what happened to vientiane

[at15]

Not so friendly anymore. I got denied for no reason as a legitimate tourist. And the place is a ghost town, only 5-6 people applying for visa and most were asean.  Should i take a bus/train to savannaket, what do they require ? 

[darrendsd]

How many previous TV's have you had?

 

Vientianne is only normally busy on Mondays and Thursdays when the visa run companies arrive

[ubonjoe]

Not busy today because most people don't want to wait until Monday to pickup their passports.

Savannakhet is wanting tickets out of the country and financial proof now.

[at15]

2 minutes ago, darrendsd said:

How many previous TV's have you had?

 

Vientianne is only normally busy on Mondays and Thursdays when the visa run companies arrive

3 but none from vientiane 

[darrendsd]

ThaiVisaService are not reporting any change there and they are good at this, they won't take people who are going to be denied a TV

 

You must just be unlucky or they are getting stricter with people who are not there as part of a visa run group

 

You could wait until TVS are there again on Monday and see if there staff can get you one? There number is on their website if you want to call them

[thai006]

happend to me too in savanakhet  , my passport was empty  just one tourist visa from monaco  but they want money to show on thai bank 

[darrendsd]

Just now, thai006 said:

happend to me too in savanakhet  , my passport was empty  just one tourist visa from monaco  but they want money to show on thai bank 

The rules there changed well over a month ago

[thai006]

but i think that stupid because lucky i have child in thailand   when i ask ok so i will take non O  90  Days they say ok without show anything  but for toutist need show money and plane ticket 

[ldiablo72]

I guarantee this has everything to do with the issuance of free tourist visas. Denials started just after the initial announcement of free tourist visas back in December .As with most corruption in the Thai and Lao society because they have to issue Tourist Visas free of charge employees and management are not able to skim large portions of the money for themselves when issuing visas so much easier to just deny the visa.

[stevenl]

6 minutes ago, ldiablo72 said:

I guarantee this has everything to do with the issuance of free tourist visas. Denials started just after the initial announcement of free tourist visas back in December .As with most corruption in the Thai and Lao society because they have to issue Tourist Visas free of charge employees and management are not able to skim large portions of the money for themselves when issuing visas so much easier to just deny the visa.

Nothing to do with skimming, they simply earn their money with issuing visas.

[catinthehat]

1 hour ago, ldiablo72 said:

I guarantee this has everything to do with the issuance of free tourist visas. Denials started just after the initial announcement of free tourist visas back in December .As with most corruption in the Thai and Lao society because they have to issue Tourist Visas free of charge employees and management are not able to skim large portions of the money for themselves when issuing visas so much easier to just deny the visa.

I mentioned last week here that two weeks ago when I was renewing a "B" Visa that I saw numerous applicants there told by the consular officer to "go to  the border and get your 15 day visa. Did not get a chance to ask any of these for a possible reason such as too many prior visas or such.

[Evilbaz]

So they weren't even aware that it was now 30 days visa exempt at the border?

[seancbk]

I went on the 8th Feb to Vientiane with ThaiVisaService.   The consulate was packed with people.

 

All of us got Tourist visas without any problem at all (I'd say there were 40 people with our visa company, and at the border probably 300 people waiting for it to open)

Mixture of Japanese, Brits, Russians and other Eastern Europeans, an American and a Canadian guy.   All young people.


 

 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Not busy today because most people don't want to wait until Monday to pickup their passports.

Savannakhet is wanting tickets out of the country and financial proof now.

How much money should I have on my Thai bank? Is 30.000 enough?

 

[ubonjoe]

3 minutes ago, oilinki said:

How much money should I have on my Thai bank? Is 30.000 enough?

 

Yes it is enough. They want to see at least 20k baht in the account.

[NoshowJones]

4 hours ago, stevenl said:

Nothing to do with skimming, they simply earn their money with issuing visas.

Really?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Yes it is enough. They want to see at least 20k baht in the account.

Thanks for the quick reply. I have now tickets to Udon Thani and will cross the border from there.

 

[ubonjoe]

41 minutes ago, oilinki said:

Thanks for the quick reply. I have now tickets to Udon Thani and will cross the border from there.

 

Are you going to Vientiane or Savannakhet?

Vientiane has not asked for ticket or financial proof yet.

It seems a bit of confusion because some people made comments about Savannakhet in this topic.

 

[alocacoc]

Looking forward to other reports since I plan to go in less than 30 Days to Vientiane. This time with a Visa tour company.

 

6 hours ago, darrendsd said:

ThaiVisaService are not reporting any change there and they are good at this, they won't take people who are going to be denied a TV

 

You must just be unlucky or they are getting stricter with people who are not there as part of a visa run group

 

You could wait until TVS are there again on Monday and see if there staff can get you one? There number is on their website if you want to call them

Is this the address: http://www.thaivisaservice.com/ ?

 

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Are you going to Vientiane or Savannakhet?

Vientiane has not asked for ticket or financial proof yet.

It seems a bit of confusion because some people made comments about Savannakhet in this topic.

 

I'm most likely going to Vientiane for this trip. I'll apply either Non-O or SETV, which ever works better. 

 

I already put that 30.000 to my Thai account which I use for everyday life anyway. So that's ok. 
I'll take my bank book with me in case it's needed. 

 

I'm not sure if I can apply for 1 year marriage visa from Savannakhet. I have the needed paperworks, but my address has been different than my wife's. This was previously to ease up the paperwork, when we had a company (working both Bangkok and Phuket). I previously always used my work permit (not valid anymore)  instead of house papers, when applying for example driving licenses etc. 

I have my wife's house book with me and the signed copies. Marriage certificate and her ID card & copies.

If I can still get 1 year non-o visa, I'm willing to travel from Vientiane to Savannakhet by bus to get it.  

[hohososo]

I went on the 8th Feb to Vientiane with ThaiVisaService.   The consulate was packed with people.
 
All of us got Tourist visas without any problem at all (I'd say there were 40 people with our visa company, and at the border probably 300 people waiting for it to open)

Mixture of Japanese, Brits, Russians and other Eastern Europeans, an American and a Canadian guy.   All young people.


 
 

ThaiVisaService shills out en force tonight it seems.

[Essecola]

10 hours ago, at15 said:

3 but none from vientiane 

I thought the consulate in Vientiane would only not issue an SETV if a person had up to 3 of them from that location (and perhaps including the warning/remark stamp). Could there be some information that's missing from this story? 

[Samjabu]

6 hours ago, oilinki said:

How much money should I have on my Thai bank? Is 30.000 enough?

 

 

3 hours ago, oilinki said:

Thanks for the quick reply. I have now tickets to Udon Thani and will cross the border from there.

 

I have just returned from this trip.  It was easy as.  I had 2 X TV (extended once) and one exempt, so now 3 X TV in 9 months.  No questions asked no proof of anything required.  Buy your bus ticket back to UT at the bus station, third of the price.  

[at15]

7 hours ago, Evilbaz said:

So they weren't even aware that it was now 30 days visa exempt at the border?

I was told the same thing, "no visa go cross border can get 15 days"

[alexlm]

I was in Vientiane last week for a Non Immigrant Type O "Wife".

There were at least 200 peoples waiting!

But the Embassy Women checked my copies for a few seconds and didn't even ask to see any original document.

Got it the next day without any trouble.

The pick up is nice in Vientiane because you can sit and you have a queue number.

Also you have to pay a 50 Bahts stamp when giving your application form. Anybody knows what is this 50 bahts stamp put on the application form before submitting it?

[thaiman]

I saw a guy get rejected last week for having just  one TV(issued in Europe) in his passport already.  He was handed an official rejection paper of some sort.

[Essecola]

1 hour ago, thaiman said:

I saw a guy get rejected last week for having just  one TV(issued in Europe) in his passport already.  He was handed an official rejection paper of some sort.

Really if this is true and people are getting rejected in Vientiane then something is seriously wrong. There must be missing info. One? Rejected for having ONE previous SETV? Vientiane used to be almost the easiest and best option to get a stamp. If true this is going to be awful for a lot of people.

[3stan]

i wonder why 'thaivisaservice' is mentioned so many times here..ive never heard of anyone needing an agent to obtain a setv in vientianne....

[ubonjoe]

12 hours ago, oilinki said:

I'm not sure if I can apply for 1 year marriage visa from Savannakhet. I have the needed paperworks, but my address has been different than my wife's. This was previously to ease up the paperwork, when we had a company (working both Bangkok and Phuket). I previously always used my work permit (not valid anymore)  instead of house papers, when applying for example driving licenses etc. 
I have my wife's house book with me and the signed copies. Marriage certificate and her ID card & copies.
If I can still get 1 year non-o visa, I'm willing to travel from Vientiane to Savannakhet by bus to get it.  

No problem for you to get a multiple entry non-o in Savannakhet. Your addresses being different makes no difference for getting one.

[alocacoc]

9 hours ago, Essecola said:

Really if this is true and people are getting rejected in Vientiane then something is seriously wrong. There must be missing info. One? Rejected for having ONE previous SETV? Vientiane used to be almost the easiest and best option to get a stamp. If true this is going to be awful for a lot of people.

I think the same way. Something is missing. Hope we get more reports on Monday.