Our experience on a Visa run to Vientiane early August 2014

[Mammon]

Background info-

I am on a retirement extension, my foreign partner is on a non-B with work permit. My partner needed to renew her non-B visa as she was now working at a different school and province. We did a lot of home work before leaving making sure we had everything we needed, Police station for police clearance, immigration for visa requirements and paperwork, school for all associated paperwork, Thai embassy web sites etc, being mindful of the current visa dramas. Rather than a long winded story the following is what happened in point form.

• No mention of needing to complete a re-entry permit at immigration when I left Thailand.
• Wrong visa application form and wrong Embassy map location on Vientiane Thai embassy web site. Struggled to find the embassy and had to re-write a new visa application form on arrival.
• Standing in rain and sun for 5 hours with 400 other people at Vientiane Thai embassy while only 2 windows and 2 embassy staff open for 900 visa applicants! simply ridiculous!
• Sent away after waiting 5 hours because missing one form, when a person who checked our paperwork 2 hours earlier didn't advise us about the missing form which could have saved us 3 hours of waiting.
• 3 times over 3 days we had to go to the emabassy
• On return to Thailand my retirement extension  was cancelled because I did not submit a re-entry permit when departing and I was only issued with 15 day tourist visa.
• Embassy, immigration and border/check point staff smug, indifferent and unwilling to communicate
• Total cost of trip including cancelled retirement extension 35,000TB

There seems to be total confusion about visa's and visa requirements  and it seems each Thai embassy, immigration office or official has their own version of requirements or paperwork for various visa applications and you only find that out when you get there and that's if they bother to tell you, plus a lot of what you are told is inaccurate, it's nothing more than a lucky dip. Most people want to do the right thing, follow protocol and stay inside the law but the Thai visa bureaucracy is becoming so baffling that, on top of everything else, it's time to move on.

btw... I'm sure there will be the usual flamers comments but my only interest in writing this is so that some people can know what they have to go through to work or live here.

[FritsSikkink]

No mention of needing to complete a re-entry permit at immigration when I left Thailand.
You should know the law yourself

Wrong visa application form and wrong Embassy map location on Vientiane Thai embassy web site. Struggled to find the embassy and had to re-write a new visa application form on arrival.
Your fault

Standing in rain and sun for 5 hours with 400 other people at Vientiane Thai embassy while only 2 windows and 2 embassy staff open for 900 visa applicants! simply ridiculous!
Could use a company

Sent away after waiting 5 hours because missing one form, when a person who checked our paperwork 2 hours earlier didn't advise us about the missing form which could have saved us 3 hours of waiting.
Your fault missing the form

On return to Thailand my retirement extension was cancelled because I did not submit a re-entry permit when departing and I was only issued with 15 day tourist visa.
Your fault

[JLCrab]

I am typing this directly from the Retirement Extension stamp in my Passport:

 

Notice: To keep your stay permit re-entry permit must be made before leaving Thailand. (ALL CAPS)

Edited August 10, 2014 by JLCrab

[paz]

Which form was she missing ?

You did not knew of Savannakher for better/faster service I guess.

[muffy]

That is why I use an agent in Vientaine .

[96tehtarp]

Mammon, you had a really bad trip. I'm very sorry to read about it.

 

It is unfortunate that you signed up for thaivisa.com/forum after your trip instead of before. There are plenty of nice people here who would have tried to help you before you traveled. It's too late for that now.

 

I agree with FritsSikkink in #2 that you brought most of the troubles upon yourself.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2014 by 96tehtarp

[ubonjoe]

I will not comment about the re-entry permit.

This page on Vientiane website has the correct map and a good list of requirement for the visa. http://vientiane.thaiembassy.org/vientiane/en/consular/consular_check/

[jenk4lyf]

I have decided to wait until my next 90 extension is due to be stamped on my most recent ED renewal which is in late October, hopefully by then all of the so called immigration officers dotted around the Kingdom will have formulated one set of rules and an agenda. I am still unsure if I need to go to Vientaine before this date or as my school has stated next year, everything is up in the air. I want to get an agent when I go though, I did in Malaysia 3 years ago and it worked out, but I am a bit skeptical about handing my passport over to a stranger like that. Sorry to hear of your misfortune but it is over now and could have been much worse. At least you can sit back and relax on the visa side of things, I'm waiting for this dust to settle around this mess that the current establishment has made.

[thrilled]

Sounds like A disaster.Hasn't anyone published A book on the know how's,ends and outs of the visa process.
I mean this isn't the 1st time that I have heard of this.To me it sounds like A complete SNAFU.

[iainiain101]

I am typing this directly from the Retirement Extension stamp in my Passport:
 
Notice: To keep your stay permit re-entry permit must be made before leaving Thailand. (ALL CAPS)

Is there some punctuation or some words missing from the statement? It doesn't seem to make much sense as quoted. Edited August 10, 2014 by iainiain101

[JLCrab]

 

I am typing this directly from the Retirement Extension stamp in my Passport:
 
Notice: To keep your stay permit re-entry permit must be made before leaving Thailand. (ALL CAPS)

Is there some punctuation or some words missing from the statement? It doesn't seem to make much sense as quoted.

 

No. Verbatim.

[ATF]

How was Vientiane?

[IsaanAndy]

As previously stated, all the info is available either here or elsewhere on the Internet, it's all about research ... such a waste of time but then if you are retired then you have all the time in the world, surely?

[kurnell]

No mention of needing to complete a re-entry permit at immigration when I left Thailand.
You should know the law yourself

Wrong visa application form and wrong Embassy map location on Vientiane Thai embassy web site. Struggled to find the embassy and had to re-write a new visa application form on arrival.
Your fault

Standing in rain and sun for 5 hours with 400 other people at Vientiane Thai embassy while only 2 windows and 2 embassy staff open for 900 visa applicants! simply ridiculous!
Could use a company

Sent away after waiting 5 hours because missing one form, when a person who checked our paperwork 2 hours earlier didn't advise us about the missing form which could have saved us 3 hours of waiting.
Your fault missing the form

On return to Thailand my retirement extension was cancelled because I did not submit a re-entry permit when departing and I was only issued with 15 day tourist visa.
Your fault

 

I have to agree here. I also saw another thread where you whined that you didn't know you had to get a re-entry permit. This is basic stuff, basic!! 

[ATF]

 

I have to agree here. I also saw another thread where you whined that you didn't know you had to get a re-entry permit. This is basic stuff, basic!! 

 

 

I don't know whose worse the Digital Nomads or the OAP's that won't stump up for a re-entry permit. Quality tourists my $^^%^%
 

[ubonjoe]

 

 

I am typing this directly from the Retirement Extension stamp in my Passport:
 
Notice: To keep your stay permit re-entry permit must be made before leaving Thailand. (ALL CAPS)

Is there some punctuation or some words missing from the statement? It doesn't seem to make much sense as quoted.

 

No. Verbatim.

 

  This is mine.

[attachment=278672:extension stamp.jpg]

[mataleo]

Hmm nice. Im going next week for ED be fun chai mai

[jenk4lyf]

 

 

 

I am typing this directly from the Retirement Extension stamp in my Passport:
 
Notice: To keep your stay permit re-entry permit must be made before leaving Thailand. (ALL CAPS)

Is there some punctuation or some words missing from the statement? It doesn't seem to make much sense as quoted.
 

No. Verbatim.
 

  This is mine.
extension stamp.jpg

 

I basically have 5 pages of these in my passport going back to 2011 when I got my ED visa. I am still in the dark about it all and that is what is getting to me, the not knowing. School says one thing, OP and OPs school says something else, immigration don't know what the hell is going on, to be honest it is a shambles. Sort it out Thailand.

I might like to add that with all of these changes you have begun to shoot yourself in the foot and your economy will suffer, trust me on that, oh it will suffer. There are a huge amount of people whop have skills who can work on the internet and not take work away from Thais and spend most of their money here, and have been doing so. A lot of those will leave, a lot of the teachers will leave, a students will leave, less tourism as people cannot stay for half of the year, you have really screwed up this time and you will pay the price.

[JDGRUEN]

OP  ... now that you have got through this and hopefully got your Extension of Stay based on Retirement back together... please take a deep breath and just chalk it up to experience.   I hope you get the aggravation out of your system soon and can relax and enjoy yourself... I hardly think it is totally your fault.   Dealing with Thai Immigration almost requires one to become an expert - similar to filing one's own Federal Income Taxes in the U.S.   A U.S. citizen having any semblance of a complicated work income and investment income is acting very unwisely to calculate his/her taxes owed... it requires a CPA and even then there is risk of mistake.  The Thai Visa system is almost as complicated - especially when local IOs or workers at the Thai Embassies, Consulates or Border Checkpoints seem to ad lib so much of the time... The only thing predictable about Thai Immigration is that it is unpredictable.  

 

So many post say:  get educated, it is your fault... Well, I am here to tell people many new arrivals do make a serious effort to get educated.. But for the newly exposed person the terminology used in the Thai Immigration - Visa system and the structure of Visa options is a big hindrance in gaining understanding of the subject matter - many hurdles to jump over. 

 

I studied for two years prior to coming here to Thailand and found the information to be a confusing terminology and paperwork miasma.   I did learn about Honorary Consul Generals of Thailand from Thaivisa.com -- and I am thankful for that... because the information found on the Thai Embassy D.C. website is confusing, contradictory, incomplete and not totally in concert with the rules used by Thai Immigration.   The Honorary Consul General guided me to the best Visa choice for me - for that I am very appreciative.

 

Since arrival in Thailand I have tried to become educated on the Visa issues and I still make mistakes and wrong assumptions - embarrassing ones at times...  And I don't mind admitting it as you didn't mind telling your story... it takes strength to lay yourself out for over the top criticism which abounds here on TVF.

 

Spelling edits...

Edited August 11, 2014 by JDGRUEN

[dddave]

It's been so long I forget but aren't the Thai Embassy and Thai Consulate in Vientiane in separate locations?  There always seems to be a lot of confusion about this issue, including the OP.  He goes on about not finding the Thai Embassy.

 

Visa's are issued at Consulates, usually not at Embassies.

[ubonjoe]

It's been so long I forget but aren't the Thai Embassy and Thai Consulate in Vientiane in separate locations?  There always seems to be a lot of confusion about this issue, including the OP.  He goes on about not finding the Thai Embassy.

 

Visa's are issued at Consulates, usually not at Embassies.

The embassy and the consular section (not a consulate) are in different locations.

Embassies have consular sections. Consulates are located in different cities from the embassy.

[muffy]

I just came back from Laos with my retirement Multi entry visa , when I left the immigration person showed me my Multi entry and I said "multiple " , he didn't speak English . I thought that was strange then I read this , he was perhaps warning me about re entry , now I get it .  

[krey]

I went last week and it went very smooth as i posted over at http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/750545-my-ed-visa-border-run-to-vientiane-experience/

 

sorry to hear you had a bad experience, sure many can relate

[Jeremy50]

Sounds like A disaster.Hasn't anyone published A book on the know how's,ends and outs of the visa process.
I mean this isn't the 1st time that I have heard of this.To me it sounds like A complete SNAFU.

Yes. It's called 'The Trial' by Franz Kafka.

[Jeremy50]

 

No mention of needing to complete a re-entry permit at immigration when I left Thailand.
You should know the law yourself

Wrong visa application form and wrong Embassy map location on Vientiane Thai embassy web site. Struggled to find the embassy and had to re-write a new visa application form on arrival.
Your fault

Standing in rain and sun for 5 hours with 400 other people at Vientiane Thai embassy while only 2 windows and 2 embassy staff open for 900 visa applicants! simply ridiculous!
Could use a company

Sent away after waiting 5 hours because missing one form, when a person who checked our paperwork 2 hours earlier didn't advise us about the missing form which could have saved us 3 hours of waiting.
Your fault missing the form

On return to Thailand my retirement extension was cancelled because I did not submit a re-entry permit when departing and I was only issued with 15 day tourist visa.
Your fault

 

I have to agree here. I also saw another thread where you whined that you didn't know you had to get a re-entry permit. This is basic stuff, basic!! 

 

 

Just buy a multiple entry when you get your long stay visa. I have to agree that conditions at the Thai embassy in Vientiene are atrocious, waiting in the baking heat for hours. The automated system that issues tickets has been out of order for 2 years now. It would only take a thousand baht to fix it. Waiting in direct sunlight in a long line the following day to pick up. It would be so easy for the embassy to put up some shades. Always some scum who runs to the front of the line as soon as the gates open. Same every time.  The only time the officials at the border will smile is if you have to pay overstay and then it is mockingly. Never mind, there is plenty of time to go and see the shockingly ghastly new waterfront that is Vientiene's 'pride and joy'. Only North Korea could have made it more ugly.

 

[Mammon]

To all those who posted helpful solutions and encouraging comments, thank you so much. These have provided me with a great deal of information in formulating a plan that I will take to immigration and/or an agency this week.

 

To the "flamers, trolls and baiters" your sarcastic and condescending personal attacks are a clear indicator of your caustic personality and character. Try to find better way to spend your day other than victimising people who are asking for advice to solve a legitimate problem caused by an honest mistake. 

[djayz]

I can understand how frustrating the trip must have been for you. I went to Vientiane in late July 2014 to apply for a Non-Imm B visa and didn't experience a single problem.

Yes, the queues were long (approx. 500 people when I went) but otherwise I found the young man checking the application forms at the window very friendly and helpful. I had all the paperwork that was needed. 

Every taxi driver/tuk-tuk driver knows where the Thai Consulate is... 

 

As a lot of other people have pointed out, most of the problems you pointed out in your message seem to be of your own making/due to a lack of preparation. 

 

Practice makes perfect. Better luck next time. 

Edited August 11, 2014 by djayz