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[inasia2008]

Paul/Thellie, I read the info. Paul set out on VISAs :-

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Visas

For most visitors you’ll get a 30 day entry stamp free on arrival into Thailand. To extend that you can either go to an immigration office or, simply cross one of the international borders and return into Thailand with a new stamp. But remember you can only do that for a total of 90 days in one 6 month period. For longer visas you can apply at the Thai embassy nearest to you.

Make sure you have proof of onward travel from Thailand when you enter.

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What's the deal with coming for volunteer work, would I need to apply for the extension from the Embassy or take the across the border trip still? I looked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website and its a bit confusing, and there is no info. relating to this subject, there is info. re. visa exemption, but that s s bit confusing too? Do they check at customs how much money you have on you at the time of entry?

[thellie]

don't worry about the cash on you - i've been across the various borders and into bangkok airport from about 3-4 different countries now, and no-one has ever asked about me dosh...

for volunteer work up to 90 days, a tourist visa will suffice, although officially you should have a non-immigrant 'o' visa.

if you want to stay longer than 90 days, you'll need a multiple entry non-immigrant 'o' visa.
the problem with getting the 'o', jo, is i think you need to apply from your home country, because you have to get the visa stamped inside your passport. also, you need to get a sponsor letter from the place you wish to volunteer with to accompany your application, which they normally don't give out.

the alternative is to limit your stay to 90 days. or you can overstay and pay xxbaht per day penalty, but it may harm any future travel/visa requests when visiting thailand again. i wouldn't recommend that route. and i think you may be able to change your visa status whilst here, but i know virtually nothing about that, beyond belief that some tefl/tesol courses offer this opportunity when doing visa runs on tourist visas...

i'll have a word with paul tonight to see what he thinks, but send me an email tomorrow as well to remind me to ask khun moo, unless paul wants to field this one...?

[inasia2008]

Okay that makes sense, I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardise coming to Thailand in the future anyway! But one more thing, I mean 90 days is probably more than adequate anyway, but how would you specify that you are there for volunteer work to get the 90 day visa as Paul mentions in his Starter Kit that usually most visitors get a standard free 30 day stamp! Could you check this also for me please?

[thellie]

hey there,
i had a chat with him tonight (it's been a long, but potentially very productive evening), and he said that you can get a 60 day visa from the thai embassy before you come out...just a standard tourist visa... then on top of that you can do visa runs for another 90 days, so that covers all the time you want to be here and a little extra.

but don't mention volunteering, just apply for the tourist visa. as i said earlier ngo's don't hand out work permits/sponsor letters easily, but those that work with the police and government all the time usually have no problems as far as volunteers working on tourist visas are concerned.

i didn't know about this tourist visa, so it solves all the problems i mentioned earlier

[Paul]

[quote name='thellie' date='Jun 17 2008, 05:03 AM' post='60123']

"for volunteer work up to 90 days, a tourist visa will suffice, although officially you should have a non-immigrant 'o' visa."


Actually by the letter of the law you should have a Non Immigrant B visa and a work permit. But for short term volunteering, please don't worry. Unless you ask lots of questions and stir up trouble, no one is going to try to enforce that law on someone coming to help out - Come as a tourist and help and everyone will be happy. I think it is hard to write laws that cover every possible scenario.

Anyway, I think you guys have covered everything else.

[thellie]

no worries hun

it's killing me - it doesn't start until 1.45am... and the germans won as well

i'll try to stay up for the last two games, but i head into mirror weekdays for 8-8.30, so i only get about 3 hours sleep. plus we have a ton of volunteers arriving the morning after the final on sunday... and i'm driving into town to pick them up...hmmm, actually they don't need that until 12am, so maybe i will be ok.

be sort of glad when the competition is over though.

viva espana!

[thellie]

do you mean the 5:1 when we beat germany away? i didn't think we played that well, but we scored whenever we attacked, and the germans were pretty awful.

or the 4:1 when we beat the dutch in euro 96 - shearer scored in that one along with a 'not-yet-destroyed' gazza... that was about the best england performance i've ever seen, apart from possibly the 1970 world cup game against brazil when we lost 1:0.

we seem to have one decent game every 4-6 years, and play either pants, shocking, or frustratingly uninspiring in every other game in between...

[thellie]

the mighty... the awesome... the frustrating but lovable... cambridge utd!

lost in the conference play off final this year when outplayed by exeter city - but it coincided with my return home... 24 hrs back in the country and i'd managed to get a ticket for the 2nd leg of the play off semi-final, and then a couple of weeks later i was sitting in the brand new wembley with 21,000 other u's fans (the abbey stadium holds less than 10,000).

hopefully next year they will get up automatically, although i think there'll be problems as they've sold most of that team already.

[robogmatix]

Hi, I have a quick question about visa's if you can help.

My friend and I will be flying into bangkok but will be flying out of Singapore so we wont have proof of leaving Thailand but this is shown on our Itinerary, is this acceptable?

We have been told to book a cheap flight as proof but obviously want to avoid this if possible.

Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks

[ScottWoz]

Acceptable to who?

Not sure what you mean by not having proof of leaving Thailand. When you leave Thailand you'll have your passport stamped on your way out. That's your proof. Why book a flight for proof? Ah.. unless you're flying into BK from Australia, in which case you'll have problems. Aussie airports are a pain in the **** and could cost you dearly. Are you flying out of Australia?

[inasia2008]

And for Japan also! Even though you have a stamp in your passport you still have to have an itinerary to show when you are leaving the country again!

[Paul]

If you have the train ticket to Singapore and then a flight out of there - I reckon you can get away with that.

Otherwise - yeah, it seems to be a scam that the airports are making you buy tickets and trying to force you to fly when you don't want to. I suggest you raise a small army from your friends and overthrow your government, and then get your country to join Thailand. That should erase the need for you to prove you are leaving.