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Posted

Anyone entered Sadao recently, do they ask for proof of 20k baht , i am planing to go for my new Tourist visa in Penang and i am "short" on that money atm. .

I live in Hat Yai and also considered maybe going back by train from Butterworth via Padang Besar border,

Also did anyone go to Kota Bharu recently? Do they ask for 20k at Sungai Kolok as well?

i am a bit terrified by that guys report from January when officials asked 20k from everyone on the checkpoint, i live with my girlfriend, she studies in Hat yai, and shes not Thai, i will bring 2 recommendation letters from her professors at university that says i stay at Thailand with her to help on her field trips etc.. do you think that could help me in case of some problems?

thanks

Posted

Sadao is not a recommended crossing to use. Some people have reported that they have been told to put 500 baht in their passport on entry there to avoid having problems.

Doing your entry at Pedang Besar is much better.

I have seen no recent recent reports for Kota Bahru nor Sungai Kolok.

  • Like 1
Posted

If you go for a tourist visa, you better not carry any papers showing you live with a girlfriend or recommendation letters from her professors. Those letter alone are a reason not allowing you into the country on a tourist visa because you are obvious not a tourist.

Who carries 20,000 baht cash these days anyway in the age of bank atm cards and credit cards. Just show them your bank cards as proof of money.

I

  • Like 1
Posted

Just submitted at Kota Bharu today, i was the only one there at the imigration ,

In my passport i have only one double entry visa so far, and the lady at the counter asked me few questions like:

When i will go to my country, What em i doing at Thailand, and she stated that since i already have one double entry visa in my homeland i will most likely not get another visa after this. So i am not sure if that apply only here in Kota Bharu, or everywhere. Just hope i will not get red stamped after my first visa lol.

About the recommendation letters, well i asked them before is there any other visa than tourist one that i can apply for, since i am not working, and we are not married yet, but most of them just dont care, other told me that i can try different places for more tourist visas.

I will post more details after/if i get back to Hat Yai lol

To be honest i am a bit skeptic since when i was leaving Thailand there was this officer at the border who literally yelled at me to give him passport.

I showed up at the border and he was doing something else, checking some other passports and didn't payed any attention to me, so i just stand in front of him letting him finish his work first, cause usually they say "hello sir" or some other greeting and ask for passport, but this guy didn't say neither. Then after like 1 min he said something like 1 word, (possibly passport) but i couldn't hear him i thought he asked me where do you go, since it sounded like that. I replied to Kota Bharu, then he started yelling GIVE ME PASSPORT, like a strict order thing, and started cursing or something on me. I gave him passport and told him i coldnt hear him but he was looking so pissed off.

So back to the point i am starting to get terrified if all of them are like that ass*** or he just had bad day or something, but still that is not the way how you treat people on border. So lame, ruined my day.

Posted

One more thing, in case they ask for 20k which i don't have now, what are my options? Can my gf bring them to the border and give them to me or something.? Can i pay them fee? If not can i go to other crossing and will they question my Malaysian exit stamp being cancelled then?

Posted

I use to pass through sadao border about 20x a month they have their own policy there just slot in 500 baht in your passport if you are farang ..... Neighbouring countries its 100baht u will actually notice every single person puts money in their passport at the counter.......cheers and good luck bro

Posted

One more thing, in case they ask for 20k which i don't have now, what are my options? Can my gf bring them to the border and give them to me or something.? Can i pay them fee? If not can i go to other crossing and will they question my Malaysian exit stamp being cancelled then?

At Sadao / dannok what they may want is to get few hundreds Bt from you. Letters will not help as well ATM card. The funds must be show in cash.

Posted

If you go for a tourist visa, you better not carry any papers showing you live with a girlfriend or recommendation letters from her professors. Those letter alone are a reason not allowing you into the country on a tourist visa because you are obvious not a tourist.

Who carries 20,000 baht cash these days anyway in the age of bank atm cards and credit cards. Just show them your bank cards as proof of money.

I

You are wrong on both statements you wrote. First, whatever may seem logic to you does not mean it's logic to Thai immigration - anyway having a That GF of even a wife doesn't mean one can't be a tourist.

Second, proof of funds must be demonstrated with cash - not ATM cards. Of course you can use the cards to withdraw the money to show - an be charged accordingly, taking the risk that the cash is not dispensed.

Posted

I know the ladies at KB seem officious especially when they wear the Muslim headscarf but they are actually nice.

She was asking those questions because she wants to be clear herself that you are getting the right visa. They will give you honest face to face advice, because really what she is telling you is the truth.

You aren't a tourist, you are staying here with your gf who is studying. I'm not saying you are wrong or giving advice, I'm just telling you as it is, a tourist in her eyes visits the beach and rides an elephant, then returns home.

The way i ended up at KB was because I had used my 3x tourist visas in Penang and went to KB, she asked me the same questions as you, she then asked about my wife who was standing behind. She then explained that I wasn't a tourist and should be on a non-o and that I could apply for a 3 month next visit without showing funds.

She really helped me out.

When you pick up tomorrow I would ask her what are your future options, I would have thought she would issue two visas, i have heard her dealing with people before, when she issues the second she will give them fair warning that it's their last from that consulate, no need for red stamps, she knows, the rules are the same for everyone.

The guys at golok have been the best immigration officials I have come across .. Maybe the whole thing is making you paranoid, if you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.

Posted

DejanD

Did you cross back at Tak Bai? It would be the logical crossing from Kota Bahru. I crossed there once and the Thai immigration officer was rude, precisely in the manner you described. I suspect it might be a very unpopular posting for Thai immigration officers.

Posted

I know the ladies at KB seem officious especially when they wear the Muslim headscarf but they are actually nice.

She was asking those questions because she wants to be clear herself that you are getting the right visa. They will give you honest face to face advice, because really what she is telling you is the truth.

You aren't a tourist, you are staying here with your gf who is studying. I'm not saying you are wrong or giving advice, I'm just telling you as it is, a tourist in her eyes visits the beach and rides an elephant, then returns home.

The way i ended up at KB was because I had used my 3x tourist visas in Penang and went to KB, she asked me the same questions as you, she then asked about my wife who was standing behind. She then explained that I wasn't a tourist and should be on a non-o and that I could apply for a 3 month next visit without showing funds.

She really helped me out.

When you pick up tomorrow I would ask her what are your future options, I would have thought she would issue two visas, i have heard her dealing with people before, when she issues the second she will give them fair warning that it's their last from that consulate, no need for red stamps, she knows, the rules are the same for everyone.

The guys at golok have been the best immigration officials I have come across .. Maybe the whole thing is making you paranoid, if you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.

I agree completely, officials in KB are actually most helpful from all places i've been to. They usually talk a lot with you and provide a lot of information, the downside is they are very strict on rules(i guess that is the way of how they do it). Few years back same lady helped me since i didn't have all papers with me, then she told me she will accept my application even after office working hours, and she did. Also if i remember corectly but it was long time ago she mentioned something like if you have ticket for home you could actually apply for double entry. But i am not sure if it was here or Penang.

I asked her already today what could i do in the future, but she said sadly tourist visa is the only thing i can do for now.

Most likely i will start working at one restaurant as a cook/baker but that will be in 6 months or so since the restaurant is at building process. Thats why one more tourist visa is so important to me, then i will switch to working visa.

If it wasnt the end of the month, i would have 20k to show them, but at the end of the month is usually when we don't have much money,also this month was my birthday too so we spend a lot and we moved to another house/so we did paintjob and bought some furniture.

The worst thing that happened is actually we have a lot of windows on that house, and that applies we have a lots of curtains, they were so dirty and we decided to wash them, usually washing our previous curtains was like 33-50b, so we calcualated its gonna be like 23 curtains x 30-50b so roughly 700-1000b at most.

When we showed up at laundry bill was 4.400b i couldn't believe, the guy actually did dry cleaning since that kind of curtains require special treatment and ironing etc.

Lesson learned--on hard way :) It is not scam or something, the guy is very good of what he does and it was our mistake. But the language barrier makes it hard sometimes.

So yea, we survived this month i hope tomorrow everything is gonna be kk.

Posted

DejanD

Did you cross back at Tak Bai? It would be the logical crossing from Kota Bahru. I crossed there once and the Thai immigration officer was rude, precisely in the manner you described. I suspect it might be a very unpopular posting for Thai immigration officers.

No it was Sungai Kolok. To be honest i found few unpleasant officers at all crossings, as well as good ones its just like rolling the dice you never know which one you will get.

One time i had problem where they stamped my passport wrong, so basically instead of 28th they did 29th, they didnt noticed that on the border, so i stayed 2 months as usual at Thailand then wanted to extend for 1 month in immigration. The officer noticed it and told me that my whole second entry was wrong, so basically it turned out that i was in Thailand 2 months illegally lol. So instead of correcting THEIR errors, instead he wrote overstay in my passport but also contact them on the border to not charge me anything, for that, I asked him will that overstay made me problems in the future aftter he replied no.

So they sent me on the border to get another visa, which was lame cause that month i was going home anyway and they made me just waste more money and that overstay made me problems in Penang - the officer didn't want to give me visa and not believed me that it wasn't my fault, he didnt even want to listen me. But when i showed him my ticket then somehow he gave me one more visa.

The guy on the border was very rude as well.

Posted

I went through this border about mid january with a visa run company. I have numerous thai bank accounts with cash in them so i spent a morning running around getting the passbooks up to date. I also printed out mini statements from atms as i had heard previously they are sufficient.

When we were returning our van driver started telling everyone to get 200 (not 500) baht ready. I asked why and he said you show money or pay 200. I stuck to my plan and when presenting the guy with my passport i also handed over 2 passbooks and the mini statements showing more than enough money. He looked over them, didn't ask any questions and stamped me in.

End of story.

Pretty unpleasant place though i agree. I didnt see any disrespectful immigration officers but i did see a visa run van driver attack a russian with a bottle for no reason whatsoever.

Posted

I went through this border about mid january with a visa run company. I have numerous thai bank accounts with cash in them so i spent a morning running around getting the passbooks up to date. I also printed out mini statements from atms as i had heard previously they are sufficient.

When we were returning our van driver started telling everyone to get 200 (not 500) baht ready. I asked why and he said you show money or pay 200. I stuck to my plan and when presenting the guy with my passport i also handed over 2 passbooks and the mini statements showing more than enough money. He looked over them, didn't ask any questions and stamped me in.

End of story.

Pretty unpleasant place though i agree. I didnt see any disrespectful immigration officers but i did see a visa run van driver attack a russian with a bottle for no reason whatsoever.

Just to clarify.

This was Sadao border, right ? You were on a visa run to Penang ?

Where was the company based ? Or where were you coming from ?

The border was quite busy, and the IO's sit in little booths ?

I thought all the border run companies that use Sungai Kolok usually walk over the border and catch a taxi directly to the consulate.

There was a report of Sk immigration spitting the dummy a year or so back, but never to extorting money, where Sadao has a great history ranging from a 20b OT fee to a rumored 500b that seems way too much. 200B and 100b for Asians, but even this can be avoided.

I never used to pay the 20b OT fee to the van driver, I told them to come collect it from me, no one ever did.

If you take the train they don't ask anything I recommend the train

Yes, this has always been true .. But this is Pedang Bezar, the train doesn't go throught SK, it stops a short walk to the border.

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