VIP visa run - a great round trip.

[WhamBam]

I used VIP visa company at the Queen Vic on Soi 6 off Beach road this last week.

A very pleasant experience.

Good driver who was not weaving about in traffic nor tailgaiting, yet drove quite quickly. No harsh braking / accelerating.

A light breakfast and a meal at the end of the trip included in the price.

A short break on each leg of the trip and only 30 minutes wait at the border.

Everything done including paperwork.

All in all a hassle free experience.

[anto]

What border and price ?Was it a mini bus ?

[WhamBam]

What border and price ?Was it a mini bus ?

Pong Nam ron Better known as Hat Lek

6 seater mini bus

2,800 including food and visa for Cambodia.

http://www.1stclassvisaruns.com/

for phone number and more details. Speaks very good English.

Edited December 30, 2015 by WhamBam

[TaaSaparot]

I prefer the ones that just get you there and straight back, which costs me 2200 baht.

So you are paying 600 baht for food ?

[onemorechang]

When you got back.

what choice of food was there ?

i did this a few years back and it was a crap choice

[NightRider70]

What border and price ?Was it a mini bus ?

Pong Nam ron Better known as Hat Lek

6 seater mini bus

2,800 including food and visa for Cambodia.

http://www.1stclassvisaruns.com/

for phone number and more details. Speaks very good English.

Pong Nam Ron and Hat Lek are two different places. Pong Nam Ron is the town close to Ban Pakhad border crossing. Hat Lek is the southern most border crossing down by the coast.

[thaitero]

I prefer the ones that just get you there and straight back, which costs me 2200 baht.

So you are paying 600 baht for food ?

Not recent experience but i have used them not because of food but beacause of individual comfy seats for everyone,,

Well back then the price was 2500 though,,

[KittenKong]

I prefer the ones that just get you there and straight back, which costs me 2200 baht.

So you are paying 600 baht for food ?

I believe that one of the main providers (Cambodia Inter - Soi Buakow) still charges under 2000B. But that's in a bus with more bench seats, not the fewer individual seats you get in the places that charge 2500+.

I wonder what impact the recent visa changes will have had on the visa-run business?

[Ireland32]

I prefer the ones that just get you there and straight back, which costs me 2200 baht.

So you are paying 600 baht for food ?

vans are more spacious and food

[steve187]

what border name entry stamp is in your passport

[Briggsy]

What border and price ?Was it a mini bus ?

Pong Nam ron Better known as Hat Lek

6 seater mini bus

2,800 including food and visa for Cambodia.

http://www.1stclassvisaruns.com/

for phone number and more details. Speaks very good English.

Pong Nam Ron (where you almost certainly went) and Hat Lek (a border crossing where you will be unpleasantly treated on the Cambo side) are in different provinces.

[TaaSaparot]

I prefer the ones that just get you there and straight back, which costs me 2200 baht.

So you are paying 600 baht for food ?

vans are more spacious and food

The 2200 baht one I use, uses a normal minibus but with a guarantee of no more than 6 people.

So its not space you are paying more for.

[champken]

Not so very long ago i used to pay 1700 direct to the drivers, they now want 2200 which is inclusive and includes a Thai meal on the way back.

When it was 1700 I would rather go on a run than deal with the hassle at immigration and pay 1900

I suspect that their bosses decided that due to the decreased numbers using their service and consequently less income that they would quickly raise the cost. If anybody pays less than 2200 then I'm all ears?

[Briggsy]

Not so very long ago i used to pay 1700 direct to the drivers, they now want 2200 which is inclusive and includes a Thai meal on the way back.

When it was 1700 I would rather go on a run than deal with the hassle at immigration and pay 1900

I suspect that their bosses decided that due to the decreased numbers using their service and consequently less income that they would quickly raise the cost. If anybody pays less than 2200 then I'm all ears?

I think you will find the increase from 1900 to 2200 Baht coincided with the raising of the cost of the Cambodian visa from $20 to $30. A $10 dollar increase resulted in a 300 Baht increase in the visa run cost.

[WhamBam]

what border name entry stamp is in your passport

Pong Nam ron

[WhamBam]

What border and price ?Was it a mini bus ?

Pong Nam ron Better known as Hat Lek

6 seater mini bus

2,800 including food and visa for Cambodia.

http://www.1stclassvisaruns.com/

for phone number and more details. Speaks very good English.

Pong Nam Ron (where you almost certainly went) and Hat Lek (a border crossing where you will be unpleasantly treated on the Cambo side) are in different provinces.

My mistake.

The stamp is indeed Pong Nam ron

[WhamBam]

I prefer the ones that just get you there and straight back, which costs me 2200 baht.

So you are paying 600 baht for food ?

Considering the price of a visa now to enter Cambodia, E-visa price according to the official cambodian website .....

Entry Type Single entry only Fees

USD30 + USD7 (processing charge)

That is over 1300 Baht.

It makes the cost of the trip including food 1500 Baht.

At the old price of an E-visa, I would have thought twice about paying 2800 Baht for the trip.

With no paperwork, a hassle free trip and a good driver in a spacious 6 seater mini bus, I would use them again.

If I had a car these days, that would be different, but I do not.

I am happy with the service I got.

[WhamBam]

When you got back.

what choice of food was there ?

i did this a few years back and it was a crap choice

I cannot remember the full menu, but it was Farang style menu.

I chose bacon omlette and a mug of tea before departure.

Back in Pattaya I had burger and chips.

Nothing fancy, but it suited me at the time.

[PICCOLABESTIA]

I used the company at the Queen Vic for my 1st border run and paid 2800thb. i used that company becouse of the good review.

can someone tell me a cheaper company that use a 6 seat bus and doesn't include any food? becouse I just don't care about paying for food that i am not going to eat

[MTH]

I used the company at the Queen Vic for my 1st border run and paid 2800thb. i used that company becouse of the good review.

can someone tell me a cheaper company that use a 6 seat bus and doesn't include any food? becouse I just don't care about paying for food that i am not going to eat

Haven’t done visa runs in a couple of years, however when I did there were only two companies that had 6 seater vans.

1st Class Visa Runs (Queen Vic) and Five Star Visa Runs (The Sportsman), pricing and service comparable and both have loyalty cards to decrease the price for the frequent traveler.

[Briggsy]

I prefer the ones that just get you there and straight back, which costs me 2200 baht.

So you are paying 600 baht for food ?

Considering the price of a visa now to enter Cambodia, E-visa price according to the official cambodian website .....

Entry Type Single entry only Fees

USD30 + USD7 (processing charge)

That is over 1300 Baht.

It makes the cost of the trip including food 1500 Baht.

At the old price of an E-visa, I would have thought twice about paying 2800 Baht for the trip.

With no paperwork, a hassle free trip and a good driver in a spacious 6 seater mini bus, I would use them again.

If I had a car these days, that would be different, but I do not.

I am happy with the service I got.

Your thinking sounds reasonable. Their prices are certainly not exhorbitant.

I did a run by myself on a 500 cc bike. The cost was about the same as the budget runs. But as you correctly pointed out, I had the hassle at the border and a spot of rain on the bike. It always rains in Jantaburi.

There are as well a number of farangs who are large, as in girth. The larger seats would appeal to them, as would the food, I imagine.

[properperson]

I prefer the ones that just get you there and straight back, which costs me 2200 baht.

So you are paying 600 baht for food ?

Considering the price of a visa now to enter Cambodia, E-visa price according to the official cambodian website .....

Entry Type Single entry only Fees

USD30 + USD7 (processing charge)

That is over 1300 Baht.

It makes the cost of the trip including food 1500 Baht.

At the old price of an E-visa, I would have thought twice about paying 2800 Baht for the trip.

With no paperwork, a hassle free trip and a good driver in a spacious 6 seater mini bus, I would use them again.

If I had a car these days, that would be different, but I do not.

I am happy with the service I got.

I used to manage a large pub / restaurant just off beach road...

1st Class Visa runs always got a big thumbs up from the customers - i've reccommended them numerous times (and they are based in a rival pub !) and never heard a bad word said about them ...

[Michael8511]

What is the benefits with visa runs compare to go to immigration to extend a tourist visa? Also thought that border crossings only give 14 days stay?

[Briggsy]

What is the benefits with visa runs compare to go to immigration to extend a tourist visa? Also thought that border crossings only give 14 days stay?

Benefits

You can only extend a tourist visa or visa exemption once and then it is off to the border to activate your next entry.

Some people are not on tourist visas, they are on multi-entry non-imm O and B visas which give you 90 days and then it is off to the border to activate your next entry.

A tourist visa extension costs 1900 Baht, not that different from a visa run. Depending on when you are going home, a visa run can be cheaper.

Many people find visiting an immigration office an unpleasant experience they would rather avoid.

Border crossings

Crossing a border and returning shortly after may give you 15, 30, 60, 90 days or even a year or to the end of the current permission to stay depending on your nationality, what visa if any you hold and even, very occasionally, the mood of the immigration officer.

[WhamBam]

What is the benefits with visa runs compare to go to immigration to extend a tourist visa? Also thought that border crossings only give 14 days stay?

In my case, I had a double Tourist Visa. 60 days on each visa.

I extended my 1st TV by 30 days at a cost of 1900 Baht at Jomtien immigration.

My 2nd Tourist Visa needed to be activated by 30th December 2015 (when my 30 day extention expired). This mean having to do a visa run to the border.

Now I have 60 days from that date before needing to go back to immigration to extend again for another 30 days at a cost of 1900 Baht.

All the above regarding Double or Triple Tourist visas is now pretty much irrelevant because you get an MTV visa (see visa section).

The rest, as Briggsy says.

[Michael8511]

Are a bit confused I read somewhere that land crossings only give 14 days, have 3 questions.

1. If I have the 6 month multi entry visa where I can get 60 day stay per time can I then use visa run and extend 2 more 60 day periods?

2.If I take the one year multi entry (based on 50 year) can I then do visa runs every 90 day instead of going to immigration. If I can do I still need all paperwork that I need if I extend on immigration?

3. The 90 day report online is that working or just in the thoughts?

[Briggsy]

Michael 8511

You have a number of misunderstandings and have confused the various ways of staying here.

Your Prologue statement

As an American, a land border entry with no visa will give you 30 days' permission to stay not 14 days.

Your Question 1

If holding the multi-entry tourist visa, you can receive the 60 days' permission to stay at any international border crossing including airports and land borders. You have confused the multi-entry with the triple-entry tourist visa.

Your Question 2

Yes, multi-entry non-imm OA can do a visa run every 90 days if you wish to avoid address reporting or unless you wish to apply for an extension based on retirement and fulfil the criteria. At the border, you will not need to show the 800,000 bank balance.

Your Question 3

90-day report online is working but unless you are registered already will not work.

Here is the thread