ED Visa Expiring - Any Problems Re-entering on a 30-Day Visa-On-Arrival..?

[PJ33]

Hi everyone

I have been in Thailand for 2 years studying Thai on an education visa (1 year before the rule changes and 2 x 6 months after). The final allowed visa expires next week and the lessons I already paid for finish in February.

After the lessons finish in early February I will get a work permit and start work for a Thai company once I have the work permit.

The documents are not yet ready for me to apply for a Non-B visa, so I planned to do a quick flight into Kuala Lumpur and back the same day, to activate a 30-day visa-on-arrival. This should allow enough time for the Non-B documents to be made ready so I can exit again to get the Non-B.

I can read and write Thai really well. I can speak quite well but I'm still not great at understanding when Thai people speak to me at normal speed to me. So, if the immigration officer tests my Thai I should be able to give a reasonably OK account of myself to show I did actually study. I barely missed a single lesson in the whole 2 years.

I was NOT working in Thailand whilst I have been studying - I have a Thai bank account showing money coming in from the UK every month and no other deposits which could be construed as income from employment.

I'm not yet old enough for the extension based on retirement - but getting close :-)

So the questions I have are:

1). Am I likely to run into any problems coming back through Thai immigration the same day I leave, after being here for 2 years already?

2). Do I need to bring 20,000 Bahts in with me?

3). Do I need to have another onward flight out of Thailand already booked?

4). Do I need to take bank statements?

5). Is there anything else I did not consider?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

[ubonjoe]

1. Since you do not have any recent visa exempt entries (not a visa on arrival) you will have no problems.

2.It would be a good idea to have the 20k baht handy in case your are asked for it.

3. The airline may want to see a onward ticket within 30 days to board your return flight.

4. No likely to be asked for.

5. No

If you need more than the 30 days you can get a 30 day extension at an immigration office for a fee of 1900 baht.

[PJ33]

Hey ubonjoe

Thank you very much for the excellent reply :-)

[fekman]

OP, many of us have similar situation. Please post your experience when back. Good luck!

[aronp1]

You could just try changing you ed visa to a tourist visa at immigration. If you decide to leave and enter on a visa exempt, you can change that to a non-b at immigration. I changed my visa exempt to a non-o, then changed that to my current ed visa and done all at immigration, all within the same day.

[ubonjoe]

You could just try changing you ed visa to a tourist visa at immigration. If you decide to leave and enter on a visa exempt, you can change that to a non-b at immigration. I changed my visa exempt to a non-o, then changed that to my current ed visa and done all at immigration, all within the same day.

It is not possible to change to a tourist visa at immigration.

[stoli]

No offense to aronp1, but if ubonjoe told me what numbers to pick in the lottery, I would buy all I could afford. It seems his info is always correct.

[PJ33]

Hi everyone

Thank you again for all your help and advice.

I did the return flight to Kuala Lumpur yesterday and got back in through Phuket immigration with no trouble at all.

The return flight to Kuala Lumpur cost me 4,300B which I thought was very reasonable considering I only booked a couple of days in advance. The outgoing flight was scheduled for 13:30 and I was back in Phuket at 20:10. Much better timings than the alternative of a van trip to Satun which would have meant waking at 4:00am.

I checked in to both the outgoing and incoming flight online before I left Phuket and got my boarding passes by text and email, my thinking being: if I'm already checked in and have a boarding pass, the airline are less likely to "un-check" me in or even ask about if I have an ongoing flight out of Thailand within the following 30 days.

So I did not have an ongoing flight back out of Thailand booked but I did have a very cheap flight I had found online that I knew I could book within 2 minutes if the airline or immigration asked me to do it. Nobody asked about an ongoing flight.

I allowed 4 hours between flights in Kuala Lumpur, so I had time to enter through Malaysian immigration and go back through their outgoing immigration. There was an option to have returned on a flight 2 hours 20 minutes after landing but I felt this was not quite enough time. The flight from Phuket was delayed 50 minutes and with the time taken to get through Malaysian immigration twice, I would have missed the earlier flight, so I picked the right return flight. The queues at Kuala Lumpur were long and slow-moving. In the end I had about an hour of free time before boarding for the return flight started.

As I re-entered Phuket Immigration, they saw that my ED visa was about to expire, there was no re-entry permit and I just had to clarify I was expecting a standard 30-day visa exempt stamp. They also asked me if I was a teacher. I replied "Not yet". I'm not sure if that was their vague attempt to see if I was working illegally and catch me out but I had nothing to hide anyway.

Immigration did not ask me for bank statements or anything about source of income.

I had the 20,000 Bahts cash with me but immigration did not ask to see it. I felt much happier that I had it with me, as it gave them one less reason to potentially refuse / delay entry.

So all in all it was an uneventful trip, which was a huge relief. I know friends coming in on a 30-day visa exempt who have had a real hard time from immigration. One was asked to show the 20,000 Bahts, one had to book an ongoing flight out of Thailand on the spot before they allowed her in. So I think maybe I got lucky with an easy-going immigration officer on a quiet Sunday evening.

I hope this report helps others.

Thank you once again for all your help!!