Bike Trip In Se Asia

[zekeo]

Ok. My traveling partner entered Thailand Nov. 12 on a 60 day tourist visa. I plan to enter Dec. 26 on the same kind of visa. A few questions:

Will it be easy for her to extend her 60 day visa to 90 days? Will she have to exit the country in order to do this?

We plan to exit thailand into Laos on about Feb. 1 (about 75 days after she entered the country, 35 days after I did). After two months or so we will have to re-enter Thailand to fly back to the United States. Am I correct that she will have 15 days (to make a maximum of 90 days?) If the 90 day maximum has been reached, can she still get a 7 day transit visa to get to the airport (by taking a side trip to cambodia?)

Thank you so much for your help!

[calibanjr.]

Any immigration office in Thailand will extend your 60 day Tourist visa for 30 additional days, 1900 THB. That should take her past your departure date to Laos. You can either get another Tourist Visa in Laos for your return into Thailand, or get a Visa on Arrival at the border good for 30 days. Sounds like all you'll need is the Visa on Arrival, but I always advise people to get a Tourist Visa anyway.

[lopburi3]

She has a tourist visa if here on a 60 day stay and they are not subject to day count. She can extend for 30 days at an immigration office with payment of 1,900 baht. She can return on a normal 30 day entry without visa as far as we know as she will not have used any of her allowed 90 days with that type of entry.

[zekeo]

Thank you very much for the information. She is in Thailand right now and has heard that they are only granting 7-10 day transit visas instead of 30 days. Is there any substantiation or refutation of this?

[Maestro]

There is no substantiation to this rumour whatsoever. A lot of people seem confused abut the new rule limiting visa-exempt stay in Thailand to 90 days within 180 days and talk a lot of rubbish.

In the case of yourself and your partner, you have nothing to worry as both of you enter Thailand first with a tourist visa. This stay is not counted as part of the 90-limit for visa-exempt stays. For your second entry, without visa, you get a stamp in your passport permitting you to stay for 30 days.

I wish you both an enjoyable vacation in Thailand.

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Maestro