Switching passport at a land border between Thailand and Laos

[Tomtomtom69]

Hi,

I am a dual national so what I am about to ask won't affect anyone who holds only one passport. I know that Thai immigration makes a bit of a fuss about seeing the exit stamps of the country you just departed if entering or re-entering Thailand from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia or Malaysia. I am pretty sure that Laos doesn't care so I will take the chance that I can make a passport switch (i.e. leave Thailand on one passport and enter Laos on another) the reason being that with one of my passports, I don't need a visa for Laos. However, on the return I have to switch back to the other passport since that one contains my Thai non-B visa. Therefore, unless I were to leave Thailand fairly shortly afterwards, I wouldn't be able to use the same passport I used to enter Laos.

Upon doing so, Thai immigration will probably ask where my Laos exit stamp is. I can and will of course explain this to immigration. I don't expect a problem (I speak fluent Thai btw) but of course this would be the first time I have attempted this so was just wondering if this could cause any problems. I read somewhere about a dual national (Israeli/British but it doesn't really matter what his nationalities are) at the Lao/Cambodian border that encountered problems when attempting this but was eventually allowed to go on his way.

Incidentally, Myanmar immigration at land checkpoints doesn't care about Thai exit stamps, in fact they don't even look at the visa requirements for foreigners exiting Myanmar for Thailand, simply assuming they'll all be permitted to enter (this may be a holdover from the old days before Aug 28 when only limited border entries were allowed and practically all foreigners entered Myanmar by land from Thailand and back to Thailand; nowadays these are legal entry and exit points), however, things may be different at the Lao border.

[ubonjoe]

A switch of passports at a border is not advisable. Their have been reports of Lao immigration not allowing entry because there were no Thai departure stamps. This has also occurred on the Thai side of the border.

Also if applying for a Thai visa they will want copies of the Lao visa/entry stamps in the passport you are using to apply for the visa.

Edited November 18, 2013 by ubonjoe

[Tomtomtom69]

A switch of passports at a border is not advisable. Their have been reports of Lao immigration not allowing entry because there were no Thai departure stamps. This has also occurred on the Thai side of the border. Also if applying for a Thai visa they will want copies of the Lao visa/entry stamps in the passport you are using to apply for the visa.

Thanks for that advice. Fortunately, I am not applying for a Thai visa as I already have one (I got it in Yangon). Of course if I were, I would have to place the Thai visa in the same passport I used to enter Laos with, unless I were flying out of Laos. I have recently done this for a Myanmar visa in Kunming and simply presented both passports, no problems. However, China immigration doesn't care about the entry/exit stamps of other countries and besides, until the Ruili/Muse border opens very few travelers would travel to Myanmar overland from China anyway (and as previously mentioned, Myanmar doesn't check the stamps of the country you just arrived from).

I remember when I last went to Laos they didn't care about Thai stamps, but the Thai side definitely did (they always do). Although each official is different thus it might not be the best idea to risk it.

Edited November 18, 2013 by Tomtomtom69

[ubonjoe]

You have replies to your other topic in the other visa forum.

Just mentioned visa application as additional info.