Visa run Penang

[Goo61]

Hello! I am making my first visa run in Penang and am just looking for some general advice. I am an American citizen and I’ve been in Thailand for 2 months now (1 month visa exempt and a 1 month extension within Thailand). I’m hoping to get a 60 day single entry tourist visa granted in Penang. I’m assuming I’ll have little to no trouble with this since I have only been in Thailand for 2 months and technically have only had one visa (exempt for 30 days and then extended for 30 days). 

 

I hear jims place is the best agent to go through. He says I need to show a 10 Day hostel stay In Thailand and an outward flight. Why is the 10 day hostel stay necessary? Also, if I book an outward flight through a website with 24hr cancellation policy and I cancel it before I receive my passport back the next day in Penang will that cause problems for me?

 

cheers for the help!!

[BritTim]

While Penang is not a great place for tourist visa applications these days, I think you are right that it should be no problem with your history.

 

A hotel reservation you can cancel is easily arranged, if you do not want to make a reservation you will use. Be careful on the flight reservation. The consulate tends to insist that the onward flight is already paid for. In theory, you could purchase a fully refundable ticket, but they tend to take a long time to refund, and you tie up a lot of money in the meantime. Cheaper refundable tickets always include a cancellation fee that is more than the price of the cheapest available ticket out of Thailand. Using Skyscanner, you can usually find a flight for under 1,000 baht, sometimes as little as 500-600 baht.