For Those Planning A Border Run...

While all the attention was focussed on the blockades of the airports in Bangkok some changes were introduced on December 3rd in relation to the Visa rules.

Up until then for visitors who were granted 30 days on arrival — those who were not already holders of tourist or other visa types for which different conditions apply — could then extend their time in Thailand at the end of the period by doing a Border Run which gave you an additional 30 days. You could do this on two occasions before being required to leave Thailand for a ninety-day consecutive period (or at least that’s my understanding of it).

If you haven’t been to Thailand before you might be asking yourself what’s a Border Run? You could describe it as a day out if you’re someone that just goes with the flow where a travel agent will organise your return visa trip to the border of a neighbouring country, usually Cambodia or Laos. Basically, it’s an all-inclusive trip to a border crossing which will generally mean travelling in a mini-bus with a group of people in a similar situation to yourself, which includes the processing of paper work, your visa fee and lunch as part of the fee.

Pick-up time from your hotel or other place of accomodation in Pattaya is around 6.00 a.m. returning in the early afternoon. The cost varies between 2,000 and 2,500 baht depending on whether your travelling in a mini-bus with 9 people or the V.I.P. version with a max of 6 and the very welcome extra space for the duration of the trip. All you’re required to bring is your passport, a copy of your passport, one (or two) photos and it might be no harm to bring a copy of your ticket home just in case.

Your time at the border will generally be quite short, maybe 30 minutes, just enough time to do some shopping for cigarettes, alcohol or whatever else takes your fancy. All this while your driver takes care of monitoring the paper work as its being processed so as to ensure that you can cross back over the border into Thailand without too much delay and be on your way back to Pattaya.

CHANGES TO THE RULES

As stated earlier in this article from early December changes have been made to the rules where only a 15 day visa will now be granted to anyone wishing to extend their original 30 day visa they received on arrival in Thailand. The only way now to extend it by 30 days is to re-enter Thailand via an airport. This is certainly a more expensive option and many people who wish to stay longer in the Kingdom may feel it is still cheaper to do two 15-day visa runs to the border than fly out to a neighbouring country and back again.

It should also be noted that for anyone arriving in Thailand for the first time and who are not in possession of a tourist or other visa, that unless they now enter through an airport they will also be restricted to a 15-day stay on entry through a border crossing.

7-Feb-2010

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