(this short article on Visa Runs is by no means comprehensive. Rules change all the time. Consult thaivisa.com or better yet, ask another ex-pat who’s been here awhile.)
Making a Visa Run is an essential part of a ex-pat’s existence in Thailand, as I am coming to discover. When you arrive in Thailand from most countries, (including the United States and Europe) you will be issued a FREE 30-day Tourist Visa (at least until March of 2010) at the airport. When that visa expires (as mine is about to) you must a Visa Run or risk Overstay, a situation which costs 500 baht per day and can also get you deported and potentially blacklisted from EVER entering Thailand again.
A Visa Run involves leaving the Kingdom by foot, bus, train or airplane and going into another country, (including such neighboring nations as Burma, Cambodia, or Malaysia or anywhere else on earth with a Thai embassy) entering that Thai embassy with your passport, filling out some forms, paying a fee and waiting for your passport to be returned with the appropriate stamp.
What you want to get out of your Visa Run is the most amount of days that you can legally stay in Thailand upon your return. I have been told by multiple parties that if you cross a border by land, you only get fifteen additional days to stay in the country before you have to make another Visa Run. That ruled out travelling by foot, bus or train to anywhere, so I figured I would fly somewhere. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is closest to Phuket, approximately 50 minutes by air, and tomorrow I will be flying there to see if I can get what’s called a multiple-entry visa.
A multiple-entry visa can be either a double or a triple, as I understand it. A Double allows you to stay in the Kingdom for 60 days plus another 60 day extension which can be obtained by leaving and re-entering the country. A Triple allows you to stay for 180 days, leaving and re-entering every 60 days. Dizzy yet?
The reality of this situation and why it’s so complicated is simply this – Thailand is very keen to have foreign tourists in Thailand for periods of up to a month – but it is less interested in foreign nationals (farang) who want to stick around and make a home or a haven out of Thailand for very long – even if they have the money or a damn good reason (like teaching or other work) to do so. Nevertheless, Thailand’s tourist economy as well as its English language learning industry requires that a certain number of English-speaking people live in the country for at least part of the year – which is why the Thai government issues the non-immigrant B visa for foreign nationals who wish to work legally within the country.
Two quick points on that – the ability to live in Thailand for a year is what encourages so many Westerners to get TEFL certificates and teach here for low wages so they can get this Visa. DO NOT WORK WITHOUT ONE. You can get into very serious trouble. Legally, you can’t even VOLUNTEER here without a Non-Immigrant B Visa, so be careful.)
Had I known about all this before I left the US, I would’ve probably used a service like this one to get a multiple-entry non-immigrant visa, (good for one year with a potential for a three-month extension) which can only be obtained while you are still in your home country. $500 for a visa to stay in Thailand for a year without Visa Runs might seem steep, but if you honestly think you want to stay for a bit, you’ll save yourself much more than that in money and hassles at foreign embassies. I have even heard that there are certain embassies in the UK that will issue this visa without charge to UK citizens and this might even be true with the Thai embassy in Houston, Texas for US citizens. (The map is not the territory – call them if you want one.)
One last thing – today I heard of something called a Media Visa (officially known as “Non-Immigrant M“) for foreign press. The Lost Boy (an excellent blog, btw) has one, but I don’t know if it’s possible for freelance press to obtain one – yet.
