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Thai Immigration has 8 classification sof enrty visa. of these the most important and most relevant to people reading this site are : 1. Transit Visa (TS) a.ka. 30-day Tourist visa or On Arrival visa, is for those who are in transit and with this visa visitors will be permitted to stay for 30 days. This is the free visa you get if you just turn up at the border or arrive on a plane for a 2 week holiday. 2. Tourist Visa (TR) is for visitors who visit this country for tourism purpose and they will be permitted to stay for 60 days. This must be obtained in advance of your arrival from a Thai consulate / embassy outside Thailand. Usual cost is around $20 3. Non - Immigrant Visa (Non-Imm. B) is for foreigners who wish to work either for official business, private business, study do research or stay with family and they will be permitted to stay for 90 days. This is the visa you must get , from outside Thailand, prior to (officially) accepting a job offer and starting work. Your school/company will then apply for the Work Permit and if everything's hunky dory then your visa will be extended from 3 to 12 months. Citizens of virtually all western countries get a free 30 day tourist visa at immigration upon entering the country. Therefore, if you are planning to stay in the country longer you should get a 60 day Tourist visa before you enter Thailand. These can be obtained from any Thai embassy or consulate. Once in Thailand you can extend your 60-day Tourist Visa at the Immigration office in Bangkok . The first extension allowed is for 30 days but after that you can extend it by another 15 days and then 1 week - but by this time it would probably be easier to commence your next visa run. It used to be the case that New Zealanders automatically got a 3 month tourist visa when you enter Thailand. (New Zealand was the only Western country that allows Thai passport holders to enter its country for a period of three months without the need for a visa ). This isn't the case now, the reciprocal agreement has been scrapped because too many Thais weren't returning home after their holidays. The only countries with 3 month reciprocal agreements are Korea and Brazil. Note : Extension of Transit/On Arrival Visa - Visitors who entered the Kingdom with an On Arrival Visa cannot extend their visa, except in special cases such as illness which prevents them from travelling, etc. If you fall into this category and need to extend your visa then contact: Section 5 (other types of extension), Sub-division 2, Immigration Division 1, Room 205, 2nd Floor of the Front Building, Immigration Bureau, Soi Suan Plu, South Sathorn Road, Sathorn District, Bangkok 10120. Tel. 287-3127 or 287-3101-10 Ext. 2264-5. Before you can apply for a work permit you need a Non-Immigrant 'B' visa. These are 3 month visas that initially allow you to be employed in Thailand. Seems simple enough, but there is a catch - you can only obtain a Non-Immigrant 'B' from a Thai embassy or consulate OUTSIDE of Thailand. (You can't get it when you arrive at the airport. ) To get the visa, you need a copy of a letter from your prospective employer clearly stating that you have been offered a job. For private companies you need a copy of the said company's registration documents, if you're working for a government establishment this isn't required, and two passport sized photos. Embassies usually take two days to process the visa. Most Thai embassies work on the system that you apply for Visas in the morning and collect them either the following afternoon, or in places like Phnom Penh - 2 days later. Once you have found a job and can prove to the Immigration officials that you are applying for a work permit you can extend the 3 month visa for another 9 months. After 1 year, if you are still employed by the same school/company, extending a Non-Immigrant 'B' visa is a simple procedure. Basically the same as extending a Tourist visa, only that, providing you are still under contract, you will automatically be given a new 1 year visa. The cost is the same - 500 Baht. If you're left to fend for yourself ( i.e. your school doesn't do all the paperwork for you) then the visa extension application should be submitted to: Section 3, Sub-division 1, Immigration Division 1 which is located on the 3rd floor of the Front Building of the Immigration Bureau in Soi Suanplu, Sathorn Road Bangkok. It’s telephone number is (662)287-3101-10 ext. 2237 or direct line: (662)287-4948. The easiest 12 month visa to get is the 12 month multiple entry Business Visa. On the face of it this should entitle you to stay in Thailand for 12 months, after all it is a 12 month visa. Unfortunately that's not what happens. You still have to leave the country every 3 months. Why bother? For a couple of reasons. Secondly, on regular Tourist visa runs you have to obtain a new visa from a Thai Embassy/Consulate abroad. The multiple entry visa does away with this requirement, you only have to leave the country. As soon as you have an exit stamp you can turn round and re-enter Thailand. If you're living in Bangkok then it's possible to get in and out of the country in one day by taking the bus to Poipet, Cambodia. This is a lot quicker than taking the train to Malaysia. For those of you interested in doing this, these visas are obtainable for around 12,000 Baht through several visa companies ( example S&A Visa ), who'll borrow your passport for a few days and return it with a legit visa. |