Can you enter and leave again right away ?

by Christ
(KhonKaen)

Hi,


I am a Canadian, I came in to Thailand with a Multiple entry Non Immigrant visa, valid until Oct 2015.

I already had a 2 month extension of stay from KhonKaen.

Now I am told I can't get another one and have to leave Thailand in March.
(In Canada I had been told I would only have to report to the local immigration office every 3 months. But this is obviously wrong!)

Can I just take the bus to Vientiane in the morning, get a visa on arrival to Laos and then turn around an go right back to Khonkaen before supper, using this same non immigrant visa I already have?

And if so, In October, when my visa expires, how hard is it to get another one in Vientiane and how long can I expect it to take?

Any problems doing this multiple times?
Is it legal and accepted, frowned upon or completely undo-able?

Comments for Can you enter and leave again right away ?

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Feb 10, 2015
 Good to know
by: D.

Christ,

Thanks for the clarifications. Good to know that Thai multiple visa is different from Lao's one.

All the best,
Feb 10, 2015
 Clarifications
by: Christ

Thanks D. for your reply yes it does help a lot ! :)

As for your questions about Thai visa, here is what I know :


1.
Yes Canadian do need visas to enter Thailand.
We can get a 30 days visa on arrival at the airport and 15 or 7 (not sure) days at land borders.

For longer stays you have to go to a Thai Embassy and get a Non Immigrant, Education or business ... visa.

Then you can turn you Non Immigrant to a Married or retired visa if you meet the requirements. Having 400 000 bht in a day to day Thai bank account for at least 2 months. Being married or over 50 and so on...

2.
As I said in my last post, I also thought I could stay until October 2015. But that is not the case.
Immigration told me I had to leave the country every 3 months and could use the Multiple entry Non immigrant visa to re-enter until October 2015. After that I have to go to a Thai Embassy in another country and get a new visa.

Or, as said above have the money in the bank and turn my Non Immigrant into a married or retired visa. Then, with one of those, I can stay a full year, reporting to my local immigration office every 3 months, until I have to renew the married/retired visa again.

Here is a good site where I have found a lot of info in Thai visas:

http://www.siam-legal.com/thailand-visa/thailand-visa.php
Feb 10, 2015
 Not sure about Thai visa
by: D.

Hi Christ,

emmm...I'm trying to understand, reading your message several times and still puzzle. Why is it hard to understand?

Well... the message itself is not hard to understand, but the concept is (not sure it is the right word here).

First, I believe that you, as a Canadian, don't need a visa to enter Thailand (or maybe I'm wrong, or for longer stay you do need one, I'm not sure).

Secondly, you said your multiple entry visa valid until Oct 2015. Why would you have to leave the country in March (again I don't know about Thailand).

Compare to Laos, if you have a multiple entry visa for Laos, say a 12-month visa, you can stay in Laos the whole 12-month period without having to leave the country. On the other hand, you can exit and reenter Laos as often as you want within that 12 months.

Maybe Thai has different rules, I don't know much about it anyway.

However, if you ask about Lao visa on arrival, I'm certain in my answer.

Yes, you can take the bus to Vientiane in the morning, get the visa on arrival to Laos at the Friendship Bridge, and you can turn around at the bridge to cross back to Thailand if you wish.

And if you ask me whether you can use your non immigrant visa to Thailand that you already have, I'd think that you can because it's valid until Oct 2015, so...logically you can, otherwise it wouldn't be called multiple entry visa.

To your last question "How hard it's to get a visa in Vientiane?". The process is not hard, you just need to be at the Thai consulate in the morning, line up (it can be a long line) to submit your application and passport and come back to get your passport+visa the next day (afternoon), provided that you're granted the visa. You need to stay overnight in Vientiane, that's it.

Thai consulate receives visa applications only in the mornings and give out the visa in the afternoons. So if you go straight from Thailand, make sure you arrive there early enough because the line is usually long and they only open for application until noon, if you miss it you'll have to come back again the next morning.

Oh, I heard that there is a service, that you can pay someone to line up for you. So...don't be surprised if someone approach you to offer their service.
It basically works like this. The service providers would be there early, get in the line to secure a spot, when their potential customers come, they'll offer their spot for some amount.

Hope this helps.

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