Advice needed regarding back to back tourist visa

[Insi]

Hello,

Was hoping someone could help me out with some advice on obtaing a new 60 day tourist visa.

I have three consecutive 60 day tourist visas in my passport, the last two being obtained in Penang and the one before in Brisbane.But in total i actually have five,with the first with the first two being sepearted from the other three with a 6 month trip home to Brisbane.I am this week due to get a new tourist visa but I'm not sure whether to go to Kuala Lumpur or Penang. have read that Kuala Lumpur will not issue more than one tourist visa, but does this mean only one visa from kuala lumpur or one visa in total regardless of where else I have obtained it?I am a little confused and all the info I have read is a outdated.Will I have issues obtaining new regardless of if I go to Penang or Kuala Lumpur?Not quite sure what my best option is.By the way I am in Phuket.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[wayned]

With that many tourist visas and with three back to back you MIGHT run into a problem with the next. There's no written limitation of the number that you can have by immigration. However, it's up to the current policy that is in place at the Consulate where you apply and they are different at each one. It might be time for you to get a new passport just to be sure since 15 day visa exempt entries can become a PIA real fast.

[LuckyLew]

Go to Savannakhet Loas ... very good odds you get another tourist visa

[bluecheesefan]

Have you considered picking a school to learn Thai and getting an ED visa? After you consider the costs associated with going to the other countries and staying one or two days that the costs are pretty close. School costs about 25k Baht for a year of classes and the Visa. You make one trip out of the country for the first Visa and then it is 90 day visits to immigration where you pay 2k baht each time. After the first year, you can get an extension for a second year on the same Visa without leaving the country. At the same time, you can learn the language. I am enrolled at Thai Walen and do the classes over the internet on Skype. If you need to leave the country during the visa you just make sure to get a re-entry stamp. I find the costs to be the same or actually a little lower than making visa runs. Plus all the stress of not knowing if you get approved or not is gone.

I too had the same number of tourist Visas as you and was advised that I would probably not get another one issued in Laos and Cambodia. LIke the other poster said, it is up to the consulate and if they do not approve the most you get is 15 days for a road crossing and 30 days by the airport.

If you do the ED Visa route, you do need to do the classes as the immigration gives you a short conversation test at the end of the first year. Not anything too hard, but you can't get the Visa and not attend the classes as they also track your attendance and you need to get those records from the school before going to immigration each 90 days.

[gavin310]

If you're worried about not getting another one, wherever you go to get a new visa use an agent instead of going yourself. You will pay more but there's a much better chance of not running into any problems. At the consulate it's you vs. the government official. If you use an agent it's a local vs. local and them denying you means no money for the local agent. I haven't seen this confirmed, but I've been on tourist visas for a year now without issues and I use an agent every time.

[ubonjoe]

I don't think you will have a problem because you have gotten tourist visas in Australia plus had a 6 month stay there.

I suggest you make a longer trip for your visa to Vientiane or Savannakhet Laos and get a two entry visa.

Dependent upon where you are living the additional time and cost of the trip would be balanced out by getting the two entry which would give you almost 6 months without needing a new visa.

[recom273]

The rules with Penang are you can not get more than 3 visas back-to-back from the consulate there.

I used the agency at Banana GH, they know the rules ( so you might want to email or call to confirm my information ), they charge from memory, 200-300B for the service ( you would spend that in a 4x taxi trips and wasted time standing in line ).

You might want to speak to them regarding minimum length of time for your visits outside Asia, for future reference, they are pretty clued up. A visit over 6 months may be long enough to "reset" your visa timeline.

I too am living in the south, Penang is the closest consulate to me, i too had a full passport of visas from Vientienne and Cambodia and they gave me three visas back-to-back, on my last visit the agency told me that would be my last visa issued. i tried to talk about a possible extra fee, but there is no discussion, just a firm faced NO.

I think you have to look at the situation, you couldn't be a visiting tourist in your home country for such a long time. So why should Thailand be any different ?

If you are staying for an extended length of time, I would urge you to sort your visa situation out, it resolves a lot of stress and un-necessary expense. My solution was to marry my long term GF, without showing the necessary funds im permitted to get a 3 month non-O from Khota Bharu on Malaysias East coast, there is never a question of how many can be issued. I wish i had done it years ago.

But to answer your question, as long as you dont have 3 visas issued from Penang, you will get a 60-day tourist from the consulate.

PM me if you need some help regarding the other option.

[Insi]

Thank you all for your advice, you have given me different options to think about.I will more more than likely go to Penang, use an agent and hope for the best.I am currently engaged to my thai boyfriend/father of my baby, so may hurry that up and get married sooner than planned.I understand that when a foreign man marries a thai lady, he must show 400,000 baht in the bank to obtain the visa but that when a foreign woman marries a thai man that this is not necessary.I have also looked into getting a visa on the grounds that my son is thai but have read that I must show 400,000 baht in the bank for this to happen, which I cannot do.As I mentioned above, I understand if a foreign woman marrries a thai man and showing bank statements isn't necessary as thailand believes it's the mans provide for his wife.I am not sure whether its the same if i were to apply for visa on grounds of having a thai child.Does thailand expect the father to provide for his child and therefore I wouldnt have to show bank statements?Prehaps I will contact a lawyer to answer my questions as I cannot find any officail information on this situation.

Anyway thanks again for your help

[lopburi3]

Correct - there is no 400k requirement if the foreign spouse is female.

[ubonjoe]

You could get a single entry non-o visa based upon having a Thai child. You would just need child's birth certificate and copy of fathers house book showing child in it..

Visa is 2000 baht but gives a 90 entry which works out cheaper than getting a single tourist visa and then extension at immigration.

You can also get 60 day extensions of stay to visit your your child that requires no visa entry. A boarder run for a 15 day entry would work.

You could get a total of 5 months if you get the non-o visa and then extend it for 60 days. Plus you can get your one year extension of stay if you get married during these 5 months.

[Grinder]

Hi guys. So if I have all this straight I'll have no problems in Vientiane this Oct going for my third back to back double entry tourist visa. (I have one issued in Oct 2012 from Canada, and a second from Laos this year in April already). However if I wanted to go for a 4th back to back TV, I'd have to travel the extra distance to Savannakhet (which has more lax rules than in Vientiane)?

I still haven't had anyone confirm in a recent post/thread that third back to back TV are going ok in Vientiane this year. If anybody has a good reason to suggest I just go to Savannakhet for this third one in October, please let me know.

Thanks

Edit: I live in CM so opting for Savannakhet instead of Vientianne is a massive inconvenience.