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A kafkaesque Nightmare- The new E Visa System


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9 hours ago, stevenl said:

Agree, but can be problematic on check in, as officially a flight ticket out of Thailand within the 30 days window is required.

Technically all you need is a ticket out of the country, not necessarily within 30 days. Before the e-tickets era you could fly in with an open ticket valid for a year - no problem. Most people don't understand the idea behind the return / onward ticket. It is simply to show the airline that you have the means to get out of the country in case you are refused entry. It is the airline's responsibility to make sure as if you don't have the means to get out and you are rejected - the airline has to pay a hefty fine to the authorities of your destination country.

Having a return / onward ticket and sufficient amount of money does not guarantee you can enter the country (not only Thailand, any country in the world). It is always up to the discretion of the IO at the entry point.

So in your case - the OP, if the check in staff question your return after 35 days you can simply say that your travel plans are to visit Cambodia or Laos or whatever.

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6 hours ago, Hackney35 said:

Total shambles!

I saw an old guy in tears at the embassy in London last week cos he couldn’t get his documents to upload and the embassy staff wouldn’t help him.... som na na!

I’m youngish and computer literate and it took me almost a day to complete the e-visa online.

a joke considering you still have to go to the embassy twice like before anyway and they don’t look at the docs until you hand them in on first visit!

either Thailand is the least efficient country ever or they want to make it as hard as possible for Fareng to go there these days.....

Refusing to help the old guy MAY in some part be down to the Embassy staff thinking this new setup is a steaming pile of Grade A monkey <deleted> as well and wanting rid of it. The more complaints the merrier...

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12 hours ago, dannyh2000uk said:

HI Denim, thanks for reply, unfortunately ticket already bought,  and if it wasn't  the site requires the ticket, so almost have to get ticket before you apply.

I really don't want to have to do a run to Cambodia, to cover the overstay, I also don't want me to be logged  on some computer as an " overstayer" because these days, that sort of info  ( now computers are making the decisions more ) can mess things up in the future.

A Kafkaesque nightmare

No need to go to Cambodia.

When you enter Thailand you will enter on a "visa exempt" entry which will give you 30 days. You can go to immigration and extend for another 30 days for 1900B. 

 

If you are not staying at a hotel (you mentioned your son) speak to your son about a TM30 for you, if it's a big hassle to do a TM30 have him check the local immigration office you would use to extend and find out if they require a TM30.  Like every other govt office, rules are applied differently at each office.  Hope you enjoy your trip!

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23 hours ago, dannyh2000uk said:

HI Denim, thanks for reply, unfortunately ticket already bought,  and if it wasn't  the site requires the ticket, so almost have to get ticket before you apply.

I really don't want to have to do a run to Cambodia, to cover the overstay, I also don't want me to be logged  on some computer as an " overstayer" because these days, that sort of info  ( now computers are making the decisions more ) can mess things up in the future.

A Kafkaesque nightmare

You don't have to overstay. Enter with a 30 days visa exempt and then visit the local immigration and extend your stay another 30 days. It will cost you 1900 baht. 

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21 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Why don't people cal the Embassy and ask to speak with the Consul General or the Ambassador and complain to them that the system is not useer friendly. If this waas me- I would be on the phone constantly until they could give me an answer how toget the Visa.  If no one complains to the source- nothing will change.  At the very least- start writing letters addressd to the Thai Ambassador.

If you ever tried calling the Thai embassy in the UK thats operating this you would know why. 

 

I once had an urgent application and question that needed a direct answer.. Spent 2 hours listening to hold music before I gave up and drove to the consul wales for a same day issue of a lesser visa class. 

 

 

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21 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

If you ever tried calling the Thai embassy in the UK thats operating this you would know why. 

 

I once had an urgent application and question that needed a direct answer.. Spent 2 hours listening to hold music before I gave up and drove to the consul wales for a same day issue of a lesser visa class. 

 

 

You're lucky if the embassy even answers an email. 

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Perhaps the silliest part of the online visa system is the requirement to book flights and hotels before applying for the visa....So , if you are not sure about being granted a visa , how can you safely plan and book everything in advance  - a " catch 22 " situation,

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On 10/14/2019 at 6:24 AM, dannyh2000uk said:

And it carries on and on, tried three different browsers, but always end up on this page at some point.

 

access denied.JPG

Firstly understand what that page means, it means you have been logged out. So you do have to go back to the home page, don't use your browsers back button to try loading your docs again, waste of time as you will just end up here again. The website operates on a "peak flow" type system so how long you get before being logged out varies according to how busy it is, evenings GMT time zone seem to be particularly slow.

 

You need to have all your docs assembled in a folder on your computer to avoid delays which will result in you getting logged out. You don't need scans, any reasonable camera is capable of taking the pictures that you need. You will need to compress the images to the required size, lots of sites available on the web to do just that. If you do all that first you will find the process works quite smoothly. User friendly it is not, but it is what it is and that is how to do it.

 

A member wrote a pretty good guide to the process here. I think the only change to it is that you are now allowed to upload 500k files instead of 200k.

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1118112-my-guide-to-online-e-visa-applications-via-london-thai-embassy-60-day-setv-by-post/

 

A pinned guide to this would be helpful as the same problems keep resurfacing.

Edited by roamer
Added information.
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On 10/14/2019 at 5:20 PM, Thaidream said:

Why don't people cal the Embassy and ask to speak with the Consul General or the Ambassador and complain to them that the system is not useer friendly. If this waas me- I would be on the phone constantly until they could give me an answer how toget the Visa.  If no one complains to the source- nothing will change.  At the very least- start writing letters addressd to the Thai Ambassador.

I agree, but they are utterly useless. They completely damaged our UK marriage certificate at the Thai Embassy in London and after calling them and emailing them we still got no reply or apology. 

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On 10/13/2019 at 10:45 PM, stevenl said:

Agree, but can be problematic on check in, as officially a flight ticket out of Thailand within the 30 days window is required.

Oh I routinely have return ticket later than my original 30 day visa exempt arrival date.  About 1/2 the times on my trips I expect to extend another 30 days, but of course no way to do that in advance before getting the visa exempt on arrival!  And a few times EVA I purchased open ended return date.   Never had an issue.  As long as ticket says round trip they seemed to be happy? 

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5 hours ago, roamer said:

Firstly understand what that page means, it means you have been logged out. So you do have to go back to the home page, don't use your browsers back button to try loading your docs again, waste of time as you will just end up here again. The website operates on a "peak flow" type system so how long you get before being logged out varies according to how busy it is, evenings GMT time zone seem to be particularly slow.

 

You need to have all your docs assembled in a folder on your computer to avoid delays which will result in you getting logged out. You don't need scans, any reasonable camera is capable of taking the pictures that you need. You will need to compress the images to the required size, lots of sites available on the web to do just that. If you do all that first you will find the process works quite smoothly. User friendly it is not, but it is what it is and that is how to do it.

 

A member wrote a pretty good guide to the process here. I think the only change to it is that you are now allowed to upload 500k files instead of 200k.

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1118112-my-guide-to-online-e-visa-applications-via-london-thai-embassy-60-day-setv-by-post/

 

A pinned guide to this would be helpful as the same problems keep resurfacing.

Spin this however you want but this system design is not incompetence, a oversight,or a accident....I was designed to be a problem on purpose...Amazon would be bankrupt within a month if their site ran like this.....The Thai Embassies have all the money and time to get it right but they want it just the way it is......   

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1 hour ago, fforest1 said:

Spin this however you want but this system design is not incompetence, a oversight,or a accident....I was designed to be a problem on purpose...Amazon would be bankrupt within a month if their site ran like this.....The Thai Embassies have all the money and time to get it right but they want it just the way it is......   

I'm not spinning it and you don't know what you are talking about. 

" was designed to be a problem on purpose." BS,

 

It's not helpful, it is poorly designed, hosted in BKK with poor bandwidth, nothing to do with the Thai Embassy.

 

As is so often the case there are some people who see conspiracy when incompetence is more often the cause.

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11 hours ago, fforest1 said:

The Thai Embassies have all the money and time to get it right but they want it just the way it is......   

But not the expertise.. 

 

Can you name a single Thai government website that works, thats designed in a modern fast leading, multi screen optimized way ? 

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25 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

But not the expertise.. 

 

Can you name a single Thai government website that works, thats designed in a modern fast leading, multi screen optimized way ? 

It's not the embassies fault. The webserver can't deal with to many applicants at the same time. Blame the responsible government department and the webdesigner.

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For those of you that don't know, the error in the screenshot is a '404' error handling page.

 

image.png.7f1f224a8cdd412a82d0ca293519bdaf.png

 

Error 404 means the page or script is not found on the server.

 

Now that could be either a missing webpage or a missing error page, no real way to tell by just looking at the image but that's what the error means - something's missing on the server.

 

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Below is my post from another thread and some update :

 
  •  
  • Members
  •  12
  • 10 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:My place
   

 

I was just trying to (start to) apply for a non O visa based on marriage. Plan is to stay 90 days - 

flight already booked (next December)

After many attempts, I’m still blocked on step 2 as screenshots show below.

I’ve deleted all and started from step 1 again and again, still getting the same message, can’t even change the purpose of visit to try the “retirement option” 

This app is really a hassle !

Maybe it’s because I’m currently in Thailand that I’m not able to use it ? Anyone has a clue ?

The visa must be delivered by French embassy.

 I’ll try again once in HC.

 

174BBDD4-7C9C-4695-BD04-F74D43FEF605.png

1337BA66-977A-4E4D-8E64-33B56457F265.png

E5C59EED-A79F-43B9-A16B-212E8F01123D.pngI’m now back in France and still the same !

so after three days of unsuccessful attempts, I gave up and will deal with an agency …

I’d like to add it’s more hassle here as even if you apply successfully online, you still have to go to the embassy twice, consulates no longer allowed to deliver any visa. What if you live in southern France !!!

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2 hours ago, bslmh said:

Below is my post from another thread and some update :

 
  •  
  •  
  • Members
  •  12
  • 10 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:My place
   

 

I was just trying to (start to) apply for a non O visa based on marriage. Plan is to stay 90 days - 

flight already booked (next December)

After many attempts, I’m still blocked on step 2 as screenshots show below.

I’ve deleted all and started from step 1 again and again, still getting the same message, can’t even change the purpose of visit to try the “retirement option” 

This app is really a hassle !

Maybe it’s because I’m currently in Thailand that I’m not able to use it ? Anyone has a clue ?

The visa must be delivered by French embassy.

 I’ll try again once in HC.

 

174BBDD4-7C9C-4695-BD04-F74D43FEF605.png

1337BA66-977A-4E4D-8E64-33B56457F265.png

E5C59EED-A79F-43B9-A16B-212E8F01123D.pngI’m now back in France and still the same !

so after three days of unsuccessful attempts, I gave up and will deal with an agency …

I’d like to add it’s more hassle here as even if you apply successfully online, you still have to go to the embassy twice, consulates no longer allowed to deliver any visa. What if you live in southern France !!!

The visa application gets sent straight to Bangkok for them to process , so a local Visa assistance company may not be able to help .

   Maybe you filled the application form out incorrectly .

Tick being married  , state you want to visit your wife and just for 59 days 

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4 hours ago, Max69xl said:

It's not the embassies fault. The webserver can't deal with to many applicants at the same time. Blame the responsible government department and the webdesigner.

The embassy offered the contract no ?? The embassy set the design parameters and does QC inspection ?  

Like saying its not my fault my companies website is broken, its the web designers !! No its my website its my responsibility it is fit for purpose. 

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51 minutes ago, sanemax said:

The visa application gets sent straight to Bangkok for them to process , so a local Visa assistance company may not be able to help .

It’s all about using the app that sucks !

The agency I’ve already called told me they can process the whole thing, obviously it has a cost …

 

 

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3 hours ago, bslmh said:

Below is my post from another thread and some update :

 
  •  
  •  
  • Members
  •  12
  • 10 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:My place
   

 

I was just trying to (start to) apply for a non O visa based on marriage. Plan is to stay 90 days - 

flight already booked (next December)

After many attempts, I’m still blocked on step 2 as screenshots show below.

I’ve deleted all and started from step 1 again and again, still getting the same message, can’t even change the purpose of visit to try the “retirement option” 

This app is really a hassle !

Maybe it’s because I’m currently in Thailand that I’m not able to use it ? Anyone has a clue ?

The visa must be delivered by French embassy.

 I’ll try again once in HC.

 

174BBDD4-7C9C-4695-BD04-F74D43FEF605.png

1337BA66-977A-4E4D-8E64-33B56457F265.png

E5C59EED-A79F-43B9-A16B-212E8F01123D.pngI’m now back in France and still the same !

so after three days of unsuccessful attempts, I gave up and will deal with an agency …

I’d like to add it’s more hassle here as even if you apply successfully online, you still have to go to the embassy twice, consulates no longer allowed to deliver any visa. What if you live in southern France !!!

Is the French website in the French language? 

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1 minute ago, sanemax said:

There seems to be just one website in Bangkok, rather than each embassy having its own website

OK, but is the one website in Bangkok in the French language if you are applying for a visa in France?

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8 minutes ago, baboon said:

Is the French website in the French language? 

It’s all in English , even for the Chinese I guess, lol

anyway, using CHROME, simultaneously translation is still available 

 

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16 minutes ago, bslmh said:

It’s all in English , even for the Chinese I guess, lol

anyway, using CHROME, simultaneously translation is still available 

 

So they don't even have the courtesy to use French in France when they are taking your French Euros? How rude!

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