New Thai visas' fee list for Penang, possibly Malaysia

[Siriam]

Hi guys,

a friend of mine just sent me this list of new and more costly fee for visas at the penang's consulate, my guess is that is gonna be for all the Thai consulates in Malaysia... possibly the Thai Government has increased the fees for all their consulates WW, anybody knows anything about it?

[Ginkas]

Yes, it is known about and was posted on this site a while ago.

No, the Thai government has not increased their fees. They are still, as set, in Thai Baht.

The exchange rate between Thai Baht and other currencies has changed, so the fees charged (in foreign currencies) have been brought into line with this by some consulates.

[Siriam]

Yes, it is known about and was posted on this site a while ago.

No, the Thai government has not increased their fees. They are still, as set, in Thai Baht.

The exchange rate between Thai Baht and other currencies has changed, so the fees charged (in foreign currencies) have been brought into line with this by some consulates.

Thanks for your kind response.

Maybe so, but if I'm not wrong the price for a Non Immigrant single entry in Baht is 2000, 300 ringgit are 2745 baht !

[Sophon]

Yes, it is known about and was posted on this site a while ago.

No, the Thai government has not increased their fees. They are still, as set, in Thai Baht.

The exchange rate between Thai Baht and other currencies has changed, so the fees charged (in foreign currencies) have been brought into line with this by some consulates.

Thanks for your kind response.

Maybe so, but if I'm not wrong the price for a Non Immigrant single entry in Baht is 2000, 300 ringgit are 2745 baht !

The embassies don't want to change their fees every few months following exchange rate fluctuations, so they set an exchange rate that guarantees that they for the foreseeable future will get at least as many Baht as the official fee dictates. They also round (up) to an amount in local currency that is a nice round or semi round amount. Nothing new in that, the fee charged in local currency has always been more than the official Baht figure.

Sophon

[Siriam]

Yes, it is known about and was posted on this site a while ago.

No, the Thai government has not increased their fees. They are still, as set, in Thai Baht.

The exchange rate between Thai Baht and other currencies has changed, so the fees charged (in foreign currencies) have been brought into line with this by some consulates.

Thanks for your kind response.

Maybe so, but if I'm not wrong the price for a Non Immigrant single entry in Baht is 2000, 300 ringgit are 2745 baht !

actually even more since in thailand to buy 1 ringgit we have to pay 9.55 (not 9.15 according with xe.com), therefore 300 ringgit are almost 3000 baht... actually 220 ringgit were already too much!!! Not to mention the multiple entry from 550 to 750 ... what a rip off !!!

[Siriam]

Yes, it is known about and was posted on this site a while ago.

No, the Thai government has not increased their fees. They are still, as set, in Thai Baht.

The exchange rate between Thai Baht and other currencies has changed, so the fees charged (in foreign currencies) have been brought into line with this by some consulates.

Thanks for your kind response.

Maybe so, but if I'm not wrong the price for a Non Immigrant single entry in Baht is 2000, 300 ringgit are 2745 baht !

The embassies don't want to change their fees every few months following exchange rate fluctuations, so they set an exchange rate that guarantees that they for the foreseeable future will get at least as many Baht as the official fee dictates. They also round (up) to an amount in local currency that is a nice round or semi round amount. Nothing new in that, the fee charged in local currency has always been more than the official Baht figure.

Sophon

semi round amount a rise of 40 to 50% ???

[Sophon]

Yes, it is known about and was posted on this site a while ago.

No, the Thai government has not increased their fees. They are still, as set, in Thai Baht.

The exchange rate between Thai Baht and other currencies has changed, so the fees charged (in foreign currencies) have been brought into line with this by some consulates.

Thanks for your kind response.

Maybe so, but if I'm not wrong the price for a Non Immigrant single entry in Baht is 2000, 300 ringgit are 2745 baht !

The embassies don't want to change their fees every few months following exchange rate fluctuations, so they set an exchange rate that guarantees that they for the foreseeable future will get at least as many Baht as the official fee dictates. They also round (up) to an amount in local currency that is a nice round or semi round amount. Nothing new in that, the fee charged in local currency has always been more than the official Baht figure.

Sophon

semi round amount a rise of 40 to 50% ???

Read what I wrote again before you comment. The rise is to make sure that the currency fluctuations won't bring the revenue in Baht below the official fees over the next year or two so that they won't have to raise the fee again in short order. Since nobody really knows where the Baht/Ringgit rate will be next year, they set a rate that is very safe (and profitable) for the embassy. The rounding up to a nice figure just adds a little bit to that.

If the old fee for a multiple was 550 Ringgit, then at the current rate of 9.15 Baht to the Ringgit that was very close the the official fee of 5,000 Baht. However, in March/Aril of this year the exchange rate was as low as 8.77 making the 550 Ringgit the equivalent 4,820 Baht meaning that the consulate was "losing" money compared to the official fee structure. The big rise in the fees this time is probably to make absolutely sure that will not happen again and recoup some of what they lost. And it's irrelevant to the consulate what rate you are paying to buy Ringgit in Thailand. The consulate is primarily set up to issue visas for Malaysians, and they don't have to buy their Ringgit with Baht.

I am not defending the way that the consulates handle this, just saying that there is nothing new about it.

Sophon

[Siriam]

Ok thanks, I didn't know that in March/April of this year the exchange rate was as low as 8.77... why they don't accept Thai Baht like they do in Laos for example? Aren't their salaries paid by the Thai Government anyway?

[tijnebijn]

What the three years multiple is about ? Surprises me nobody is talking about this interesting , perhaps not new but to me at least , new long term visa opportunity , and money spinner , for the consulate if they are willing to give it out not to hard . Anyway is someone into this ...

[Siriam]

What the three years multiple is about ? Surprises me nobody is talking about this interesting , perhaps not new but to me at least , new long term visa opportunity , and money spinner , for the consulate if they are willing to give it out not to hard . Anyway is someone into this ...

I believe is strictly for biz purposes... and tough to get... let's see what the experts has to say about it... I'm interested too

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[ubonjoe]

Ok thanks, I didn't know that in March/April of this year the exchange rate was as low as 8.77... why they don't accept Thai Baht like they do in Laos for example? Aren't their salaries paid by the Thai Government anyway?

I think Laos is the only place you can pay for your visa in baht. I think that goes back to the problem of converting Kip;

You will find the most embassies have set inflated fees for visas.

An example is locations that only accept USD. The fees are $40 per entry for a tourist visa, single entry non immigrant $80 and a multiple $200.

[Siriam]

Yes, I noticed that, in my home country a non immigrant is 60 euro, not far from the 2000 baht it should cost... It seems to me that in penang, even considering the fluctuations, they are a bit exaggerated... In all these years more or less than change between the 2 currencies ha been 1 = 10... sometimes one lose sometimes one win...

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[phuketrichard]

was just in Penang last week

9,000 baht was 999 MYR :-)