Old passport tourist Visa and new Passport – Now needs transferring

[spambot]

If you have a new passport with a tourist visa you now need to transfer this from the old passport to the new passport at Thai immigration.

I went to Lao last week to get one of the last double entry tourist visa. I had three double entry tourist visas in my old passport, but now I had a new UK passport obtained in BKK I figured I could get the fourth back to back.<-Click link

I could see when looking on this forum that every previous posting doing the border crossing simply provided both passports and a visual inspection of the two passports together was seen as enough to allow clean passage out of Thailand. The exception to this has always been if a B Visa was in the old passport (reporting every 3 months) and then this would be required to be transferred through a visit to immigration prior to doing a border exit.

In my specific situation however after getting the 6am bus from Udon I arrived at the border at 7am (one person in the queue in front of me only). When I showed the two passports the response was “go to immigration” There was confusingly no further explanation or context and when I then asked for clarification (since I had no idea why I needed to go there) the response was the exactly the same then after a third try asking what I thought was a reasonable question the officer started waving his hands and raising his voice and I thought it better to to move away from the booth and simply ask elsewhere what the problem was.

Obviously this not very helpful, but in the LOS and being given absolute power sometimes does result in this particular way of dealing with customers. I tried a few more people that were working in the offices and no one was particularly helpful. However after ten or so minutes I found someone that looked at my passport and told me a little more when he said I need to go to immigration that was 1 km away since there was a change of rule and I need to get the visa in my old passport changed over to my new passport.

While the initial officer had made the process more than a little uncomfortable with his desire keep information to himself and act like he was telling the dog to go outside, however the Thai gents in the car park were so muuuuuuch more welcoming and they were really well just happy to help a struggling foreigner. And so reasonable when offering to take me to the immigration offices for just one hundred THB - However in the end we settled on 40 THB (and I hailed a tuc tuc on the way back for 30 THB - no bartering)

The immigration offices in NongKhai are quite close and the distance is entirely walk-able, but since I had no idea where they were I knew I had to take the tuc tuc route. The offices officially open at 8:30am I arrived there at 7:15am and I was surprised to see that an officer was servicing another person in the same situation as myself with a new passport, having a tourist visa in the old passport. I am guessing since this is a new rule through the recent security tightening there was someone in early to attend to something that they knew would happen since no one arriving with new passport to the border would actually know they had changed the rule.

The process takes around 25 mins and 8 signatures on different documents, 15 pages of assorted documents and photocopies of your new and old pages. Finally a payment of 20 THb for the photocopies and then you are away.

Obviously the reason for this post is not to shine a light on the process of how NongKhai immigration get up early and process the new rule, but rather a warning that anyone with a new passport with a tourist visa in your old passport – You need to visit immigration prior to getting to the border (if you want an easier crossing).

Edited November 20, 2015 by spambot

[ubonjoe]

Moved you post to here. Why did you do it on the general forum?

That only happens at the Nong Khai crossing since the office is near to it. For some reason immigration at the crossing does not want to deal with doing it.

At the airport or other crossings they will just move your last entry stamp to the new passport and stamp you out in it.

[spambot]

Thanks for the heads up UbonJoe - I tried the visa forum, but It timed out on me with an error several times - switched off PC tried again and got the same problem - So I tried the general forum more as a test and it posted 1st time. Mnnn?