Visas, Visa-Requirements, Entry-Regulations, Extensions, Overstay, Customs regulations, Drugs & Punishment in Thailand. www.KoChangVR.com - Virtual Travel and Island Guide with all Information for Holidays & Travels to Thailand.
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Visas & Entry-Regulations, Customs & Drugs in Thailand
- Thailand Information -
(Immigration-Office in Laem Ngop at the mainland in front of Ko Chang in Thailand)
Picture from Thailand in www.KoChangVR.com - virtual travel- & island guide all information for holidays and travels to Thailand
Visa-Requirements and Entry-Regulations

- Types of Visas

Citizens from over 50 countries including England, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand etc. can stay in Thailand without a visa for a maximum of 30 days if they arrive at an airport. People who do not enter Thailand at an airport only get a maximum lenght of stay of 15 days!
Tourist visas valid for up to 60 days are issued by Thai-Embassies abroad.
For multiple entries you can get permits for up to three entries. These are valid altogether for 90 days and cost 10 Pounds (US $ 15) per entry.
Non-Immigrant visas are usually only given to people on business trips.

Type of visa Length of stay Entries Validity
Tourist 60 days 1 190 days
Tourist 60 days / entry 2 180 days
Tourist 60 days / entry 3 180 days
Non-Immigrant 90 days / entry 1 190 days
Non-Immigrant 90 days / entry multiple 365 days
Transit 30 days / entry 1 190 days
Transit 30 days / entry 2 180 days
Transit 30 days / entry 3 180 days

- Required Documents
(required from the German embassies)
- Original-passport valid at least 6 months when entering Thailand.
- Child-IDs are not accepted, children require a passport of their own or an entry in the passport of the parents.
- Fully filled in visa application personally signed by the applicant.
- 1 passport photograph
- Proof/acknowledgement on the booked trip, e.g. copy of the invoice, copy of the ticket, travel plan
- Stamped addressed envelope with your address on it sufficiently stamped, most suitable by certified mail
- Visa fee attached in cash

- Finances when entering

The following rules applying since 2000, are in praxis only rarely used.
Following amount of money you have to show when if necessary entering, whereas children under the age of 12 years are excepted from this rule.
- Visa-on-arrival / Transit-Visa (30 days): 10.000.- Baht per person.
- Tourist-Visa (60 days) or Non-Immigrant-Visa (90 days): 20.000.- Baht per person.

- Visa-Extensions

The 30-days visa-free residence-permit can only be extended in medical case for a maximum of 7-10 days.
The 60-Day-Tourist-Visa can be extended for 30 days, afterwards another 14 and then again a further 7 days. As these extensions are at the discretion of the responsible immigration office they might be shorter.

- Visa-Extensions in Laem Ngop

Located on the main-street from Laem Ngop in the direction of Trat, about 200 metres after the Post Office, also on the left hand side. Telephone 039 / 597 261, business-hours: Mon - Fri from 8.30 - 12.00 am and from 1.00 - 4.30 pm. (See the map of Laem Ngop: "Mainland around Trat".) For visa-extensions dress properly, bring along your passport, a passport-picture and enough money.

- Visa-Extensions in Cambodia

With re-entry-permits or double-entry-visas you can leave the country to Cambodia and return into Thailand without a problem within 30 - 45 minutes. Also a new 30-days-residence-permit is available this way. Since October 2006 these 30-days-residence-permits will only be given 3 times in a row, afterwards you have to spend at least 90 days outside the country before you will get another Transit visa!
The border intersection is at Hat Lek and can be reached from Trat in approximately 1 hour by mini bus or taxi. Business hours: 7 am - 8 pm.
1200 Baht is necessary for the Cambodian visa as well as a passport picture (or 100 Baht more without a picture). If you want ot come back to Thailand at the same day, you have to pay another 300 Baht!
At the Cambodian site there are a lot of children who beg for money. Also many Cambodians are there to help you with the visa application - and please don't forget to give them some money for their help. Cigarettes and other goods can be bought directly at the border as well.
In case you come to Thailand late in the evening it may happen that you neither find a taxi nor a mini bus!
The complete journey can be achieved from Ko Chang problem-free within a day.
(More information how to get there can be found here: "Ko Chang Info", "Arrival & Departure to and from Ko Chang / Travel from Laem Ngop". Map: "Ko Kood Special", "The exact location in the Gulf of Thailand".)

- Overstay in Thailand

Exceeding the stay of your residence permit or visa by a few days will result in you paying a fine of 500 Baht for every day. If this is the case you should therefore arrive for departure some time before takeoff at the immigration-office at the airport as filling out the appropriate forms takes some time!
Longer overstay will end at court and if the fine cannot be paid you are inevitably sent to prison!

- Losing the passport

For safety reasons you should have a copy of your passport and keep it at a safe place. At the embassy you can apply for a new document what can be very time consuming. Some embassies ask for a notice of loss from the police. Generally applies: Never hand out your passport to strangers. Often the document is asked for when renting a moped, here either leave a copy or look for another rental.



Customs-Regulations in Thailand


- Import to Thailand
200 Duty-free-cigarettes or 250 grams of tobacco, 1 litre of wine or spirits, a camera, a personal stereo, one film- or video-camera plus 5 films are allowed to be imported as well as your usual daily utensils.
Foreign currencies may be imported up to any amount. Anything else must be declared on entry.
The import of drugs, weapons and pornographic literature is prohibited.

- Export from Thailand
Neither antiques nor Buddha-figurines may be exported. The export of foreign currencies is permitted up to any amount. Thai cash may be exported up to a maximum amount of 500,000 Baht into neighbouring countries and 50,000 Baht elsewhere. Tax can be claimed back on products purchased at the airports in Bangkok, Hat Yai, Phuket or Chiang Mai up to the value of 5,000 Baht, in order to claim, receipts need to be shown.

- Departure from Thailand
If you overstay your visa, there is a penalty of 500 Baht per day. If you leave Thailand by airplane don't forget the reconfirmation of your flight at least 72 hours prior to takeoff!



Drugs, Fines and Punishment in Thailand


Drugs are generally forbidden in Thailand!

In Thailand considerably higher penalties for drug possession and drug smuggling are imposed than in western countries. In specially serious cases death penalty can be imposed but as against in Malaysia are not executed. Not rarely foreigners are sentenced for life in prison which can eventually be reduced to 30 or 40 years – what in a Thai prison can mean the same as a slow death penalty. It should thus also be done without "light” drugs such as Marihuana (Ganja). For some years controls in the tourist areas for back-pack travellers become more and more common where also urine is examined for cannabis residues. Also every now and then luggage checks at coach stations are made, mainly in Bangkok where the coaches from the South, the North and the East arrive.
Foreigners by all means are examined with a fine-tooth comb and it is not unusual that Thai customs officers or even the American DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) take hold right before departure.
Round about 60% of all Germans doing their time in Thai prisons because of drug offences. The duration of the pre-trail confinement depends on several facts (accusation, solid evidence, witnesses, activity of the Thai lawyer) and can take owing to circumstances several years.

Hence it is a basic principle in Thailand: Keep your hands off all illegal drugs!

- Further offences that can lead to an imprisonment

The remaining 40% of Germans doing their time in Thai prisons among others because of sexual abuse of underage persons, rape, murder, theft, import/spreading of bad money and bank-card cheating.

- Worth knowing
Also in Thailand article 36 of the Vienna consular rights convention applies. This means that local authorities are legally obligated to inform the next embassy/consulate and they have to inform you about this right.
Since 1997 there is the possibility that sentenced Germans serve a part of their sentence in a German prison. But it is left to the Thai authorities who is allowed to leave or not. It happens quite often that suitable pleas are rejected as the degree of penalty appears undervalued to the Thai authorities.
After eight years in prison in Thailand, Germans facing a life sentence can file this petition.
Was a prison sentence between 12 and more years imposed the petition can be filed after four years.
At prison sentences between 1 and 12 years at least one third of the penalty must be served.
Fines, overstay-charges, bail money and lawyer charges must of course be paid out of someone’s own pocket.
Acts of grace are in fact regularly ruled by the King by decree, but people detained because of drug offences are excluded from it.

(Specifications: 2006)


Sources: Thail Consulates Stuttgart and Karlsruhe (www.thaikonsulat.de), www.Pattaya.de.
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