Thailand

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Visa Considerations

The two main options for tourists in Thailand (from the US) are to either come with NO visa, in which case you’ll be auto given a 30 day entry visa with a 500 baht per extra day fine. The second option is to come with a 60 day tourist visa which you’ll have to apply for ahead of time. Im not sure how much it costs but you’ll have to go to an embassy to get it (NYC of SF) or hire a company to take care of the processing for you. So your next question might be – what if I want to stay for 90 days? Well, then you do one of the infamous “Visa Runs”. Options abound since both flights and boats are rather cheap and countries are close by. The most frequent flight options usually take a person to Singapore or Kuala Lampur and possibly Ho Chi Mihn (I opted for KL). Your passport is stamped, your exit visa is taken care of, then when you reenter Thailand your 30 (or 60) days starts over again. Here in Phuket the most common option is to head off to Myanmar (Burma). A bus takes you a couple hours up the coast of Thailand where you catch a 20 minute boat across the bay to Burma. You hang out for an hour while your passports get processed, then back on the boat, to the bus, and back home. I’ve heard this process can take anywhere from 6 to 16 hours. I bring this up so that people don’t make the same mistake I made. Most of these options will costs at least $50US so while its worth it if you stay for say 55 days on a 30 day visa, it is not worth it if you stay for 35 days because the fine costs the same amount as the visa run, and you loose a day. Planning out your stay based on visa considerations and the knowledge that you’ll have to make a visa run is prudent. Hope that helps!