Thai Visa Longer stay than 30 days?

If you have worked the last four years while staying on 30-day VOAs, then you have broken the labor law as well as the immigration law, so staying here legally doesn't seem to be a concern of yours. At Royal Thai embassies & consulates, you can get 60-day touris visas (stay can be extended in-country to 90 days), but don't expect to be able to get more than 4 or 5 such visa in any given 2-year period. Then you can stay 90 days on VOAs. If you want to be tricky, you can try and see whether the Thai immigration system can keep track of your days if you get yourself a second (supplementary) passport. I doubt the system counts days correctly if you travel in/out of Thailand on two different passports. IceCube: spending 1.5m baht on a Thailand Elite membership (5-year renewable tourist visa) is a high risk proposition. This brainchild of Thaksin Shinawatra failed to take off and it has one big caveat emptor. The members never know for how long time this option will remain open. The disclaimer says it all ... qoute Thailand Privilege Company Limited reserves the right to limit, modify, or cancel the Service Providers, Privileges and other benefits without prior notice unquote. I was initially (2003) involved in promoting this card, but the key attraction promised (that Elite Card members were allowed to buy land) was bogus. The Thai land laws were never amended to allow foreigners to own land.

I do what you are trying to do all the time. While you are still in your home country, visit a Thai embassy or consulate and get an actual tourist visa (you did not have a visa before; what you had was "visa on arrival" which is actually just a 30-day permit to be in the country). Find the Thai Embassy website, look for the Visa rules for your country (wish you'd mentioned what your home country is, we need to know that to answer your question properly), visit (or send mail to) your local Consulate. You can get a 90-day Visa fairly easily, again depending on what your home country is). BTW the comment from another poster that you have to exit Thailand "for a week or two" (whatever he said) is incorrect. If you do a border run, you can come back in the same day. And of course if you are going to be in Khon Kaen you will be right on the Lao border so you won't need to fly anywhere if Visa runs are required at some point. You can just take a motorbike, or taxi or whatever over to Lao for the day and come back with a new stamp. Now, you also said you want to stay "as long as possible", but then you also say 2-3 months....those are two different things. You can get a 1-year Visa as well...but you didn't ask about that. Sending your passport away to get a Visa does sound dubious...but I assure you it's fine. I would use the actual embassy/consulate and NOT a Visa service. Your return flight 2-3 months after the initial flight should not be a problem..I've done mine up to 6 months after with no issues...longer than that I just do one-way because on a trip that long I usually don't know what the actual return date should be yet. There are also OTHER Visa options, like if you want to study Thai while your there, or become a monk, etc...that may work depending on your circumstances. dboy

First of all...you havent been staying in Thailand on 30 day visas....you are taking about a 30 day visa excemption stamp, you get at the airport...this is not a visa...and you are limited to 90 days in a 6 month period on this system... You can only get a 60 day tourist visa...which you can extend in country for another 30 days...so you have 90 days...then you can do 3 X visa runs of 30 days a piece....you will now have 6 months....you can then start he process over again as long as you need to... ps....sending passports in the post for the purpoes of visa's etc is illegal in Thailand, dont try that one on.... Go and read postings on Thaivisa.com....you will find a few ways described there by the posters of how they play the visa system Edit... African Farmer....looked at the Thai Elite card myself a while back and agree it looks suspect...was THB 1 mil, now increased to THB1.5 mil and doesnt appear to have too many members either...and like a lot of things in Thailand, the plug could be pulled and people would be THB1.5 mil out of pocket...suppose you could apply the saying..only invest in thailand what you are prepared to walk away from to the Thai Elite program..

Cross the border to the neighbouring country and stay there for a week then you can get a re entry visa. Thats what my friends used to do in India where you can only stay for six months. Otherwise marry the girl and you wont have a visa problem.

Khon Kaen is NOT right on the Lao border it's 200 KM away in central Issan, Nong Kai is on the border. From the UK you can get a 90 day visa . When that expires, do a "Visa run" to Laos, by Bus to Nong Kai. At the Thai Lao freindship bridge exit Thailand, Cross the bridge, for ฿10. On a weekday you can buy the $US 35.00 visa fee at an exchange bank near the visa on arrival counter, With your visa you can then walk to the end of the building, cock your leg over the rail walk back along the other side of the same building, then exit Lao, .Cross the bridge back to Thailand. Where you will be issued with a 30 day visa free stamp. It takes less than 2 hours. you can do that twice. ie for 2 months giving you 5 months altogether. Then you will need to go back home to get a new Tourist visa.

Contact the Thai Embassy in Hull in the UK as they still provide 1 year multiple entry visas. That will last you a year and you only need to go to the Thai border for a stamp every 3 months.