Exiting Thailand at Nong Khai-Vientiane border and re-entering without entering Laos

[bluesofa]

20 years ago I had a friend in immigration. He helped me and gave me the exit and enry stamp in Nongkai without leaving Thailand. They put the stamps on different pages in the passport. I never ever had a problem with those stamps.

Was this done via Alan Paterson (deceased many years) of the Meeting Place?

Nearly twenty years ago I remember he used to "facilitate" people to do things like that. He would clear long overstays (almost) legitimately, by getting the over-stayer to "volunteer" themselves to immigration, who would send them to court, pay off the judge, and clear the overstay that way.

I know it sounds rather bizarre, but he made money doing just that. On his office door he had a sign "Department Of Devious Affairs"

I remember there were an American father & son who'd been living in the middle of nowhere for years, lost track of time and both cleared a twenty year overstay that way.

There was an alcoholic Brit, working illegally as a horse trainer, who had a twelve year overstay cleared the same way.

He also "supplied" Non O visas, sending the passport by EMS and using two different consulates, who would issue the visa. Then he'd send them over the bridge on a border run to activate the new visa.

Memories, memories.

[bluesofa]

I thought that when people got a "one day pass" into Burma they didn't have their passports stamped with an entry-exit and thus it didn't show up in their passports as actually being in Burma. Would that meet the Thai requirements for activating another entry for a tourist visa?

It's been a few years, but that's what I did that last time I went shopping across the border from Mae Sai. Still had to pay 500 baht for the Burma "day pass", but at least it didn't "eat" my Thai re-entry permit and no evidence in my passport that I'd been in Burma. And frankly, since I had a choice of leaving my passport at the bridge with either the Thai authorities or the Burmese, I felt more confident with the Thai. My first words to them after a grueling two hours in Burma were "dee jai glap maa prathet Thai, ka"

(I have a retirement extension and no need to do any visa runs and every incentive to keep my "permission to stay" alive)

I also did the same, twelve or thirteen years back. I was with a Brit friend, I drove to Mae Sai and found there was the chance to cross into Burma for the day. Unfortunately, we both left our passports in the hotel safe in Chiang Rai.

We noticed that on the Thai side, they kept the passport and issued a receipt to be shown on the Burmese side of the border. After some discussion with Thai immigration we were asked if we had any other ID instead of a passport. In the end, we both went over to Burma using just my Thai driving licence for both of us.

It was less complicated years ago!