Category — Thai Visas

You’d expect an airport lounge to be pretty nice in places like Hong Kong, Tokyo or London.  But Phnom Penh, Cambodia? Yep. You heard it right.  This very small international airport is a frequent destination for Thailand expat visa runs sans weekend getaways but the destination in general is usually given very little priority.  For instance, the Thai Airways flights I’ve flown usually are assigned older, smaller aircraft.  While that may not be so unexpected, I also often find myself being herded through those ‘bus terminals’ at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport to add insult to injury.

Upon returning to the Phnom Penh International Airport (PNH) there’s always a mass of people out front apparently waiting for arrivals.  Checkin, immigration is swift, security checkpoint too then right in front of you is the lounge.  So you’re in this country that Thai Airways apparently gives very little merit and the lounge is your next step.  You’re expecting it to look like an inner city public school inside.  I open the door and….

Who’d have guessed?  The lounge at the Phnom Penh International Airport is not only very contemporary and new, but the desserts are above and beyond any I’ve ever had from a typical ‘Thai Airways’ type of lounge.  I attribute this partially due to the culinary influence of their former French colonists’s penchant for producing some of the finest desserts around.  This lounge is rarely full and even has some couches lining the back wall where you can make yourself as comfortable as you wish.

Above average lound, CHECK!  Now on to some actual useful information regarding the immigration/visa process for entering Cambodia via the airport;

1) Once of the plane you walk down the stairs right to the immigration desk.

Things to have prepared for the immigration desk:

a)  $20 USD cash. (They accept other types of currency but they hose you bigtime on the exchange rate so just have $20 ready for them)

b)  Completed visa application form. (print it out at home and do it, or just do it on the plane, the flight attendants will pass them out).

c)  2 headshot photos (2cm x 6cm) (if you don’t have it, no problem, they charge you $5 for forgetting)

d)  Your passport with 1 blank full page (their sticker-visa takes an entire page)

Just give this stuff (except the $20, you do that when you get your passport back) to the 1st person at the desk and they will pass it down a line of about 10 immigration officers, then call you name and flash your passport, give them the $20 and you’re on your way.

Departing you will only need $25 at which you pay at the bottom of the escalators before going up to immigration and the terminal.

Welcome to Phnom Penh, Cambodia!

I found the video below that gives a pretty broad overview of the process of renewing your visa to stay in Thailand via a popular land border known as Mae Sai on the Thai side and Tachelik on the Myanmar or Burmese side.  As the host notes it’s pretty straight-forward.  You go through to the Thai Customs desk, then walk over to the Myanmar immigration desk, pay either your 14 day visa, or day-visa fees and can either walk around the small city under the watchful eyes of the dictatorship’s minions or walk right back over to the Thai customs counter and get another Thai visa or visa renewal.

For up to the date information on Thai visa rules, experiences and information you’ll want to bookmark www.ThaiVisa.com.

This is just a quick post to note that a friend recently received his first non-immigration O (marriage visa) to stay in Thailand for 90 days.   This was done in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the Royal Thai Consulate.  The require documents for this were:

• Passport
• Application forma
• Copy of wife’s Thai ID card
• Copy of wife’s Thai house book
• Letter from wife (Thai citizen) asking that a Non Imm O visa be issued
• Copy of marriage certificate
• (Optional, but supplied to the consulate nonetheless) Copy of children’s birth certificates

His wife signed all documents related to her.  He arrived at about 10:00am and there was about a 45 minute wait to submit.  They require 1 business day to process things and the pickup time commences at 2:30pm the following business day.  Take care to note both Thai and Malaysian holidays as well as weekends.

This visa was a single entry non immigrant “O” visa food for 90 days as he did not have the required 18 months until expiration on his passport.  It’s been said that for the 1 year multiple entry, non immigrant 0 visas you’re required to show at least 400,000 baht in a Thai bank account or a minimum of 40,000 baht monthly income.  I’ve heard recent reports that applicants aren’t being called out on this but to be safe I’d recommend you have this proof.

Getting a Thai visa in the region is typically a great deal more difficult than attaining one in your mother country before you come to Thailand.  Often times honorary consulates will require nothing but a form and a letter for Imm B’s.  As I get updated reports in getting visas in the southeast Asian region I’ll post here on the Thailand Travel Depot blog!