Visa for chinese citizen

[Hannu]

Hey. Will fly to thailand in a couple of weeks. We just missed the free visa period for chinese citizen (my wife is chinese) which stops last weekend. How long will a visa on arrival at BKK airport take? We have about 3.5 hours from our international flight toget a domestic flight including re-check in. Will that be enough or should we get her visa in advance from the embassy?

[ubonjoe]

That should be enough time.

Be sure your domestic flight is not leaving from DMK many flights go from there now.

[Hannu]

That should be enough time.

Be sure your domestic flight is not leaving from DMK many flights go from there now.

It's TG2293 to Krabi, should depart from BKK.

[ubonjoe]

Thai airways still fly out of BKK.

[Tomtomtom69]

One thing I would advise you to double check though is if she is travelling out of mainland China is if the airline will allow your wife to check-in without holding a Thai visa in advance (this only applies to Chinese citizens - you will be allowed to travel of course as China only cares about what happens to it's citizens if they are denied entry). It doesn't matter that Thailand is willing to issue a VOA for Chinese citizens - their rules override Thai rules meaning they can still demand to see a visa. If there's no visa and the intent is to get a VOA, boarding may be denied. I have heard that the rules may have relaxed a little since April of this year, but I'm not sure. I flew out of Kunming to Bangkok just last month, and all the Chinese travellers headed for either Bangkok or Chiang Mai (there was a China Eastern flight to CNX departing around the same time) had Thai visas in their passports already, despite the fact most of them were only going to Thailand for a few days and could have availed themselves of the VOA, at least in theory.

[Hannu]

We are traveling together from Europe to Thailand on Qatar Airways and she have a resident permit for Europe.

I guess the reason why all the chinese you saw had thai visa was because they are part of a tour group and the agency got the visa form them in advance? Agency will loose money if thai immigration refuse entry for one person.

[Tomtomtom69]

We are traveling together from Europe to Thailand on Qatar Airways and she have a resident permit for Europe.

I guess the reason why all the chinese you saw had thai visa was because they are part of a tour group and the agency got the visa form them in advance? Agency will loose money if thai immigration refuse entry for one person.

No, that's not it. I'm surprised you don't know about the difficulties faced by Chinese travellers travelling overseas without a visa for their destination given your wife is Chinese, if departing from mainland Chinese airports? They won't let them leave, without a visa for the country they are heading to! I have observed Thai visas in Chinese citizens passports every single time I depart China for Thailand (and I have travelled between China and Thailand, many many times mainly from Kunming), and most of them are travelling independently and not on a tour. Whether they are on a tour or not, the Chinese authorities do NOT want to take the risk that they get refused entry hence no visa=no travel.

Note that this applies ONLY if departing from a mainland Chinese airport. If departing from Hong Kong or Macau, there should be no issues and since you are heading to Thailand from Europe, a VOA should be OK. But a VOA for Chinese citizens is NOT available if flying in directly from mainland China.

[Hannu]

You mean if we travel from europe to bangkok with any chinese airlines they wouldn't let her board the plane in china? Hard to believe, also chinese airlines use TIMATIC to have a look into the visa rules of destination country.

Good friend of me work in a travel company in china. She traveled from china to bangkok with a visa on arrival. Why she could if others couldnt?