I've been coming here 3 years and just curious if Vientiane has always been like this, or if things were different in the past. 

I would say more than 10 years.

Yes , a bit over 10 years.I remember my first visa run there in 2002, and they were pretty strict about not issuing double entry to Tourists. 

At that time Penang was issuing triple entries.While Penang got increasingly stricter, Vientiane got more lenient.

Penang used to be the only option for those of us who were short of cash and travelled overland - there were no budget airlines then and until the late 90's Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar were all closed for land crossing unless by expensive package tours. I have fond memories of those long train rides to Malaysia, and all the beers I had with fellow travellers.

 

There was no limit on visa renewals at that time - the only question was whether you would get a single, double or triple entry. Doubles were the usual outcome, and you could get a letter recommending you for an Ed visa from any language school with no limits on minimum study time. People lived in Thailand on tourist or Ed visas for year after year.

Edited September 2, 20178 yr by dbrenn

I remember "fighting" for over an hour in a mad crush in 1998 to get my application handed in. Every 5 minutes a little window would be slid open and a hand would grab 2 or 3 applications of many all being waved at it. Then the window would slam shut. All nationalities of the world seem to be using Vientiane at the time.

 

I never went back to the Thai Embassy in Vientiane till 2008 when queueing had actually taken root.

1 hour ago, dbrenn said:

Penang used to be the only option for those of us who were short of cash and travelled overland - there were no budget airlines then and until the late 90's Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar were all closed for land crossing unless by expensive package tours. I have fond memories of those long train rides to Malaysia, and all the beers I had with fellow travellers.

 

There was no limit on visa renewals at that time - the only question was whether you would get a single, double or triple entry. Doubles were the usual outcome, and you could get a letter recommending you for an Ed visa from any language school with no limits on minimum study time. People lived in Thailand on tourist or Ed visas for year after year.

And they still do

18 hours ago, darrendsd said:

And they still do

Perhaps some still get away with living in Thailand on tourist and Ed visas, but it's much harder and a lot are getting turned away, as you'll read on this forum.

 

 

 

How many are being turned away for ED visas? I have not seen such a thing and my ED visa was just issued last week

On 9/3/2017 at 9:38 AM, dbrenn said:

Perhaps some still get away with living in Thailand on tourist and Ed visas, but it's much harder and a lot are getting turned away, as you'll read on this forum.

 

 

 

I've read the reports thanks, the ones who got turned away simply didn't do their research before being turned away, if they had they wouldn't have got themselves in that situation

27 minutes ago, Hal65 said:

How many are being turned away for ED visas? I have not seen such a thing and my ED visa was just issued last week

No one is being refused a ED Visa (as long as the paperwork is correct) the ones who are having problems are the ones leaving the country for a while and then running into problems when they return

5 hours ago, darrendsd said:

I've read the reports thanks, the ones who got turned away simply didn't do their research before being turned away, if they had they wouldn't have got themselves in that situation

You're still missing the point my friend. In the past, tourist visas, Ed visas and visa exempt stamps were dished out without limit, and people were NEVER refused entry for having too many of them.

 

That's simply not the case anymore. How many people do you know of who have lived in Thailand on back-to-back tourist visas, for years on end, and aren't worrying that their next one might be refused? There used to be droves of them, but all those guys have moved on.

3 hours ago, dbrenn said:

You're still missing the point my friend. In the past, tourist visas, Ed visas and visa exempt stamps were dished out without limit, and people were NEVER refused entry for having too many of them.

 

That's simply not the case anymore. How many people do you know of who have lived in Thailand on back-to-back tourist visas, for years on end, and aren't worrying that their next one might be refused? There used to be droves of them, but all those guys have moved on.

Not all :-) 

 

If people do their research it's still more than possible to stay here longterm on the visa methods you mentioned

 

Only the ones who didn't do their research are the ones who have had to move on or were refused

 

Edited September 6, 20178 yr by darrendsd

1 hour ago, darrendsd said:

Not all :-) 

 

If people do their research it's still more than possible to stay here longterm on the visa methods you mentioned

 

Only the ones who didn't do their research are the ones who have had to move on or were refused

 

You know people still living in Thailand indefinitely and continuously on back to back tourist visas? By that I mean you know their circumstances well enough, so that you are sure that they are not just shooting their mouths off like so many people seem to do.

 

If what you say is true, these people that you know could be making good money advising other people how to do it, saving them the 500k+ that many of them now seem to be paying for Thailand Elite.

16 minutes ago, dbrenn said:

You know people still living in Thailand indefinitely and continuously on back to back tourist visas? By that I mean you know their circumstances well enough, so that you are sure that they are not just shooting their mouths off like so many people seem to do.

 

If what you say is true, these people that you know could be making good money advising other people how to do it, saving them the 500k+ that many of them now seem to be paying for Thailand Elite.

No not just on TV's, a combination of what you posted in a earlier post

 

Yes there is always a chance of being refused of course but if you do your homework you can drastically reduce that chance by a great deal something that those that have been refused have failed to do, a little bit of research and forward planning can save a lot of problems

 

Yes I do know people that do it, I know them well, very well in fact, i'm sure you can work out the rest

 

 

4 hours ago, darrendsd said:

No not just on TV's, a combination of what you posted in a earlier post

 

Yes there is always a chance of being refused of course but if you do your homework you can drastically reduce that chance by a great deal something that those that have been refused have failed to do, a little bit of research and forward planning can save a lot of problems

 

Yes I do know people that do it, I know them well, very well in fact, i'm sure you can work out the rest

 

 

Hmmm. Pardon me for still being a Doubting Thomas but now you're saying that juggling various kinds of visas 'drastically reduces' the chance of refusal. You didn't say that the chance was eliminated and people could live normal and relaxed lives as eternal tourists or students. What are the success rates of your method for each successive entry? 

 

To my point - people never used to be refused at all. It was easy.

1 hour ago, dbrenn said:

Hmmm. Pardon me for still being a Doubting Thomas but now you're saying that juggling various kinds of visas 'drastically reduces' the chance of refusal. You didn't say that the chance was eliminated and people could live normal and relaxed lives as eternal tourists or students. What are the success rates of your method for each successive entry? 

 

To my point - people never used to be refused at all. It was easy.

It's easy enough to work out, those who doubt it can be done have never researched how to or believe everything they read on here

 

If you actually took the time to research you will find it's actually not as difficult as some of the doom and gloomers on here make it out to be

 

 

 

 

 

dbrenn, are you saying that I can't do edu visas for 10+ years at Vientiane? My school says as long as I change passports I can do this for the long term.

1 minute ago, Hal65 said:

dbrenn, are you saying that I can't do edu visas for 10+ years at Vientiane? My school says as long as I change passports I can do this for the long term.

Getting single entry Non Ed visas should be possible. If you get a new passport once every 90 days, as advised by your school, you should be able to get the visas indefinitely (unless someone at the Embassy recognizes you after 10 visas or so). However, there are several issues (apart from the need for very frequent passport changes). Firstly, immigration when you enter the country can see your full record of entries. They are likely to smell a rat if they see you use a new Non Ed visa every 90 days for years on end. More likely, rather than a new visa every 90 days, you will want to get extensions from your local immigration (allowing a year between new visa applications, and new passports). It is very unlikely that your local immigration will fail to spot your attempted subterfuge.

 

In fact, it is possible to legally stay for many years on Non Ed visas with extensions. It requires you to change what you are learning each year. Thus, you could do Thai for a year, then Chinese, then Japanese, then Thai cuisine and so on. This is legal without passport changes.

10 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Getting single entry Non Ed visas should be possible. If you get a new passport once every 90 days, as advised by your school, you should be able to get the visas indefinitely (unless someone at the Embassy recognizes you after 10 visas or so). However, there are several issues (apart from the need for very frequent passport changes). Firstly, immigration when you enter the country can see your full record of entries. They are likely to smell a rat if they see you use a new Non Ed visa every 90 days for years on end. More likely, rather than a new visa every 90 days, you will want to get extensions from your local immigration (allowing a year between new visa applications, and new passports). It is very unlikely that your local immigration will fail to spot your attempted subterfuge.

 

In fact, it is possible to legally stay for many years on Non Ed visas with extensions. It requires you to change what you are learning each year. Thus, you could do Thai for a year, then Chinese, then Japanese, then Thai cuisine and so on. This is legal without passport changes.

I respect your posts on this forum BritTim but I think you have misunderstood what he said, there would be no need to change PP every 90 days

 

What he is saying does involve changing PP but not every 90 days, i'm not going to go into the details on a public forum

 

Of course it's more than possible as you suggested to change courses in order to extend your stay

Yes changing passports every 90 days would be extreme. My school implied that changing every couple of years would be a good idea though.

 

The owner said something I found hard to believe: doing this could let you get approved by the ministry of education for the same courses you have already taken. So you could keep bouncing between beginner and intermediate Thai, and back again. I asked him "wouldn't this conflict with their paperwork" and he said no, everyone goes entirely off the visas and stamps in the passport.

Edited September 6, 20178 yr by Hal65

2 hours ago, Hal65 said:

Yes changing passports every 90 days would be extreme. My school implied that changing every couple of years would be a good idea though.

 

The owner said something I found hard to believe: doing this could let you get approved by the ministry of education for the same courses you have already taken. So you could keep bouncing between beginner and intermediate Thai, and back again. I asked him "wouldn't this conflict with their paperwork" and he said no, everyone goes entirely off the visas and stamps in the passport.

Call me a skeptic, at least as far as extensions at your local immigration is concerned. Unless your school has "special arrangements", they are supposed to provide paperwork showing your attendance. Knowing the way Thai bureaucracy works, I would be very surprised if that paperwork (and the TM 7 forms) were not filed. When you are caught, it is you who will have the problem, not the school.

9 hours ago, Hal65 said:

Yes changing passports every 90 days would be extreme. My school implied that changing every couple of years would be a good idea though.

 

The owner said something I found hard to believe: doing this could let you get approved by the ministry of education for the same courses you have already taken. So you could keep bouncing between beginner and intermediate Thai, and back again. I asked him "wouldn't this conflict with their paperwork" and he said no, everyone goes entirely off the visas and stamps in the passport.

Hi can you stop posting these kind of details on a public forum, it won't be possible to do what you have suggested for long if it becomes common knowledge will it?

 

Thanks

Quote

 

Hi can you stop posting these kind of details on a public forum, it won't be possible to do what you have suggested for long if it becomes common knowledge will it?

 

Thanks

 

 

That fear you bring up is mostly unjustified. First of all the info is unreliable. Second it will probably not cause the crazy viral spread you are imagining. Better we figure out what the truth is so we can actually benefit from it.

Edited September 7, 20178 yr by Hal65