Successful Double Entry Tourist Visa from Lao, Vientiane

[l3fty]

Hey everyone,

As I appreciated everyone posting useful information about obtaining their Thai visas from various countries/cities I thought I would post a detailed report on my successful visa run to Lao, Vientiane to give back to the community. So just a little background on my visas so you can get a grasp of how my passport currently is. I am an American and (now) have a total of 3 Thai visas on my passport: One visa exempt, one Non-Imm B 90 day single entry, and now a double entry tourist visa.

I decided to take a flight with Lao air from BKK Suvarnabhumi to Vientiane as I wasn't looking to stay on a train for 12 or so hours and had the money to spend, which when I booked a hotel with the flight it came out to ~$600 (Mostly hotel charge). I took a flight out on a Monday at 6:30pm and got to the hotel around 9:00pm and went to bed shortly after arriving. The hotel I stayed at was the Salana Boutique Hotel which was actually quite nice and enjoyed my stay there.

Day 1:

I woke up around 7:30am and left with the hotel taxi service to the Thai Embassy around 8:15am and arrived 8:30am. There were already a fair amount of people already there gathering numbers (I was #27). When you get there just walk past the gate and to the back of the Embassy on the right hand side you will see rows of seats which is where most people are gathering. Now, when I was there it looked like they changed the numbers of the windows and had signs telling you to grab a number which was window #2. After you grab a number you will hear an automated voice over speakers counting off the number up to submit their documents. This part is where it's a little confusing as they had small LCD signs above the windows with the numbers they were serving. If you listen carefully the automated voice will tell you which window to go to. I saw many people go to the wrong window and wait until they were told to go to the other window because they thought the LCD over the window meant it was the right window. Don't pay attention to the windows with the LCD screen number, try to listen where they tell you to go through the automated voice. I noticed this and went to the correct window the first time. I waited about ~45 minutes until my number was called and if I remember correctly I got there they were around #10.

The documents I submitted for the double entry tourist visa:

• Visa application
• 2 photos (they have glue there to paste them to your application)
• Photocopy of the visa page with my picture
• Overseas bank statement with only my total in account (No transactions)

After presenting them to a lady with a sour look on her face, she quickly looked at me and told me to photocopy a page of my passport with the Lao visa I got when entering Lao and to quote "Do it quickly" in a tone that was far from friendly. This threw me off a little bit because nothing on their website had said to do such a thing. So I rushed upstairs where they have a photocopier and a guy that photocopies for you. Luckily, I had some baht change on me to pay him with which was 5 baht a copy (I only needed one copy). Went back, she did some stamping and proceeded to hand me the same number ticket with a 2,000 baht written on it.

I then proceeded inside the building where they were calling numbers out as well. This part went faster because all you need to do is hand them your ticket/money and they will give you a paid receipt to use to pick up your visa the next day. I was finished with everything around ~11:30am.

I then decided to go to a cafe to the right of the Embassy after you get out that is across the street. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name but it was quite small cafe and suppose you could easily miss it. They do have a podium with their menu and a sign that said free wifi (which was my selling point). They serve Lao coffee and paninis, the panini was pretty good but I must admit the salad they provided with the meal was delicious, I have no idea what dressing they put on it but it was great! After that I took a Tuk Tuk home which they obviously are ripping off all farangs going anywhere. I paid 200 baht to get back to my hotel which was probably no more than 10 kilometers away. I didn't really care though, it's expected that they have no respect for anyone but themselves. After that I just chilled on my hotel room with more Wifi and worked on some personal projects until night time and walked to an area the receptionist at the hotel suggested and found a place called Khop Chai Deu which was pretty empty when I got there around 10:30pm but still had live music going so I hung out there for a while and had some good (cheap) Beer Lao. Walked back home, got harassed by a couple lady boys one of which walked right up to me and grabbed my junk quite hard... I let out a sequel and repeated "Mai ow Mai ow" (Thai not Lao. lol) and continued my way home.

Day 2:

The second day I did not have to go to the Embassy until 1:30pm so I was able to wake up around ~10:00am and enjoy the complimentary breakfast buffet at the hotel which had many western foods that I hadn't been able to enjoy in awhile. I checked out around 12:00pm and waited about an hour and fifteen minutes (1:15pm) in the same area as the buffet until I was ready for the hotel taxi to take me to the Embassy to pick up my passport. I was going to go straight from the Embassy to the airport and the hotel receptionist suggested I allow them to wait for me to finish and take me as the Tuk tuk drivers would notice I would have no choice and charge me whatever they pleased (again, pretty low life if you ask me). The total would be $15 for them to do this, I agreed.

I got to the embassy at 1:30pm and there was already a lot of people there already waiting. I went to the same place to pick up a number, no one was there but a stack of numbers in the window so I grabbed one and headed inside where numbers were being called off quite quickly. I was #74 and when I got there the number was around #15, I waited about ~15 minutes until my number was called because all you had to do was go up and hand them your passport receipt and collect your passport. After collecting I went back to the taxi waiting for me and headed off to the Airport where I waiting until my flight and successfully made my first visa run in Lao!

Edited October 25, 2013 by l3fty

[vincentbanner]

I tought i will takes 2 days this sound better

Thanx for your story

[ubonjoe]

They call it 2 days but that is counting day one. At most nearby locations (Cambodia 3 to 4 days) it is apply morning of day one and pick up the afternoon of day two.

[tjhorner]

Did they look at your bank book? Last time I did a run there, maybe a year ago, I didn't have that and didn't ask for it. I did however, have dummy reservations for a couple flight out of Thailand (after 60 and 120 days) but she didn't even look at them and handed them back to me.

Thanks for the trip report!!!

[l3fty]

Did they look at your bank book? Last time I did a run there, maybe a year ago, I didn't have that and didn't ask for it. I did however, have dummy reservations for a couple flight out of Thailand (after 60 and 120 days) but she didn't even look at them and handed them back to me.

Thanks for the trip report!!!

I actually don't have a bank account in Thailand so I wouldn't even be able to show them a bank book even if they asked but I did print out my bank statement with the amount of money I had in my checking and savings (which is a fairly reasonable amount). I did not give them the pages with transactions though but had them just in case. I also did not have a flight out of Thailand either but like you said I would have been ready to buy a quick $60 ticket to Vietnam if they did.

No problem, glad to hopefully help others looking for information.

[ikebukuro5]

About the money in the bank...they turned me down for a double entry once, I had to have Thailand fax a copy of the bank book.

They said I needed 400 000 baht in the bank, first time this ever happened to me, but it is possible.

So if you have the money in the bank bring the photocopy for sure.

[l3fty]

About the money in the bank...they turned me down for a double entry once, I had to have Thailand fax a copy of the bank book.

They said I needed 400 000 baht in the bank, first time this ever happened to me, but it is possible.

So if you have the money in the bank bring the photocopy for sure.

That's interesting, I did not know that. I had a bit over that amount so maybe I got lucky. It seems they tend to make up specific rules like that on the spot because I did not see that anywhere on their site as a requirement nor did I see them wanting a photocopy of my Lao visa.

[SarahCM]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say the original post was extremely helpful to me, thanks l3fty for writing it!

I am French and I had the exact same experience and was successful in obtaining my double entry tourist visa on Nov 1st, 2013.

I gave the same documents you described (copy of passport main page, Lao visa page, Thai visa application form, 2 photos + my French bank statement) but other people in the line with me didn't provide their bank statement (they didn't know) and their application was accepted and they got their double entry tourist visa as well the next day.

One piece of advice: get to the Embassy early! I left my hotel at 7:30 am, was there around 7:50 am and I was # 3 in the line, so things went very fast and smooth but the line built up very quickly after that and I would say there were about a hundred + people following me.

Good luck and thank you thaivisa for this great forum!

SCM

[l3fty]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say the original post was extremely helpful to me, thanks l3fty for writing it!

I am French and I had the exact same experience and was successful in obtaining my double entry tourist visa on Nov 1st, 2013.

I gave the same documents you described (copy of passport main page, Lao visa page, Thai visa application form, 2 photos + my French bank statement) but other people in the line with me didn't provide their bank statement (they didn't know) and their application was accepted and they got their double entry tourist visa as well the next day.

One piece of advice: get to the Embassy early! I left my hotel at 7:30 am, was there around 7:50 am and I was # 3 in the line, so things went very fast and smooth but the line built up very quickly after that and I would say there were about a hundred + people following me.

Good luck and thank you thaivisa for this great forum!

SCM

You're very welcome Sarah, glad it helped you!

[Asiantravel]

l3fty I would just like to say that even though it's only my opinion, based on what you have written about the lady with the sour face and the unfriendly command unless you particularly have to ( or want to ) go to Vientiane that a visa from the consulate in Savannakhet would have been friendlier and easier. You may wish to try it next time and you can still fly directly there from Bangkok.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Asiantravel

[l3fty]

l3fty I would just like to say that even though it's only my opinion, based on what you have written about the lady with the sour face and the unfriendly command unless you particularly have to ( or want to ) go to Vientiane that a visa from the consulate in Savannakhet would have been friendlier and easier. You may wish to try it next time and you can still fly directly there from Bangkok.

Haha, thanks for the advice Asiantravel. I actually might try it next time, I only tried Vientiane because I remember reading somewhere Savannakhet stopped allowing double entry or were becoming harder to obtain. I said that with a light heart though, I can see why some people might not be the friendliest working at a place like that having to answer the same questions over and over. That's why I tried to get everything in order to make it a smooth transaction.

[thaidallover]

Great trip report, i have to do this very trip at the end the month. Very relevant and bang up todate

thanks..........

[l3fty]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say the original post was extremely helpful to me, thanks l3fty for writing it!

I am French and I had the exact same experience and was successful in obtaining my double entry tourist visa on Nov 1st, 2013.

I gave the same documents you described (copy of passport main page, Lao visa page, Thai visa application form, 2 photos + my French bank statement) but other people in the line with me didn't provide their bank statement (they didn't know) and their application was accepted and they got their double entry tourist visa as well the next day.

One piece of advice: get to the Embassy early! I left my hotel at 7:30 am, was there around 7:50 am and I was # 3 in the line, so things went very fast and smooth but the line built up very quickly after that and I would say there were about a hundred + people following me.

Good luck and thank you thaivisa for this great forum!

SCM

Would a mod mind adding this to the latest reports of getting a visa?