AS PHUKET begins a high season filled with dread, new Immigration rules appear set to alter the lives of many expat residents in Thailand.
Immigration officials on Phuket were meeting to be fully briefed on the rule changes, reported to cut 30-day tourist visa extensions obtained at neighboring borders to 15 days.
Effective immediately, travellers without visas will get only 15 days of stay if they are arriving via a land border checkpoint from a neighboring country.
Passengers arriving via an international airport will obtain a 30 days stay, and for them there is no change.
A spokeswoman for Immigration in Ranong, on the border with Myanmar, said it affected only P30 visas.
For example, she said, a Briton who came to Thailand and was granted a 30-day visa would only be granted an extra 15 days if he or she travelled to Ranong on a regulation ''visa run.''
People who have had a 30-day visa followed by a 15-day visa could then apply to local Immigration for a seven-day extension, the spokeswoman said.
The seven-day extension would cost 1900 baht and would not be granted automatically. The applicant would have to satisfy Immigration that they had a satisfactory reason for staying on.
Then they would have to travel to a distant destination to apply again, she said.
Travellers with Malaysian passports will obtain a 30 days stay, the Thai Visa report said.
Visa run companies confirmed that the P30 30-day visa had been reduced to 15 days. Other visas remained unchanged, one company spokeswoman said.
This change comes under police order number 778/2551 has been confirmed by Royal Thai Police, Immigration Bureau, in Bangkok, a report on the Thai Visa online site said.
News of the dramatic change came after a week of turbulent political protest and two Bangkok airport seizures that put Thailand's future as a tourist destination in jeopardy.
Domestic and international flights are almost back to normal schedules following the re-opening of Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday and Don Mueang today.
A Phuket airport official said that today a total of 28 international and 7 domestic flights will operate in and out of Phuket International Airport.
Thai Airways has resumed domestic flights to Don Mueang today, and three flights from Phuket are scheduled to run there today. THAI also operating three flights to Suvarnabhumi airport from Phuket. There are no longer any special flights in operation. Flight information and reservations available at 02 356 1111.
Dragonair this week has doubled the capacity of its regular daily flights connecting Hong Kong and Phuket by using an A330 instead of an A320, the airline announced, though a sign posted at its Phuket airport office said flights were full until December 10.
AirAsia will operate from Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok from December 5, with passengers advised to allow five hours for check-in. Until Friday, flights still operating out of U-Tapao and the December 2-4 schedule it posted on its website about added flights remains in effect. AirAsia has set up one extra daily return flight from Phuket to Singapore, another to Kuala Lumpur, and a domestic flight connecting Phuket and U-Tapao airport. AirAsia Phuket Sales Counter Tel: 076 328 601-2.
SilkAir announced on December 1 that it had added 13 additional flights between Singapore and Phuket for the week ending December 7, in addition to the four or five regularly-scheduled daily flights. Today there is a special evacuation flight leaving Phuket at 11.15pm bound for Singapore, which is nearly full. All four of the scheduled Phuket-Singapore flights for today are fully booked. Since the airport closures, SilkAir has been accepting Singapore Airlines tickets between Bangkok-Singapore for travel on Phuket-Singapore or Chiang Mai-Singapore, without additional charges, the airline says. Tel: 02 353 6000, 076 304018/19/20 (24 hours).
Bangkok Airways announced today that it is back in operation at Suvarnabhumi airport, and running a total of 18 flights, both international and domestic. One flight to Phuket, carrying 125 passengers, is set to take off at 5.30pm, and a Phuket-Bangkok flight will leave at 7.40pm. There are also four flights connecting Phuket and Koh Samui and one Phuket-U-Tapao flight, all of which are on the regular schedule. Passengers holding tickets to flights that had been cancelled due to the airport closures will be put on the first available flights, the airline says. Call 1771 or 0-2265-8777 for reservations.
Tiger Airlines is back to its normal schedule today after running two special return flights between Phuket and Singapore yesterday, which carried 141 passengers back to Phuket from Singapore and 68 to Singapore from Phuket. Second flight had 164 passengers from Singapore to Phuket and from Phuket to Singapore 96 people. Today there are two regularly scheduled return flights, ferrying a total of 656 passengers.
Malaysia Airlines is back to its regular schedule, with two flights from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur set to run today at normal capacity.
Immigration officials on Phuket were meeting to be fully briefed on the rule changes, reported to cut 30-day tourist visa extensions obtained at neighboring borders to 15 days.
Effective immediately, travellers without visas will get only 15 days of stay if they are arriving via a land border checkpoint from a neighboring country.
Passengers arriving via an international airport will obtain a 30 days stay, and for them there is no change.
A spokeswoman for Immigration in Ranong, on the border with Myanmar, said it affected only P30 visas.
For example, she said, a Briton who came to Thailand and was granted a 30-day visa would only be granted an extra 15 days if he or she travelled to Ranong on a regulation ''visa run.''
People who have had a 30-day visa followed by a 15-day visa could then apply to local Immigration for a seven-day extension, the spokeswoman said.
The seven-day extension would cost 1900 baht and would not be granted automatically. The applicant would have to satisfy Immigration that they had a satisfactory reason for staying on.
Then they would have to travel to a distant destination to apply again, she said.
Travellers with Malaysian passports will obtain a 30 days stay, the Thai Visa report said.
Visa run companies confirmed that the P30 30-day visa had been reduced to 15 days. Other visas remained unchanged, one company spokeswoman said.
This change comes under police order number 778/2551 has been confirmed by Royal Thai Police, Immigration Bureau, in Bangkok, a report on the Thai Visa online site said.
News of the dramatic change came after a week of turbulent political protest and two Bangkok airport seizures that put Thailand's future as a tourist destination in jeopardy.
Domestic and international flights are almost back to normal schedules following the re-opening of Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday and Don Mueang today.
A Phuket airport official said that today a total of 28 international and 7 domestic flights will operate in and out of Phuket International Airport.
Thai Airways has resumed domestic flights to Don Mueang today, and three flights from Phuket are scheduled to run there today. THAI also operating three flights to Suvarnabhumi airport from Phuket. There are no longer any special flights in operation. Flight information and reservations available at 02 356 1111.
Dragonair this week has doubled the capacity of its regular daily flights connecting Hong Kong and Phuket by using an A330 instead of an A320, the airline announced, though a sign posted at its Phuket airport office said flights were full until December 10.
AirAsia will operate from Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok from December 5, with passengers advised to allow five hours for check-in. Until Friday, flights still operating out of U-Tapao and the December 2-4 schedule it posted on its website about added flights remains in effect. AirAsia has set up one extra daily return flight from Phuket to Singapore, another to Kuala Lumpur, and a domestic flight connecting Phuket and U-Tapao airport. AirAsia Phuket Sales Counter Tel: 076 328 601-2.
SilkAir announced on December 1 that it had added 13 additional flights between Singapore and Phuket for the week ending December 7, in addition to the four or five regularly-scheduled daily flights. Today there is a special evacuation flight leaving Phuket at 11.15pm bound for Singapore, which is nearly full. All four of the scheduled Phuket-Singapore flights for today are fully booked. Since the airport closures, SilkAir has been accepting Singapore Airlines tickets between Bangkok-Singapore for travel on Phuket-Singapore or Chiang Mai-Singapore, without additional charges, the airline says. Tel: 02 353 6000, 076 304018/19/20 (24 hours).
Bangkok Airways announced today that it is back in operation at Suvarnabhumi airport, and running a total of 18 flights, both international and domestic. One flight to Phuket, carrying 125 passengers, is set to take off at 5.30pm, and a Phuket-Bangkok flight will leave at 7.40pm. There are also four flights connecting Phuket and Koh Samui and one Phuket-U-Tapao flight, all of which are on the regular schedule. Passengers holding tickets to flights that had been cancelled due to the airport closures will be put on the first available flights, the airline says. Call 1771 or 0-2265-8777 for reservations.
Tiger Airlines is back to its normal schedule today after running two special return flights between Phuket and Singapore yesterday, which carried 141 passengers back to Phuket from Singapore and 68 to Singapore from Phuket. Second flight had 164 passengers from Singapore to Phuket and from Phuket to Singapore 96 people. Today there are two regularly scheduled return flights, ferrying a total of 656 passengers.
Malaysia Airlines is back to its regular schedule, with two flights from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur set to run today at normal capacity.
Once again, the Thai government shows its immense talent for doing something needlessly suicidal. Making visa renewals so expensive, time-consuming, and irksome will drive off more Farangs (and the money in their pockets will be spent elsewhere).
In a country and time where economic and political implosion are dangerously close to "the straw that broke the camel's back", why is Thailand's Immigration Department searching for more and heavier "straws"?
Posted by A nonny Mouse on December 4, 2008 15:29