We really do understand the 30-day limit on staying in Thailand, but --------

From what we have read on the Thai Visa website, what we get upon entering BKK is a "permission to visit Thailand" not a visa and is good for 30 days.

Now for the confusion, if our original tickets show a return more than 30 days from the date on entry, do we need to produce proof that we are traveling on to other countries. We really want to wait to buy our "onward" tickets in Thailand, as they are less expensive than outside Thailand.

I guess I really am asking "Will we need to show proof of leaving the country within 30 days?" We have never had to do this before in several visits to Thailand, but with our luck, this will be the year. Since this is not a visa, as such, how is this handled?

Does anyone know?

Sandra

First, the permission to visit is indeed your visa. Just different wording.

Thai immigration will most probably want to see proof of onward travel within 30 days if you do not arrive with a >30 day visa.

Further, without that proof of onward travel and without the >30 visa, your airline to Thailand will most probably not let you board.

So basically you have several choices: (1) try to save $50 at the risk of not getting on the plane or not being allowed into Thailand at all, or, (2) get the >30 day visa in advance, or, (3) buy a refundable roundtrip air ticket leaving Thailand with 30 days (and returning whenever), use it to get on the plane and into Thailand, and once in Thailand cancel it and get your money back.

I think NoFlyZone means a 60 day Visa as a 30 day one does you no good since your return date is more than 30 days. It is not the thai immagration that will bother you, they very rarely ask to see a return ticket, it is the airlines. A lot of airlines insist that you have either a return ticket within the 30 days or a 60 day visa. Check with the airline to see what they require.

Hi Sandra (from Sydney!... actually I'm in Parramatta right now)

DS does this all the time, as he usually stays in BKK for about 5-6 weeks. You will be fine. You do, after all, have plans to leave Thailand during that visit, if I remember correctly, and go to another country. I can't recall where you said you would go. In any case, your passport will be stamped when you leave Thailand, and then stamped again when you return. You will then be granted another tourist visa. You'll be returning to the USA before your "new" visa would expire. Does this make sense? Email me if you need to. DS usually does not know when he will do a visa run or where he will go, so he is not expected to tell immigration upon entering Thailand, other than to say he "plans" to go to Singapore or Hong Kong, or whatever.

IF something should happen and you could not do a "visa run" to another country, you would be fined upon leaving BKK airport. The fine is so many baht per day. DS has had to pay a fine a few times because he stayed one or two days beyond his visa time. Now, if you have stayed more than a few days beyond your visa limitation, that might be a different situation!

I would not worry about this.

Carol

Technically, you do not get a visa on arrival at BKK< it is visa-free entry. That technicality isn't very important (visa vs. visa free entry), but the length of stay is. I agree that you are unlikely to have any difficulty with immigration at BKK, and I think it's unlikely you'll have problems with your airline. I am interested, though, in your idea that your intra-asia tickets will be less expensive in Thailand than buying them on the web. Have you checked this? Usually, there isn't a price difference for the kind of short hop you will be doing. But if you want a ticket in advance, you can have a local agent buy it and email it to you. I use Eddie at the Bangkok Am Ex Office.

I didn't know if it was 60, 90 or something else days so I just covered with >30. Too lazy to look it up, and the actual number really is irrelevant.

I find it much simpler to book my Phuket or Krabi or Chiang Mai tickets in Bangkok, after I have arrived there, and am a bit more certain of my schedule. I love having the flexibility of going on the spur of the moment. I've often booked tickets for a flight the very next day. There is no price difference, that's true. I just sometimes get to Bangkok and find out that the things I had pre-planned in my head (but nothing cut in stone) had to change because of a holiday or special event going on that I did not want to miss.

Flexibility is very important to me when I travel, no matter where I'm headed.

Carol

i have never heard of anyone being asked to show proof of anything except for very long stays....

just make sure you leave thailand by day 29 for at least a short time.

some people just pay the fine, but i would not want to be put in that position

I still maintain that the airline can refuse you boading unless you have a return ticket within the 30 days or a 60 day visa. That is why you have to check with your airline to ensure their policy.

Carol - how does DS get away with travelling from the US without what I mentioned above if staying 4-5 weeks. And it is bad advice to say that it is alright to overstay a couple of days and pay the fine at the airport. But if you are stopped for any reason by the police before you get to the airport and your visa is expired it is off to the immagration detention centre (in some cases you can bribe the officer to overlook this)

If you plan to use discout airlines such as Air Asia then the earkier you book the less the airfare.

I got asked this visit for proof of my homeward flight, first time ever and i was checking in for a flight to Laos from BKK, maybe that was a Laos custom thing?? My trip was only a short one too!

Thanks everyone for chiming in with your experiences and advice. Since we don't like to take chances, I guess we will just go ahead and get air tickets to LP. But, I will wait a couple of months before doing thisl. The last time I booked BA in advance, we had to cancel our flight from the US a week before leaving (health) and the BA tickets were not refundable.

Thanks again!

Sandra

Bangkok Air has various ticket classes, with varying conditions. They do offer refundable tickets, but of course you'll pay more.