BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey guys, i've seen millions of visa posts for thailand, but am -STILL- unclear on some things.

I'm a Canadian living in China with my girlfriend. We just finished a teaching contract and want to travel Thailand. We are in Hainan, have a flight booked to Shenzhen where we will fly to Bangkok. We wish to stay longer than the 30 day visa-free period. We don't have a visa for Thailand, but would happily get one. The problem is we have no means of filling out the application here, and our situation makes it difficult. We aren't planning on booking a return ticket until we are more sure when we want to leave Thailand. I guess i'm wondering if we will be able to get a visa any time within that free 30 days of visa-free time. Will the airline let us fly into Thailand without a visa? Will immigrations give us the 30 day stamp without a return ticket?

I've heard of people buying a cheap flight out of thailand within the 30 days but i dont see how that would help us. Plus after looking into costs, it really isn't that cheap.

Any thoughts would be -awesome-. Thanks


Jesse

You may want to try posting your question over on the forums at www.thaivisa.com They're the experts at this sort of thing.

One thought...you could look into buying a full refundable ticket for your exit and just cancel it later.

You'll get a 30 day VOA at the airport. I've never been asked for proof of onward travel - which is just as well because I never have any. If anyone asks just say you're going overland to Malaysia or something. Then you have a couple of options - at the end of your 30 days you can go to immigration and ask for an extension - they usually give you 14 days but you have to pay for it. Alternatively you can do what the the rest of us do = a visa run. Where you go depends on what part of the country you're in but they're very easy to do. I'm in Chiang Mai at the moment and did one last week to Mae Sai (Burma). Of course, this is presupposing that you can't get to a consulate to get yourselves a 60 day visa. I think you can get one in Kong Kong - and Air Asia flies from Macau to Bangkok. 60 day visas generally take 2 days.

Awesome guys, thanks for the replies.

I got asked going to thailand for an onward ticket. I have been asked in several other places aswell, depends on the airline you travel with as they are the ones who have to foot the bill to send you back to where you came from. The simplest solution is just doctor yourself up a fake ticket with a different airline. I have done this and it has worked everytime.

There was a time around 6 months ago before the law changed that you could get a 30 day visa on arrival in Thailand. Im not sure if it's the case anymore?

Dan

I think that what happened, is they changed the law, so you couldn't do mutiple visa runs any more. You still get the 30 days gratis on arrival, if you're one of 40 visa exempt nationals (Canada is included: see list in link below). Some people would end up staying a year or more, by going to Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, VN, Myanmar, etc, ad nauseum. They did crack down on this. So 60 days is the max with ONE visa run. UNLESS you go into the Thai consulate in Sathorn Thai. I've been there, but that was way back in 1995. They ask you to fill out a form, answer why you want to stay longer, & request photocopied docs. There was a photocopy place just across the road.

http://www.traveller2000.com/thailand/visa/information.htm