TB Immigration Information Letter No. 047/23: Thai Embassy The Hague – Experience with online applications for Non-O visa
Reporter: Rob V.
At the beginning of this month I helped my father apply for a 3-month visa to Thailand (Non-Immigrant Visa O, family visit). Since we already had an account from an application last year, it went quite smoothly (the elimination of that difficult insurance requirement with Covid coverage makes a big difference). After logging in and creating a new application, you will arrive at the page where you must enter the personal data. I initially filled this in manually, until I noticed that the browser had not started at the very top, and I scrolled up and saw the fields to upload the passport page and passport photo. After uploading the passport, the question "Do you want to automatically fill in the personal data based on your passport?" was asked, then you clicked yes. Of course, carefully checked whether the fields were filled in correctly, especially the fields for the first name, middle names and last name. That all seemed fine. At the next page, where you have to fill in the travel details, the browser jumped down a bit again, but I was prepared for that now. Completing the application went smoothly.
However, something went wrong when submitting and paying. After I pressed the “pay now” button, the error message appeared “'< ' is an invalid start of a value”. The payment and therefore the application could not be continued. My suspicion was that somehow, during automatic reading, a < sign like the one at the bottom of the passport (invisible?) appeared in one of the name fields. Unfortunately, you cannot reopen the application to view or edit the fields again.
The solution was obvious: I made a new request and this time filled in all the fields manually to ensure that the computer does not accidentally include an invalid character. Fortunately, no more error messages appeared. After paying we returned to the homepage of the visa website. Good luck! Or…? After an hour no money had been debited, although that usually goes smoothly. Still, I called the credit card company and they told me that the expiration date had been entered incorrectly and the payment was therefore canceled. Log in again and pay with the correct dates when you return to the home page of the visa website. I immediately logged in again and the status overview immediately showed that the application had been processed.
What lessons have I learned from this?
– Don't rely on autofill. Most of the time it will go well, but perhaps the multiple long names were something that the computer tripped over during automatic reading and a < sign from the “encoded” line at the bottom of the passport page (invisible?) was accidentally inserted into one of the fields. Instead of immediately giving an error message when you want to go to the next page, the website only chokes when paying for an application...
– When entering the credit card data, make sure everything is correct. After the payment is being processed, you will be returned to the home page without an error message in the event of a successful or failed payment. You will also not receive an email with a digital confirmation that the application and payment have been received. You can only check this by logging in again and checking the status overview to see whether the application has already been processed.
– You cannot delete completed applications, so that one application that received an error message when payment was made will remain there until St. Jutte Mass... Oh well.
After submitting the application, it was already approved at the end of the second working day. So things continue to run smoothly. We can't be the only ones who encountered the two problems with the application, so I would like to let you and the readers know. Feedback regarding questions and experiences with visa applications is useful for others who find themselves in a similar situation.
Reaction RonnyLatYa
Indeed Rob, such feedback is very useful for future visa applicants, allowing their applications to proceed more smoothly or problems to be avoided.
The embassy also has a page that lists some common mistakes and how to avoid them. But such lists are never limiting, of course, and readers' experiences are an important addition.
Common Mistakes in applying for Thai e-Visas
https://hague.thaiembassy.org/th/publicservice/common-mistakes-e-visa
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Another is the credit card you pay with.
If, as with my brother (I don't have a credit card), there would be a between the initials. And it turns out that the Thai embassy system cannot deal with that.
We had already paid 2 last year, but nothing happened, so we saw payment not fulfilled or something like that.
When the credit card company called to see what the problem could be, and they came up with a solution that we had not thought of because it says when paying, copy all letters and characters from the credit card, but the solution was leave the . Remove points and do it again, if it doesn't work, call us back and we will look further.
And guess what the . Points out and the payment was accepted immediately.
Rob V. Can't you mention this somewhere in your PDF file?
Dear Jan, yes that is also a good comment. It often happens that a form with input fields can only be processed correctly with A to Z and 0 to 9. Other, especially “special” characters can pose a problem. Points on the credit or debit card are certainly something that a website can stumble over.
And as you and Jacqueline indicate: a difference between whose name the account on that E-visa website is in and the name of the account holder. Useful to know that they must match.
But my PDF file here on the blog is about the Schengen visa and Immigration to the Netherlands. Ronny is the Thailand visa specialist. That is why I sent my experience to Ronny so that he and readers can benefit from my experience. Whether it concerns experiences with a visa for the Netherlands or Thailand, or general reader questions, it sometimes happens that people do not share the outcome or further experiences here on the blog... While we can learn a lot from other people's problems, mistakes and solutions .
So readers please send in good and less good experiences and the outcome of one or another reader question, it will be useful to all of us.
I had created an account for myself and submitted a visa application and paid with the credit card in my name and linked to our joint account and it was successful in one go. Immediately created an account for my husband and applied for my husband's visa in exactly the same way as mine and tried to pay with the same credit card (in my name) and the payment could not be made. Called the bank and they saw that the credit card was in order and nothing had happened to the credit card and they did not know what could be the cause, called the embassy and there was no problem and payment could normally be made. I couldn't find a solution on the internet or in the various FB groups either. After trying to pay again in many different ways, I thought that I would try to apply for a visa for my husband on my account and the payment would be successful immediately. Maybe this information will be of use to someone. Jacqueline
It's been months, but it is NOT a good idea to use autofill.
Used this to enter address, but my name was also changed. So a change in the name read from the passport by the system. If they happen to be the same, you are in luck, if not, you will be rejected. I had thought that autofill would only fill in my address, but not.
This field is not monitored for this and is simply changed.
However, the field was “guarded” when reading the passport, because there was a message about my middle name, which I do not have. Be careful with autofill!
For what it's worth. I applied for my non-o for 1 year with quarterly re-entry via the website in the Netherlands at the end of September without any problems and I thought I received it a day later.
Moderator: Please provide a source for your statement.