Just a follow up to my posting regarding a passport renewal(canadian) and what happened after regarding my re-entry with my visa.

I have a 1 year multiple entry Imm-O-M Visa (marriage visa) from Savannakhet, Laos (5,000 baht)

So, having some time to kill I decided to see what would happen in getting into Laos and back again to get a new 90 day stay.

^Went to the Friendship bridge in Nong Khai and the immigration officer told me to go to the main building.

^Guy in main building told me I had to go to the Immigration office located in Nong Khai (not far away, maybe 2km)

^Go to the immigration office and the lady tells me the office at the bridge should do this.

*Told the lady no, they told me you should do this.

*Lady tells me to wait.

*Processes the paper work and gives me back my old passport and my new passport with a stamp indicating that my old passport has expired and the new passport is my valid travel document. Re stamps the new passport with the details from my old passport takes 20 baht from me and wishes me a good day.

*Back to the friendship bridge and proceed as normal but having to carry the two passports until my current visa expires.

All done in less than 1 hour but just an FYI if you can avoid the 10-11am time period around the fb1 in Nong Khai as it gets very busy (especially on Mondays) with traffic. Took about an hour to get the truck across fiddling with the paper work and such.

Indeed it logically should be done at border crossing as everywhere else under new policy. Only lost passports or extensions of stay should require a visit to full immigration office.

Exactly, but not the case today. Just adds to the confusion of this here border crossing. Just to say everybody was very polite and spoke relatively good English and helped point me in the right direction.

Nong Khai has a long history of marching to a different drummer so not totally unexpected.