Thread: Savannakhet Marriage Visa without funds, last week

Originally Posted by 9999

What is the best way to go about a visa when flying in? Can you save time by pre-booking your visa?

I guess I'll be staying 2 nights, so I can be at the embassy first thing the 2nd morning, and hopefully have that afternoon.

Any reccomendations on hotels / bars / casinos ?

DaoSavahn is the big proper resort on the river and is nice enough with a big pool.
Tad expensive (relatively).
Bangyai stayed at a nice hotel which was very reasonable, check out his thread.
The casino is shite, the bars are shite.

Stayed at the dao savanh about a week ago , standard room is ok, $64 a night, comfy bed, a bit of a stroll to what passes for nightlife though, and hard to find a tuk tuk after about 8 at night, I did see a new hotel called something like New Sean Sabai and would of checked in there but it only had single beds , fuk that I'm I large mammal and like a decent scratcher, it's quite close to the river and the old Mekong hotel, some sin dared and Lao BBQ places opposite to.

Personally would rather cut my wrists and bleed out, rather than stay 2 nights in Sav.
Remember consulate has moved, fair way out of town center, get a tuk tuk, 500 BT for the day, fined a hotel with booze or stock up.
Get to the consulate before 11 am, do the visa, pick it up at 3 pm an get out of the place.

Okay, just reporting back.

Yesterday I met a guy from the US who married his thai wife in america.

He just successfully returned from Savannakhet and got a year long multi-entry Non-O visa in using the foreign marriage certificate AND the thai translation certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He did have his wife's thai i/d card, the copy of her listing in the thai house book, but it flew thru without a hiccup.

He also had his thai wife with him, dunno if that made a difference or not..

That's all the info I got...

Rick, child route may not be the way to go, depending on the immigration office, I was knocked back for one, Ubon. They wanted a court order for custody of the kids, spouse visa or nothing, didn't have money laying round for that.
Jim

Getting a yearly extension of stay based on marriage to a thai national is NOT fraught with peril. It is paperwork (support documentation) intensive, and you get a 30 day under review stamp (when immigrations is supposed to make the sojourn to your house to see if you're really married), before you go back and get the year's extension stamped into your passport.

I dunno if you'll be able to get an extension of stay based on being the father of a half-thai, even if your name is on the birth certificate (which means nothing as far as parental rights) and FWIW; your son holding a US passport cuts no ice with immigrations. It takes either having you listed as the father in the local amphur's log book (when the child usually has to be 8 or older so they can answer questions) OR going thru family court with your thai wife and getting recognized as the father and sharing 50% of the parental rights by court order.

As I said, an extension of stay based on marriage ain't that hard to push thru. It just takes giving them the paperwork they want in the order they want it, and then waiting the 30 day under review period out. I'm sure you could do it.

Tod. I'll dig out my old passport and show you a few 'under review' stamps!

I think that the first time I applied, I was 'under fookin' review' for 4 months.

Actually, just had a peek...22nd Sept- 11th Dec.

It was the fact that I had to travel from Ch-Am to Samutsakorn that really pissed me off.

"charleyboy" that is so pathetic that I have nothing to say, except...

There in lies my main beef with the "powerz-that-be" at Thai Immigrations. There is no rhyme or reason for different zones and different offices in those zones doing things other than the way they're supposed to be done.

Those little fiefdomz make up rules willy-nilly, change the goal post when ever they want, and some honestly get a great deal of satisfaction in making foreigners jump thru imaginary hoops that just plain don't exist in writing anywhere..

I saw a post from another forum where in Ubon (I think) they have a sign at immigrations which says something along the lines of

"foreigners using an embassy letter for proof of financial requirements are also required to present ATM receipts or bank statements showing 65K baht a month is transferred into the kingdom"

Now there is NO rule written in the regs that says, you need to bring baht one into this country if you are going the verification of funds from abroad by your embassy.

It's just some wing-nut mid level official thinking up another way to move the bar..

I had better be nice to the trouble and strife then, she recently sold her land, so now I plan to get her loan me, 400K to deposit in the bank. Until I get the marriage visa extension sorted.

Well "peterpan", like the topic of this thread suggests;

You could wing your way to Savannakhet and get a year long multi-entry Non-O visa based on marriage to a thai national without having to borrow ANY money from your thai significant other...

True you'd hafta border bounce every 90 days, but you'd be good to go for 15 months and NOT beholden to your wife either! Even if it went tits up down the road the visa would still be good..

Even with them doing away with the same day service; it's still hands down the most "user friendly" thai consulate in S/E Asia for Non-O visas...

shortly i will be residing in ubon for the foreseeable future, and i will will be doing my 90 day border runs to laos. for the last couple of years i have been getting a 12 month extension based on marriage, but couldn't be arsed this time so will get a non o multi from sav, and then have a bit of a jolly every 3 months. when i border run every 90 days will i still get a full page stamp on the laos side,even though it will be a short stay for about 2-3 days? if so, i better think of getting a new passport

cheers

Yes, the Laos visa is the same even ìf you go for one day. I wiĺl be making my 90 day run on Thursday and I just go into Laos, pay the 1500 baht for a visa and then turn the corner and come right back into Thailand without having to stay in Laos overnight. The entire process only costs me the 1500 baht plus fuel from Udon to Nong Khai and takes about an hour.

You may want to visit your embassy and obtain additional pages into your passport if you are planning to make numerous 90 day runs to Laos.

^ thanks for the info. i had a feeling that was the procedure. i was hoping it was like myanmar with just a small in and out ink stamp.as i'm in bkk at the moment maybe i will go to the embassy as you suggested.

thanks again

^
Depending on whether you like travelling around Thailand, you may be able to get a bus from Ubon to Mae Sot.
I know that buses run from Mae Sot to Mukdahan, Aranyaprathet and Pattaya etc.

500bt for Burmese stamps plus approx 1,000bt return fare = same amount for a Lao visa. But you don't use up a full page for it.

It can be a long tiring slog at times just going to Mae Sot from Bkk, so I hate to think how long it'll take from Ubon.
But, it's always nice to know what other options one has if a particular border closes for whatever reason.