Question about visa Thailand: Visa run order and travel plan?
Dear editors,
First of all my compliments for this site. Very pleasant and clear.
My question has been asked many times, but I'm not quite sure yet. My son is flying to Bangkok 29/9. Return flight is on January 29. I think he must now apply for a tourist visa with double entries. After 60 days he has to leave the country by making a visa run, for example. He then gets another 60 days.
However, I think this is just too tight. He must therefore also go to immigration to extend the visa. Does it matter if you make the visa run first and then immigration or does order not matter?
In addition, my question: what do I enter on the travel plan for visa application? After all, it is not known when and if he will visit another country.
Regards,
Monique
Dear Monica,
I checked the new rules:
Order of the Immigration Bureau No. 327/2557. Subject: Criteria and Conditions for Consideration of an Alien's Application for a Temporary Stay in the Kingdom of Thailand. “2.4 In the case of tourism purposes:
Each permission shall be granted for no more than 30 days from the date on which the permitted period has expired.
the alien:
(1) Must have been granted a tourist visa (TOURIST) or exempted from applying for visa.
Each permission shall be granted for no more than 30 days as announced by Ministry of Interior.
(2) Must not be of a nationality or type prescribed by the committee monitoring official proceedings of officers of the Immigration Bureau.
Normally it should therefore not matter whether you request an extension after the first 60 days or after the second 60 days. At least that's what I read somewhere. The only question this text raises for me is – Do they mean by “permission” an “entry” or the visa in its entirety with “Double” or “Triple entry”. If by “permission” they mean the entry itself, you can ask for an extension at the end of each “entry”. Do they mean by “permission” the visa in its entirety, so including the “Double” or “Triple” entry, then you can only get 1 extension per visa. When you can get that extension, after the first, second or third entry, they do not indicate.
If it doesn't matter to your son, I would go for an extension after the second period of 60 days. You never know who you will meet at the border and how that immigration officer will read the new rules. If there is already an extension after the first 60 days, it can read as a back-to-back stay. It is also quite possible that if you go after an extension after the first 60 days, you will not get it again, but you will first have to use up your entries.
Hard to predict now with the new rules and how they will be read by that particular immigration officer. Maybe they ask nothing at all and you get everything without questions. They are difficult to predict. With Immigration you are never ready in advance.
As for that travel plan, I've never filled it in myself, but a plan is what it is, namely a schedule. Schedules can change. So I would say, fill in what the planning is currently. He must have some idea. If it turns out later that he goes earlier, or later, or to a different country than planned, so be it. They can't expect all of this to be so strictly regulated (and I suspect they don't expect your son to either)
Regards,
RonnyLatPhrao
Disclaimer: The advice is based on existing regulations. The editors accept no responsibility if this is deviated from in practice.