36 day vacation - What visa is best?

[blackgrendel]

Hi guys
I have booked a ticket to visit Thailand on the 15th Dec 2009, till the 21st January 2010. I don't know if I will will be staying in Thailand till the 21st of January. Do I need to apply for a visa now or can I get an extension when I am in the Kingdom. Will I have any issues when I go through customs in Bangkok because my ticket states a return date on the 21st of January, 6 days after my 30 days?
Cheers fellows.

[Snick]

Easiest thing for you to do is get a 60 day Tourist visa at the Thai embassy/consulate before your leave.
Once you are here its actually more difficult and would involve
1) flying out and back in, getting another 30 days
2) land crossing into Laos, Cambodia, etc. and getting an extra 7 days (or is it 15 ?)
3) doing nothing and paying a 3000 Baht fine when leaving (6x500)

[blackgrendel]

Thx snick. I am actually going to be very near the Laos border. I am planning on staying in Udon Thani. So could I just go to Laos and stay there for a couple of days then re-enter Los with some extra days?

[Torurot]

If you overstay your visa (even a few days) and immigration pick you up for any reason don't you get detained/deported?

[Snick]

In theory that could happen, I have never heard of if actually occurring.
Some hotels do check your visa when you check in, not sure what happens if they notice you overstayed. Maybe call the cops to get a % of the shakedown. But never heard of that happening either.

[batman4ever]

if youre just cross to the boarder of laos...then just do a daytrip...get a stamp and go back in thailand...get another stamp...and you have 30 new days...

or...just over stay...but remember to save the fine,so you have cash to pay when you leave bkk (3000) remember it will take aprox. 10-20 min of paperwork

[blackgrendel]

Thx guys...looks like I will get a stamp in Laos. BTW BKK airport wont give me any grief when I get there will they? Will they look at the date of my return ticket and get shitty?

[Ivor Biggun]

If you enter thailand at a land border you will only get 15 days on entry so you may want to be flexible with your time out of the country. Plan on going to Laos around 10 Jan, then back in and 15 days carries you over to when you depart.

I've never had a ticket checked at the airport so you should be OK, as you will state on your arrival/departure card that your onward trip to Laos will take you out of the country before your 30 days on arrival is up. You can even do an in/out to Laos on the same day but why not take a couple of days in Vientienne or Angor Wat?

You may be a bit bored by this point so it seems a shame not to take advantage of the chance. Bearing in mind you're going to be paying for a Lao visa anyway you may as well get your money's worth. A 15 day visa on arrival ( available at Vientiane International Airport, Luang Prabang International Airport or Friendship Bridge) will cost you US30. Make sure to bring passport size photos.

[EyeMahk]

You will not be asked for your return ticket when you land in BKK.

However, some airlines require you to have the appropriate VISA for your complete stay, so there is a "chance" that you will be challenged by the airline when you originate from your home country. Thai Airways is known to do this.  This would be bad for you as they might not let you originate.

There is a thread about this here:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/30-Day...d-t282803.html - Search the Thaivisa.com board for more info on this.

You can "dummy up" a ticket receipt to show that you are flying out and back in within your 36 days. This might satisfy the airline. Or you can make a reservation for a quick out and back, then cancel it and get it refunded.

And to my knowledge, you can still get an additional 7-day extension at the immigration office while you are in Thailand.

Personally, I would just get a 60-day tourist VISA if you are not sure that you are going to Laos.

If you do decide to overstay your VISA and pay upon leaving, then I would strongly suggest not providing your passport to ANYONE while it is in an overstay situation.  You can make a copy of it and if you check into a hotel, just give them the copy of your passport (not your entry stamp) and tell them the physical passport is at the Vietnam Embassy for a few days getting a VISA stamped in. I have done this occasionally at various places just to check what they do, and no hotel has refused to accept the copy.

[kevin4252]

I had a quasi problem my last trip at Heathrow, at EVA checkin, the ticket

lady misread my dates, and told me in no uncertain terms that I needed a

visa, resolved when we took out the old calculator, and showed her that

July 5th to August 2nd was less than 30 days, don't know what woulda

happened if the return date on my eticket , perhaps like yours, was for

more than 30 days.

What I took away from this, at the time, was that the airline checkin

staff also look at these things, not just upon arrival or departure in

los. Get a visa just to be on the safe side.

[molk]

Also bear in mind that in some cases your travel insurance may not cover more than 30 or so days without an extension made by you before departure, also if you have an accident while illegally in the country (=overstaying) no insurance may apply at all for that matter (read the small print of your insurance letter, if also drunk you are ). We have all seen those horror-stories in the news...in many cases there was no insurance and it ended with tears...

A 7 day extension should still be possible for a fee at any immigration office, right ? Check the thaivisa forum for this, I'm too lazy and the thai visa rules are anyway.

[BlueBallz]

I would not over exetend any visa. A good buddy told me that if you do, you can encounter hassle if you apply for any other types of visas i.e. reitrement visa.

[Ivor Biggun]

I've had one overstay of 3 days, approx 4 years ago. Never had a problem applying for tourist or non imm 'o' since. So long as you don't kick the arse out of it it shouldn't be an issue but still better never to get a red stamp in the passport.

[molk]

Checked and 7-day extension is 1900 THB, available at any immigration office, bring 2 photos

[blackgrendel]

Thx for the post guys, will change flight details and get save the headache