Hello,

I have a 2 entry tourist visa. Going for the last entry. My 'enter before' date is Nov 7.

My question is whether this indicates I can enter Thailand by the end of Nov 7, or whether I have to enter on Nov 6.

I will be going to Mae Sai, already have my bus ticket but unfortunately opted for the afternoon bus and realized that it gets there at 5:00 pm on Nov 6 so I think the border will be closed. Therefore I would have to cross on Nov 7.

Trying to not waste the 400 baht on another ticket to get there a day earlier.

I have read a lot of opinions, but never seem to find anyone who has done this and can report back.

There must be many people doing this. Does anyone have experience crossing on the 'enter before' date, experiences?

The 7th is ok.

I did it a few years ago at Suvarnabhumi: arrived on the actual date stamped in my passport visa as the last day of validity for the visa. I got some different answers on this question, even from immigration, but the majority of immigration were saying yes, it was okay to enter on the date stamped (in your case, the 7th.) The English is poor, the way they stamp those passports with the use before wording. In my case, some of the immigration people were hesitating when I asked about it before departing, but it was a language problem; they were trying to inform me that there would be a problem if a flight delay caused me to arrive after midnight (the 8th, in your case.)

There are a lot of worry-warts on this board that will tell you otherwise. And given a choice, I'd prefer a day before, just to allow for anything unanticipated. Also, Thailand is not known for it's consistency between various offices of government. But you should be okay. Show departure immigration your passport before you leave the country, and run it by them just for reassurance. If there's an issue with entering on that date, ask diplomatically for a supervisor to review it. Worst case would be you'll still get back in, but with just 15 days for a land crossing.

OK to enter until 23:59 local time the day in the VISA

OK to leave until 23:59 the day in the stay permit stamp

A very popular question

If there is any logic in a Thai visa, then it is clear that "ENTER BEFORE" is bad wording and really means "USE UNTIL".

Why?

Example, a normal Non O is obviously a 3 month visa.

The first date is the DATE OF ISSUE. The ENTER BEFORE is always plus 3 calendar months MINUS (!) 1 day.

Like "8 Jun 2012" to "7 Sep 2012".

What sense would it make to shorten another day.

BTW: in the internet I found (old) visa stickers from 2003/2004 with the wording "EXPIRY DATE"?

Anybody knows whether this has been changed to the worse sometime in between?

Some trivia:

Singapore: "Valid till".

China: "ENTER BEFORE", bit the date is plus 3 months, not 1 day deducted like the Thai visa.

USA: "Expiration Date" (plus 3 months - one day)

A very popular question

If there is any logic in a Thai visa, then it is clear that "ENTER BEFORE" is bad wording and really means "USE UNTIL".

Why?

Example, a normal Non O is obviously a 3 month visa.

The first date is the DATE OF ISSUE. The ENTER BEFORE is always plus 3 calendar months MINUS (!) 1 day.

Like "8 Jun 2012" to "7 Sep 2012".

What sense would it make to shorten another day.

BTW: in the internet I found (old) visa stickers from 2003/2004 with the wording "EXPIRY DATE"?

Anybody knows whether this has been changed to the worse sometime in between?

The vast majority of people have absolutely no problem in understanding the meaning of "ENTER BEFORE"

If the wording were to be changed there would still be a minority who would be challenged by the terminology !

And would you share YOUR understanding please

And would you share YOUR understanding please

actually it would be better to share your experiennce, rather then your understanding.

i guess people will have to continue their research on visa stickers they found online from a couple years ago.

obviously this is helpful and better then nothing, on the chance they are the lucky few who have never done or need to do border runs.

if i was still in the us i would run this as it says on the day before the printed date. but here im going to do it on that date and take a chance assuming, like many other things here, that it is the result of someone in a low paying position with a mediocre education, or just border personnel who either dont care or dont know how to follow rules. we shall see.

now einstein, should i report back on what happens, or just what i think should have happened?

Non contributing reported post removed

Facing the same interpretation problem myself now. I posted a visa request form to Thai Embassy in London and said my date of arrival would be 3rd December and the person who processed my application made that the 'Enter Before' date which has led me here to seek clarification as the embassy in London don't answer their emails or telephones and the Search function on their website does not work !

For peace of mind I expect I will need to slip my original planned arrival date back one day to be on the safe side as people have suggested.

Facing the same interpretation problem myself now. I posted a visa request form to Thai Embassy in London and said my date of arrival would be 3rd December and the person who processed my application made that the 'Enter Before' date which has led me here to seek clarification as the embassy in London don't answer their emails or telephones and the Search function on their website does not work !

For peace of mind I expect I will need to slip my original planned arrival date back one day to be on the safe side as people have suggested.

You are resurrecting an one year old thread.

However the enter before date means midnight of the indicated date.

Yes I realise this is just one of many threads on the subject but I'm sure people like me are still faced with the same problem even now, hence my post.

Do you know if there is any 'official' Thai Government website which has this definition clearly stated so I can print it out and show immigration at the airport if they choose to interpret it another way?

Do you know if there is any 'official' Thai Government website which has this definition clearly stated so I can print it out and show immigration at the airport if they choose to interpret it another way?

I'm afraid you're taking this the wrong way. it is not a matter of interpretation, it means "enter before end of", just as "allowed until" means "allowed until end of"

Of course nothing compels you to trust this forum.