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6 - 12 month Visa advice...

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Hello,

After scouring the internet and finding many conflicting reports and views I was hoping that somebody on this forum may be able to offer some advice.

My wife and I (I'm 32 & from the UK, my wife is 27 & also from UK) are joint owners of an online English school. We recently spent 6 months living in Vietnam and are now coming up to 3 months in Thailand. We were originally planning on returning to Vietnam but we have fallen in love with the quiet, relaxed life of the Northern Thailand.

Ideally we would love to stay on here if possible for 6 - 9 months (6 months minimum, 9 months maximum). As we have already been here for nearly 3 months I am assuming this will likely be a problem in applying for another visa, however I have read and heard of many people who simply return to Laos at the end of their visa and successfully apply for a new one. I am also aware that there have been recent rule changes in August so I am not at all sure whether or not we can realistically hope to be able to stay in Thailand for the next 6 months or not.

Can anyone with recent experiences at the embassies in Laos or Malaysia advise me on what our possible options would be to enable us to stay here long(ish) term? Our 6 month multi entry visas still possible? We currently have 60 day single entry that we applied for in KL having already used a 30 day visa exemption when we flew in.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Mike

  • Author

*our = are!

Moved to Visa Forum.

You can easily get a 2 entry tourist visa in Laos since you have no others from them. You can get as many as 3 of them back to back there.

You could get another single entry visa in Penang Malaysia. Not sure KL would do another one.

You can also get a 30 day extension for your current tourist vise entry.

There have been no restrictions put on tourist visas or their entries. Only visa exempt entries have been restricted.

  • Author

That is fantastic info - thanks for that!

Please excuse my ignorance, but how does a double entry work exactly, is it 2 x 60 day visas which are both extendable by 30 days? So theoretically it is a 6 month visa but we would just have to leave and come back in to activate the second 90 day period? Would that then mean that in theory we could have up to 18 months in Thailand with the only stipulation being that we have to leave cross a boarder after 3 months, and then apply for a new visa in Laos after 6?

My only concern was that I had read that some embassies were being strict about not having more than 3 month in Thailand over a 6 month period, though I believe that concerned the embassy in Singapore rather than the one in Laos.

Thanks again for your assistance on this, we really appreciate it.

You can extend each entry of a 2 entry tourist visa giving a total stay of about 6 months. The visa from Laos will only have 3 months validity so you have to be sure you do the 2nd entry by the enter before date on the visa.

It could be possible to do 18 months on 2 entry tourist visas from Laos. But things can change.

Besides Singapore there are some embassies in Europe that have put that baseless restriction on getting tourist visas. There is no legal basis for that restriction other than the embassies setting their own rules.

  • Author

That's great, thank you so much for your help!

There have been no restrictions put on tourist visas or their entries. Only visa exempt entries have been restricted.

What are those restrictions exactly? Would it affect my plan described here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/767376-a-few-questions-regarding-visa-exemption-extension-and-tourist-visa/

Would you recommend me to do it different? Not go to Singapore and try to re-enter with another visa exempt.. and instead go to Laos and get a proper tourist visa? Thanks

There have been no restrictions put on tourist visas or their entries. Only visa exempt entries have been restricted.

What are those restrictions exactly? Would it affect my plan described here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/767376-a-few-questions-regarding-visa-exemption-extension-and-tourist-visa/

Would you recommend me to do it different? Not go to Singapore and try to re-enter with another visa exempt.. and instead go to Laos and get a proper tourist visa? Thanks

No problem for your plans. Your trip will not fit the profile of a in/out visa runner you would be considered to be a tourist.

Unless you stay for the entire 30 day entry and leave just to get another entry and immediately return is their a problem.

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