Hi!
I received my Lao visa in BKK, it doesn't say duration of stay, only valid from 31.10.07 to 30.12.07, but yesterday (04.11.07) I crossed the border from Thailand to Laos in Chong Mek (near Pakse) and the stamp says "admitted 02.01.2008", even longer than my visa validity :)
I asked for 30-days visa in the embassy in Bangkok and I actually never heared about 60-days stamps, all the people seem to get 30-days stamp.
Did they change the rules?
I was planning to stay longer than 30 days anyway (to do visa run or to extend my visa), but now it seems that I don't have to do something special, just stay longer and enjoy ;)
Did anybody has the same? Or the guy on the border just mixed up the numbers ;) and I may have some problems on departure?
Thanks in advance,
Olga
1.the first is not true: the dates give the time in which you MUST enter Laos: in that case even if you would enter on 29/12, you would have been given the full time. except for mother Rossye, about all visa work that way.
2. you did NOT sya what you paid NOR your nationality, but (unlike many others) you noted it in your bIO: Russky? it may simply mean you have still some surviving socialist privilege, rules for visa are often reciprocal= 'tit for tat'.
and it may even have meant that when you used the visa-on-arrival at border, it would also have been 30 days for you. dobri jazd.
Olga--are you sure that you didn't get the visa and the 90 day stamp for entry mixed up. Usually, if you're getting the visa from their/Lao embassy somewhere, they give you 90 days with which to enter the country but the amount of days you're visa allows you to stay in Lao are now 30 days. I'm curious as to why you got your visa at their embassy in Bangkok when you could have gotten the visa upon arrival right at the Chong Mek border crossing?
Just came from the embassy in bkk. New rules: Visa in advance: good for 60 days after entry, visa on arrival: good for 30 days from the day of entry. I think it applies this way for everybody, the money you pay for the visa depends on your nationality. At least for visa in advance.
Do any of you know if you can get this 60 day visa at any embassy? Or is it just from the embassy in Bangkok?
I wouldn't mind getting 60 days if I could. Will save the hassle of a border run.............
By reading the paper it appeared to me, that it was a new policy and that it would apply to all laos embassies, but that I cant say for sure, as I didnt ask. But the paper looked like being distributed for all laos embassies.
When I called the direct line at the Lao embassy Washington DC, was told it's now 60 days for $45 at freindship bridge, or 90 days for $50 at the embassy in DC. I know there was some discussion at the foriegn affairs department of upping the fees to "bring things more in line with neighboring countries". At the time I assumed they meant upping the fees as a revenue generator, perhaps the slight increase was only half the story. I'm sure we'll get the full story once reports from people start filtering back regarding length of visa and so on. Meanwhile it might pay for long stayers to check at an embassy. The cost of visa runs to Nong Khai often costs far more than the actual $30 to turn around at the bridge. Like all the shopping at the big Tesco.
Often in the past I've made disparaging remarks about the embassy's knowledge of all things visa related, maybe I need to start kissing up.
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