Tourist visa refused

[jayci]

Wanted to travel by train kuala lumpur to Bangkok for the experience.

I had applied for se tourist visa in new Zealand. At the padang besar border, The immigration woman refused me because she did not believe that the visa was real and that she did not believe that I was on holiday. She thought that I wanted to work in Thailand!?

Told me that I had to fly in.

So now I have to take train back to kuala lumpur and fly in.

Crazy world

[lopburi3]

There is an international airport in Penang.

[ubonjoe]

Did you get a tourist visa at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur?

Do you have a denial of entry stamp? I doubt you do. Was that just the officer at the desk or was it taken higher up to a supervisor?

[jayci]

Officer at the desk referred me to another desk lady.

Visa was done in New Zealand

[jayci]

Works out just as cheap to go back to kuala lumpur. A least I can sleep on the train

[jayci]

Her behavior was very erratic. Very hyper.

When she asked for my exit ticket, she looked at the paid date and said that the ticket was for last year. But flight date is March

[lopburi3]

Expect officer noted your previous overstay on computer and may have made the work comment based on that bit of information. The new tourist visas are probably not well known at land borders yet.

[jayci]

I am only gutted because I miss out on the train trip. I was looking forward to it.

[lopburi3]

Really not much to see on that trip as it is mostly at night (in Thailand).

[jayci]

Still gutted, fun travel story. I don't mind being blocked if did something wrong, but everything is legit.

[ubonjoe]

Form your OP "I had applied for se tourist visa in new Zealand.". I assume that you only had a single entry tourist visa. Which would mean you were trying to get a 15 day visa exempt entry.

Was your ticket out of the country within 15 days of your attempted entry?

At a border crossings they do not follow the procedures for a denial of entry. If they had done it correctly the would of asked for financial proof (20k baht in cash) and/or proof you are not working here.

[jayci]

I was trying to activate my visa. 60 days

[jayci]

She took a photo of my visa, like she never seen one before.

She not believe that people can holiday 60 days.

[sunnyjim5]

I was trying to activate my visa. 60 days

Were you able to evidence 20,000 Bht cash on your person and did you have an address in Thailand ?

If the answer to both those questions is yes then you should have insisted on speaking to a Supervisor.

[ubonjoe]

I was trying to activate my visa. 60 days

A bit of misunderstanding on my part I think

You flew into KL from New Zealand and then took a train from there and was stopped at the border from entering. If that is correct it means they were way wrong in denying you entry.

I think your entering at a border crossing with a new visa issued in NZ completely confused them and they did not take the time to check all the stamps in your passport. They apparently thought you had sent your passport to NZ to get the visa.

[jayci]

I didn't have the 20000 on hand because I didn't want to travel with large sums of money. And she would only accept baht, so I didn't think that the local ATM would help. When applying for the visa, I had to show proof of cash in bank of at least 50000. So didn't think I would need 20k on hand at the border.

[lopburi3]

Although not always asked it is always a requirement to have that amount for visa entry - and normally believe you would be allowed to use an ATM if required.

[jayci]

I got the impression that her mind was already made up. Even if I had the 20k. She just didn't believe the visa in my passport.

[ubonjoe]

I got the impression that her mind was already made up. Even if I had the 20k. She just didn't believe the visa in my passport.

Did you read my last post. I think what I wrote is what happened..

[Fatman666]

I opened my 2nd entry of my DTV at Padang Besar border 10 days ago without any problems. Last year twice travelled into Thailand via Padang Besar, same never had problems there.

[BritTim]

If UJ was correct, I think the issue could have been resolved by showing your boarding pass for the flight from New Zealand to Kuala Lumpur. Obviously, a bit late now, and it is tough to think of such things when you cannot figure out why the IO is not accepting your visa.

EDIT: one other thought. Is it possible there could have been an error on the visa issued by the Thai consulate in New Zealand? That could have caused the visa to be actually invalid, or raised suspicions about its authenticity.

Edited January 22, 2016 by BritTim

[jayci]

Could it be because the category is blank?

[swampdonkey]

Could it be because the category is blank?

Type of visa should be tourist

Category should be. TR

[BritTim]

Yes, the intent is pretty clear, and my guess is that the visa would be accepted if entering through an airport. However, I think Type "Tourist" and Category "TR" is the correct form. I could imagine an IO at a land border deciding it was safer to reject the technically invalid visa rather than allow an entry that (however unlikely) she could have been criticized for later.

[ubonjoe]

I think you had a mixture of problems.

One is the handwritten visa sticker which they may of not seen before and using it for the first time at a border crossing from Malaysia.

If you don't want to fly in you could try another crossing.

[bigt3116]

Expect officer noted your previous overstay on computer and may have made the work comment based on that bit of information. The new tourist visas are probably not well known at land borders yet.

The OP has a single entry tourist visa, nothing new about them.

[lopburi3]

Actually missed the 'se' as meaning single entry and believed it was the new multi entry tourist visa when posted above - but in any event the visa now appears to be not normal as it was a machine readable sticker that had not been filled out by normal typing information and had no entry in category - so indeed may have caused concerns.

[laislica]

Sorry for the disappointment this caused for the OP.

However, all good info like;

Having 20,000b on hand or at least available in an ATM.

Keeping your boarding card on hand.

I have been thinking about making our annual journey from Spain into a Grand Adventure.

Visit friends in Europe first.Then fly to Vietnam and then travel across land through Cambodia

must see Angkor Wat and then a land border entry to Thailand.

I have a retirement extension so I assume that everything would be fine anyway?

Only in the - this might be a good thing to do stage, nothing firm yet.

[NanLaew]

Poor performance by the person issuing the visa sticker in NZ. It does look bogus. There's already a history of blank visa stickers being 'stolen' from the Thai Embassy in KL so the inexperienced and inadequately qualified Thai immigration lady decided to play the proverbial, face-saving 'cannot!' card. The fact that she referred it to a fellow passport stamper and she agreed is fairly predictable. The OP should have asked (or waited) for a supervisor. If the OP still has the receipt from the Thai Consulate in Auckland, it may eliminate any questions regarding the visa authenticity.

[ubonjoe]

You would think the honorary consulates could invest in a an old time typewriter to do the visa stickers, At least they would look better than the hand written ones I have seen.

A person had a similar problem at the Cambodia border with a METV that was hand written by the Toronto consulate. Most of the problem he had was because immigration had never seen a METV before and had to make a phone call to confirm it was OK.