry visa anyway , if you goto laos on the 4th december, you'll get two 60 days entries making 120 days from say 7th december to 5th april ( you will have to do a border run up in mai sai half way through the 120 days).

the overnight bus to udon thani cost approx. 800 baht one way,

flights with nok air cost between 1300 baht and 3000 baht.

1900 baht extension

1000 baht single tourist visa

1900 baht extension

2000 baht double tourist visa

1000 baht day trip to mai sai

from chiang mai you can also fly to KL with air asia but they only issue single tourist visas and it's not as easy as vientiene.

one draw back with laos is you have to pay 35$ to enter where as malaysia is free.

i have been to both places many times so any questions please ask.

Hi

Thanks for all this info, I didn't realise that I had added up my dates wrong.

I think I prefer the option of going to Laos for a multiple entry visa in December, that works so much better with my plans and it will end up being cheaper. Bonus!

To apply for a multi-entry tourist visa do I need to have a flight booked out of Thailand? That's what stopped me getting this visa in Oz before this visit.

Thanks again!!

vientiane like most other consulates don't ask for flight info.

laos is a good country to tour through also if you want to combine a holiday/mekong river cruise stopping at luang prabang for few days etc - you can enter laos at nong khai / vientiene or north of chiang mai at chiang khong.

don't forget if you go for the double tourist visa you will have to do a border hop/run to activate the second visa, it takes a whole day to goto mai sai/burma and back.

Tourist visas are issued as 1 or 2 entries in Vientiane a multiple entry tourist visa does not exist.