Trip Report - Penang Visa-Run - Single Entry ED

[simon43]

Since Firefly had no seats available, I was forced to use one of the visa-run minibuses.

Previous Thaivisa threads showed that 3 of these visa-run companies had suffered serious accidents, resulting in deaths.

I chose A2B visa-run company because there were no news reports of accidents involving that company.

I was picked up on a wet Wednesday night at around 10pm from the airport pick-up. Luckily the rain soon stopped. The bus was modern, full of passengers after I got on board. There were no passenger seatbelts. The driver drove in a considerate manner. (There is no reason to speed down to Sadao border crossing because that does not open until 5am.)

We arrived at a few minutes before 5am. When the border opened, I was able to get stamped out of Thailand without incident - I already had 3 back-to-back visa-exempt stamps from Ranong and my last one was via plane to/from KL.

(I usually do not incur many back-to-backs, but I had returned in February after my Mum's funeral in the UK and was unable to proceed onto Myanmar for a new job that I had been offered. I stayed at my family home in Phuket for a few months whilst I considered my future etc).

On the Malaysian side of the border we went through immigration in a few minutes and then boarded a larger tour bus for the trip to Penang (A2B combined passengers from 3 minibuses for the transfer to Penang).

Due to new regulations from the Thai consulate in Penang, we were required to apply in person, not give our passports to an agent to do this process. So we went straight to the consulate, arriving soon after it opened. The queues were short, the staff were friendly. My application for a single-entry ED visa was accepted without question (2,200 baht fee including agent, 1,100 baht for a tourist visa).

I saw many turned away from the consulate, but these all seemed to be for B visas where one or other supporting documents were missing. For new B visa applications, they needed to see the WP3 document and for extending existing B visas they wanted to see your original WP, not a copy.

We then proceeded on to the Continental Hotel in Penang, which is used by many visa agents for the single night stop over. This is a 3 or 4-star modern hotel, with breakfast and lunch included in the visa service fee - all quite acceptable and with free (and workable) Wi-Fi.

We were free for the rest of the day and I wandered around old Penang. As usual, the cleanliness of the streets when compared to Phuket/Thailand was something that struck me, as well as the friendly taxi and rickshaw drivers.

After a good sleep, breakfast and lunch, we checked out at noon and boarded a Malaysian minibus for the short drive to the consulate, where I picked up my passport with 90-day ED visa. We then drove back to the border, stamped out through Malaysian immigration in a few seconds, and then joined the queue for re-entry into Thailand.

Our minibus passengers were me (British), 2 Filipinas and 7 Russians. The Filipinas were advised to slip 100 baht inside their passports to give to the Thai immigration officers, to avoid any 'problems'.

I was stamped back into Thailand and at about 4pm we began the long trip back to Phuket via Phattalung, where we stopped for a prepaid evening meal at a roadside steakhouse.

During the return journey, our driver again drove at a considerate pace, being overtaken by minibuses from other visa-run companies.

I was finally dropped off in north Phuket at around 11pm, after a tiring but successful visa-run.

The cost: 4,000 baht for the visa-run service, including overnight hotel, breakfasts' lunches and evening meal on the return journey.

The company: A2B Visa Run, whose driver (to my surprise), drove safely at a considerate speed on both legs. He also handled and helped on all paperwork during the journey and at the border crossings.

I had no problems at Thai immigration because of my history of back-to-back visa-exempt stamps, and no one else on my bus had any problems. Nor did I see anyone at the border crossing having any issues.

So, a successful visa-run to Penang. I will now study conversational Mandarin for 3 months and then do another visa-run to apply for a B visa, (the papers for that visa type were not yet ready from my lawyer when my 30-day stamp was due to expire).

Simon

[phuketrichard]

great;

am heading down in 2 weeks to get my gf her 1 year b visa ( just got her wp completed) took 8 days here in Phuket and cost us less than 11,000 baht for everything.

goes to show you , you do not need a lawyer to do it for you.

[keestha]

Quoting the OP: Due to new regulations from the Thai consulate in Penang, we were required to apply in person, not give our passports to an agent to do this process. So we went straight to the consulate, arriving soon after it opened. The queues were short, the staff were friendly. My application for a single-entry ED visa was accepted without question (2,200 baht fee including agent, 1,100 baht for a tourist visa).

So where did the agent in the second set of bold font suddenly come from? Sorry Simon, I guess you were just tired when composing this post. Thanks for the report.

[simon43]

Well, I was a little tired

The agent went with us to/from the consulate and helped to complete application forms etc, so we paid a small amount (300 baht) for his service and assistance, (the ED visa costs 1,900 baht).

But we had to appear in person at the consulate, not simply give our passports and documents to the agent at the hotel.

[PattayaPhom]

Be interesting to Know if Jim, Banana and the others are still offering visa service or have they had to stop?

[phuketrichard]

from what i understand and what Arthur at Mingood told me

you need take your own passport ( for all but tourist visas) to the Consolute

BUT an agent (if u pay extra)

can arrange to pick it up at noon the next day, rather than wait till after 2

[leggo]

Got my ed visa at Penang , no hassles, really nice staff at Thai consulate, great place to visit with friendly people and as another reader mentioned so clean and no rip offs - made a nice change!

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 2 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Gillyflower]

There is all this talk about Banana etc. but up to a few months ago practically every little hotel offered this service for 30 ringit. I have been doing this run for years and still don't know where the consulate is. Mind you I have only wanted a 2 month tourist visa. This Penang business comes up regularly about every month.

[PMak]

Has anyone gotten an Education visa recently in Penang? I need to get mine extended and will fly in and out of Penang. I heard some issues a couple days ago with people getting turned away and I suspect it may have to do with the immigration office recently needing school schedules for approval.

Anyone have any new info to share? Thanks.

[ubonjoe]

You should ask you school to contact the consulate in Penang to find out exactly what there requirements are now.

There was a change to their requirements that apparently went into effect on Monday of this week.

[BeefSlapper]

any recent reports from Penang getting ED?