Non-imm O visa in Vientiane… my experience

[passedout]

Hi guys, I got lots of very useful information from this forum before my trip to Vientiane I've done on the 19^th of August so I’d like to share my experience it might help others.

I decided to catch the international bus from Udon to avoid hassle and possible delays with mini vans waiting to get the right amount of people on at the Lao border so I got myself a Lao visa the day before. I went to the Lao embassy which is still right across the entrance of Raja City Lakeside and Garden Home in Mittraphap road in Khon Kaen. Very easy to find and I was in and out in less than 20 minutes with a 30 day tourist visa in my passport.

The international bus wasn’t one of the best buses I’ve been on in Thailand I have to say but it went through both borders reasonably quickly considering there were around 30 of us sitting on the bus. 20 or 30 minutes max I guess and it dropped me off Tuesday evening in Vientiane at about 10 minutes drive from the Thai embassy.

I got to the Thai embassy the next day just after 9am and I was surprised to see that all the action was taking place in the embassy yard rather than inside the embassy building itself. All was undercover though so no queuing under the sun or anything like that. There must have been 150 to 200 chairs for people to sit on, half a dozen tables to fill in forms, a shack with 4 office type windows to pass documents in and out of and a desk on the left hand side where a woman was giving out numbers to people as they arrived. Luckily there were only 4 people in the queue. I got the number from the desk and the lady told me that the application form I filled in had the wrong format. She pointed out where to get the right form on the nearby table along with a glue stick to attach the two photos and a pair of scissors to cut them down to the right size. Very civilized I thought.

The right form is in the Ubonjoe post linked below.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/847630-apply-for-retirement-visa-within-thailand/#entry9729807

I downloaded a few forms from different web sites in the last few days prior to going over and I must have got them mixed up and I ended up printing out and using the wrong one.

By the time I finished filling in the right application form there were about 30+ people on the queue so I was kind of lucky I got there between waves of people. I was number 82.

I got to window No 1 and handed over the following documents:

1. Passport

2. Copy of passport main page

3. Copy of Lao visa I got in Khon Kaen

4. Copy of Lao entry stamp

5. Bankbook.

6. Copy of all the bankbook pages showing transactions no blank ones.

He looked at the paperwork and politely asked me for the lease showing the address of where I live which I had with me but kept in my bag. He wanted a photocopy of it so he sent me to the top of the stairs as you enter the embassy building there is a photocopy machine there with a guy doing copies and charging 5 baht per sheet. So no need to go outside the embassy for photocopies.

Handed that copy over to him and I was out of the embassy in less than 45 minutes. They never asked me for the letter from the bank to confirm my bank balance, which I had with me anyway but kept in my bag.

The next day they started calling numbers from window No 2 a few minutes before 1:30 and by 1:50 I had my passport back with the Thai visa on it. Judging by the number of people left sitting and waiting to be called there must have been a total of 120 to 130 people that afternoon waiting to receive their visas. On the way out of the embassy I got approached by a minivan driver offering me a lift to the border for 200 baht. By then, after talking to other guys booked into minivans, I knew the rate was 100 baht so in the end he went with that. The night before a tuk tuk driver asked me 500 baht to take me to the border, which I thought was a bit over the top! Around 2pm there were a few mini vans parked just outside the embassy so it should never be too difficult to get a lift to the border for 100 baht or so. It took just over half an hour to get there. Then, after the Lao border there is a small bus running across the 2 to 3 kilometer long bridge and you need to buy a ticket on the nearby booth for 4,000 Kip before you go on it. That’s 16 to 20 baht. When I got to the Thai border they failed to spot my new visa and after checking my passport several times over they sent me to a private booth where an officer told me I already had 6 visa exempt entry stamps this year in the passport and he wasn’t happy to let me in. Once I showed him the page with the new non-immigrant visa then he apologized and stamped me in.

I guess all workers on a 28/28 or shorter rotation like I am on are going to have a problem at some point and will have to sort out some kind of visa. A triple entry tourist visa from own country or nearby country once a year and 3 or 4 visa exempt stamps will suffice to get by every year without the need of an non immigrant visa or else. But that’s a personal choice.

So all in all it has been an easy run and certainly better than expected and also I have to say I really enjoyed Vientiane and I’m looking forward to going back for a long weekend type thing. Plenty of restaurants over the Mekong river, a few nice coffee shops like Amazon charging just short of 40 baht for a nice cup of coffee, a few nice bars and cheap enough Beerlao 15,000 kip about 60 baht for a big bottle of 500 or 600 ml. The food maybe not so cheap though but not too expensive either.

I found the people in the Thai embassy pretty relaxed and polite enough. The lady at the desk giving numbers surprisingly even smiled at me while handing me the right application form to fill in. Like others already said in other threads Wednesdays seem to be good days to go I went through the whole process spending less than 1 and half hour in the embassy counting both days.

[MJCM]

Thanks for the report, but a couple of questions

1- On which basis did you get the Non-O ?

2- How much money did you need to show in the account ?

3- Did you get a Multiple or a Single Entry Non-O

[passedout]

Hi MJCM,

1. I got the non-o on retirement basis

2. The usual 800K in a Thai account

3. They only do single entry unless you are a Lao citizen

Hope that helps

Yeah... I guess I should have mentioned that in my first post since a different kind of non-o would have required a different kind of documentation

Edited August 23, 2015 by passedout

[jacksam]

Thanks for report. I did it two weeks ago. Think you wasted a lot of effort. The minivan from central plaza UT is breeze to bridge. 50baht. Also why go to embassy in KK. the visa process at nongkai is a breeze. They even have a money exchange with good rate.

I also got asked for house book and bank letter from the clerk. As ubon pointed out....these guys are not IO.

those two items are NOT required.

I took private taxi from Thai consulate to border. 300baht.

Came via tuk tuk . not again

[passedout]

Thanks for report. I did it two weeks ago. Think you wasted a lot of effort. The minivan from central plaza UT is breeze to bridge. 50baht. Also why go to embassy in KK. the visa process at nongkai is a breeze. They even have a money exchange with good rate.

I also got asked for house book and bank letter from the clerk. As ubon pointed out....these guys are not IO.

those two items are NOT required.

I took private taxi from Thai consulate to border. 300baht.

Came via tuk tuk . not again

Thanks for you comment. That was my first time in Lao and getting there in the evening I didn’t want to hang around at the border possibly having to wait on minivans to make up the number or ending up traveling by tuk tuk over that distance on those pot holed roads. I can see you’ve done that and regretted it. That’s why I opted to travel by international bus (85 baht), which requires you to have the Lao visa before hand. No visa no bus ticket.

Yeah I guess those two documents are not a requirement but since a list of requirements is not written down anywhere that I could find so I assume they could make up what they like and they could give you hard time if you don’t have what they ask for. It didn’t cost me much to generate those documents so I thought better not taking the chance and keep things smooth.

[jacksam]

Yes passed out. You played it right. I only posted because I had anxious night worrying if my app without bank letter and house book would be accepted. I posted question ...what I need for non imm o based on retirement on TV. I got the expert advice from the fan mods here only to have grief with clerk. Why are they so unfriendly folk. Some consulates need a boss to come in clean it up. Teach some basic manners and then happy days for everyone.

[passedout]

Yes passed out. You played it right. I only posted because I had anxious night worrying if my app without bank letter and house book would be accepted. I posted question ...what I need for non imm o based on retirement on TV. I got the expert advice from the fan mods here only to have grief with clerk. Why are they so unfriendly folk. Some consulates need a boss to come in clean it up. Teach some basic manners and then happy days for everyone.

Listening to your experience and the experience of others I've read in other threads it sounds like some of those guys in the embassy are on a power trip even though I haven’t personally experience any of it. If that’s the case I would say that normally the authoritarian behavior and arrogance comes from the top so I doubt it that anyone will ever come down from above to teach them some good etiquette on behavior but you never know. Finger crossed.