I would strike Penang off my list too. It is just too convienient for the back packer types & thus some of the rules are different. Singapore & KL should be good.

anyone still wanting the valuable 1 year non immigrant O visa, I highly reccomend Singapore. Not may countries issue 1 year anymore around this region, and unlesss you want to fly to Oz or the UK, Singapore and KL are your 2 choices.

Also if you apply for a non O in Singapore and it gets refused, you will get a tourist visa. So maybe it could be an idea to think of a long shot reason to apply for a 1 year Non O ( such as family or freinds living here ) and try, that way if you get refused you will be issued a tourist visa without question.

I have applied for a Non O in my home country on the basis of visiting friends and been successful. Are you saying that Singapore and KL are likely to issue Non O's to foreigners on the same basis? Is this what you did?

Edited December 4, 200619 yr by kakalai

Visiting friends is not a valid reason to issue a non immigrant O visa under current MFA website information. It will be issued to visit family; such as wife.

hopefully they will issue o's on proposed wifes (eg going to live with your gf you plan on marrying)

Edited December 4, 200619 yr by smacko

anyone still wanting the valuable 1 year non immigrant O visa, I highly reccomend Singapore. Not may countries issue 1 year anymore around this region, and unlesss you want to fly to Oz or the UK, Singapore and KL are your 2 choices.

Also if you apply for a non O in Singapore and it gets refused, you will get a tourist visa. So maybe it could be an idea to think of a long shot reason to apply for a 1 year Non O ( such as family or freinds living here ) and try, that way if you get refused you will be issued a tourist visa without question.

I have applied for a Non O in my home country on the basis of visiting friends and been successful. Are you saying that Singapore and KL are likely to issue Non O's to foreigners on the same basis? Is this what you did?

I got a 1 year non o in singapore afew weeks ago, but I am married to a Thai.

However, It was the day after a public holiday that i was there and it was packed, at least 100+ people in the embassy applying. Afew pople in front of me were applying for Non Immigrant O visas to visit friends, they were all refused but they were all issued with a tourist visa without any questions. Most of these guys had passports full of thai tourist visas and coabodia visas, the lady at the counter saw this but still issued them with tourist visas, which was better than getting nothing at all. There were afew un-lucky people there who applied only for tourist visas and got refused, i dont know for what reasons, but they ended up getting nothing. So I concluded that if you have a reason to try to apply for a Non O, apply for it keeping in mind that you should at least get a tourist visa in the worst case scenario. But if you apply for a tourist visa and it gets refused, there will be no lesser visa to issue and you will walk out with nothing but a headache. Thats all I was trying to point out. If your happy with a tourist visa, try for a non o if you have a reason and if you get it you will be happy, if not you will have the tourist visa you need anyway.

My previous 1 year non o was issued in Oz about 16 months ago now, based on haveing a finace here. But I dont think you can use that reason any more as with the new rules they are becomming more strict.

hopefully they will issue o's on proposed wifes (eg going to live with your gf you plan on marrying)

Not likely. You can marry on a tourist visa so there is really no need for a non immigrant type.

I'm from the UK.

I'm from UK also. Same happened to me at Suwananhum Airport in October. The immigration official stamped me in with 30 days and a green highlight mark (whatever that is for??) even though I had a tourist visa from Beijing and had entered the TV number on my arrival card. I pointed this out immediately and they said sorry and corrected the days allowed to 60 from 30 but left the TV sticker clean without stamping it as used!