Border Run from Chiang Mai

[CHiangMaiMuu]

I have a simple question.

In Chiang Mai without a visa, gotten several 30-day exempts and extensions this year, between going to Vietnam and to Canada,

I plan to go to Laos with my Thai g/f this month to apply for a Tourist visa to Thailand in Vientiane. 

It seems to me I can go to Lao for 30 days without a visa. 
Can anyone confirm that for me?

 

Also re: a TV to Thailand - it has been years since I lived here on various visas - what documents should I have on hand to take to the Thai embassy in Vientiane?: printout of monthly statements from my U.S. bank? or letter from the U.S. embassy stating that I have a monthly disability allowance?

If so, how much trouble is that to get from the U.S. embassy? Need an appt. to talk to them ?

[Ron jeremy]

Canadians get 30 day visa on arrival in Laos for $35, been many times, 

youl need more luck getting back into Thailand. You're luck WILL end without getting a proper visa.

 

Edited December 1, 2019 by Ron jeremy

[cnx355]

13 hours ago, Ron jeremy said:

Canadians get 30 day visa on arrival in Laos for $35, been many times, 

youl need more luck getting back into Thailand. You're luck WILL end without getting a proper visa.

 

I am Canadian and for us Canadian it  is 42 USD. We are the only country paying this fee of 42 USD.

[BritTim]

There are several points that need to be made:

1. As others have stated, Canadian citizens need a visa to enter Laos. This is most easily achieved with a visa on arrival. Make sure you have US currency to pay for the visa as otherwise you pay more.
2. If you have spent several months almost unbroken already in Thailand recently as a tourist, you will likely not be granted a tourist visa in Vientiane.
3. To apply for a visa in Vientiane, you need a prior appointment which you request through the website https://thaivisavientiane.com/.
4. If you are unsuccessful with a visa application, you can still enter visa exempt via the Friendship Bridge to Nong Khai is you do not yet have two visa exempt entries by land in 2019.

Edited December 2, 2019 by BritTim

[CM Dad]

The US Embassy does not give letters verifying income of any kind to anyone.

[CHiangMaiMuu]

4 hours ago, BritTim said:

There are several points that need to be made:

1. As others have stated, Canadian citizens need a visa to enter Laos. This is most easily achieved with a visa on arrival. Make sure you have US currency to pay for the visa as otherwise you pay more.
2. If you have spent several months almost unbroken already in Thailand recently as a tourist, you will likely not be granted a tourist visa in Vientiane.
3. To apply for a visa in Vientiane, you need a prior appointment which you request through the website https://thaivisavientiane.com/.
4. If you are unsuccessful with a visa application, you can still enter visa exempt via the Friendship Bridge to Nong Khai is you do not yet have two visa exempt entries by land in 2019.

Thanks for the info. It helps.

I am travelling as U.S. citizen, having been without a CND passport for some years.

My (U.S. ) passport is new in 2019 and has only 30-day exempts including one by land from Myanmar.

I plan to try for a Tourist Visa in Vientiane. 

There are a couple schools in Chiang Mai that have told me they are sure they will be able to make my T.V. into a 1-year visa - for a fee of about $1,100.00.

But now I am confused again about what people use for proof of monthly income. 

Is a printout of my monthly statements from my American bank account good enough?

Also some people on this website say that one can take a 30-day exempt to the I/O and get it changed into a 1-year visa. This November the I/O in Chiang Mai told me NO!. He would not consider doing that - but they O.K.'d my request for another 30 days - after I went and got the hotel keepers to print out the TM 30 form they were supposed to have sent in. 

 

[CHiangMaiMuu]

4 hours ago, CM Dad said:

The US Embassy does not give letters verifying income of any kind to anyone.

O.K. what do people do to show proof of income - if the income is a VA disability allowance? 

Does the I/O accept a printout of several months of bank statements from and American bank?

[Toadie]

Regardless of what you think your printing out if your 90 days I'm Thailand the last 12 mths you ain't getting a tourist visa

[BritTim]

5 hours ago, CHiangMaiMuu said:

I am travelling as U.S. citizen, having been without a CND passport for some years.

You still need a visa on arrival for Laos (slightly cheaper) and should still pay in US dollars.

5 hours ago, CHiangMaiMuu said:

My (U.S. ) passport is new in 2019 and has only 30-day exempts including one by land from Myanmar.

If that visa exempt from Myanmar is you first by land in 2019, then you have the visa exempt entry as a safety net if your tourist visa application is denied.

5 hours ago, CHiangMaiMuu said:

There are a couple schools in Chiang Mai that have told me they are sure they will be able to make my T.V. into a 1-year visa - for a fee of about $1,100.00.

Are they offering to convert to an education extension or a retirement extension? I do not think the education extension is possible (for a regular language school) without leaving the country for a Non Ed visa.

If you are at least 50 years old, conversion of a tourist entry (whether from an actual tourist visa or a visa exempt entry) to a non immigrant entry with a view to retirement is possible.If you can meet all the conditions, an agent (what I think the schools are acting as) is unnecessary. The easiest way is if you have 800,000 baht you can place in a Thai bank account. The conversion (which gives an initial 90 days) costs 2,000 baht, which can then be extended for a further year on payment of 1,900 baht. If you do not have the 800,000 baht available, using an agent to smooth the process may be necessary, but involves cost and possibly risk.

 

5 hours ago, CHiangMaiMuu said:

But now I am confused again about what people use for proof of monthly income. 

Is a printout of my monthly statements from my American bank account good enough?

Apart from an embassy letter (possible with a Canadian passport but no longer a US one) the only other acceptable proof of "income" is transferring 65,000 baht every month into a Thai bank account in your name.

[CHiangMaiMuu]

Many thanks to BritTim, Toadie, and CM Dad for the input and advice.

Now I am still confused but with different things to think about.

 

The trip to Lao next week was intended to be the "leaving the country for a Non Ed visa" and I thought that a Tourist visa filled that requirement. 

But now I think I understand that the Thai embassy in Vientiane is just going to tell me to take a walk no matter what I tell them. 

There is no way that I will ever have  bt 800,000 in this lifetime.

I get over $3,00.00 a month from my good old Uncle Sam.

I had no idea this bt 65,000 had to be in a Thai bank account.

 

When i first applied for a visa to Thailand about 10 years ago in L.A. they made it so crazy I could not understand how anyone ever got a visa. They demanded a notarized bank statement from my bank; Wells Fargo told me they did not do notarized statements and for me to go tell those [ .... Asians] that bank statements are official documents and do not need to be notarized .... so i had to find a private notary and pay her $100.00 to notarize my signed statement; and the mean, ugly Thai woman who threw my papers around and complained I did not have enough - or any - copies of some things - I had them all, and in order when I walked into her space. But she said to go across the alley with a bunch of other farangs to an office where they ran off copies of documents for us,... back to the mean woman with more sheets of paper and she explained that what she was giving me was not really a visa visa - it was just the visa that permitted me to go to Thailand to apply for the actual visa there.... and the people there followed their own rules and were not bound to O.K. my application just because she approved it. 

 

When I came back to Thailand this January, after a few years in the States, without any visa I believed I was hep enough to the system to be able to handle the visa thing here.... But I find it is much worse than crazy now. I made it on 30-day exempts and trips out to Vietnam and to Canada and a walk-over to Myanmar. But I have run over the putative 180-day limit in country for this year.

 

I did not realize the bt 65.ooo per month had to be in a Thai bank account until now. I know I did not have that requirement in 2009 in L.A. when I got the first visa to this country. It does not seem possible to show bt 65,000 in a Thai bank by the time I go to the Thai embassy in Vientiane this month.

I once had an account with Bangkok Bank but that was over 4 years ago. Dealing with that is a challenge I have not felt up to yet.

 

So now it looks like after my vacation in Lao this Dec-January I can only count on getting a 30-day visa exempt - and people are saying that this can be converted to a one-year visa at the I/O. But the Immigration officer in Chiang Mai  did not know this when I was there in November. He gave me only an extension to my 30-day exempt, as I had received in the past.

 

I don't understand why farangs on the Thaivisa are saying that a 30-day exempt can be converted to a one-year visa at the I/O, when the Thai officer tells me it cannot; and why no one believes that a school in Chiang Mai is able to legitimately make a one-year visa out of the Tourist Visa that in my dreams I expected to get in Vientiane. 

 

The reason I don't say to hell with these .... [little Asian people] and go somewhere else is that I want to marry my girlfriend. That is not a visa issue; it is personal. 

 

Any further constructive advice is welcome. 

[BritTim]

I believe you are confused about the difference in requirements between those for a Non Ed visa and those for a retirement extension.

 

Non Ed visa and extensions

There is no financial requirement for a Non Ed visa. It is possible that Vientiane.might want to see a bank statement showing a nominal amount, but US$1,000 or 30,000 baht in the bank should satisfy them. The critical requirement when applying for a Non Ed visa is paperwork from an acceptable school. Vientiane has become picky about many of the language schools (in particular some in Chiang Mai). Before laying out any money with a language school to get the documents for the visa application, try to get proof that students of the school have recently succeeded in getting Non Ed visas in Vientiane.

 

If you successfully get a Non Ed visa in Vientiane, this will provide you an initial 90-day stay in Thailand. Every 90 days, this should be extended for a further 90 days at Thai immigration on payment of 1,900 baht. In practice, these extensions can be problematic, depending on the relationship between the school and immigration, and whether a bit more than 1,900 baht is proffered for the extension. Again, knowing the experience of other recent students is desirable.

 

If you get a tourist visa in Vientiane, this will give you a 60-day permission to stay. You can study Thai during this period if you wish, but it will be of no help in getting 90-day extensions to continue your studies.

 

Non Immigrant entry and retirement extension

I am not going to go into the details on this as it does not seem you will be able to satisfy the financial requirements. Briefly, you need to be in Thailand on a non immigrant entry (which can be achieved via a Non O visa from an embassy/consulate or a conversion process in Thailand. Subsequently, you can receive one-year extensions of your permission to stay.