visa

Bo,

A 60 day tourist visa can be extended by a further 30 days without going outside Thailand. You do this at Immigration by filling in a form (I think a photo), copies of passport pages & paying 1,900 baht.
However different Immigration offices have different requirements as to what supporting documentation you need.As far as I am aware Nong Khai still require to see a copy of your return air ticket which shows that you are exiting Thailand within the next 30 days. They will then give you an extension to that date (so only if that date is exactly 30 days away will you get the full 30 days. If you cannot produce an air ticket then they will only extend for a maximum of 7 days.
If you go to Laos & do not obtain a new visa from the Thai Embassy then Immigration at the bridge will give you a "Visa exemption" for 30 days. You are entitled to 3 of these visa exemption in any 180 day period - no more.
If you go to the Thai Embassy in Laos then it is possible to get a new tourist visa (or even a double entry tourist visa) from there, but that is a 2 working day process. Day 1 (before 12 noon) to apply & pay, Day 2 (after 1.00 pm) to collect passport.

I hope that is all clear.

In theory you could stay for ever on a mixture of 30 day visa exemptions & Tourist Visa from the Embassy. But that is only as the rules stand today. For example I am told that the Thai embassy in Malaysia will not issue double entry Tourist Visas & insist on seeing a return air ticket that is within the next 60 days before giving out single entry Tourist Visas for nearly a year now.

BobHelm wrote:Bo,
If you go to Laos & do not obtain a new visa from the Thai Embassy then Immigration at the bridge will give you a "Visa exemption" for 30 days. You are entitled to 3 of these visa exemption in any 180 day period - no more.

Not quite correct Bob. My understanding is that you can spend 90 days in any 180 day period by using "entry on arrival" stamps (if you are from a qualifying country). In most cases the 90 days would be taken up by 3 x 30 day stays. However, in theory, you could actually receive 45 x entry on arrival stamps, provided you only stayed 2 days at a time.

The important number is the days within the 180 day period, not the number of stamps.

Yes Jack, you are correct. I meant 3*30 days for a total of 90 days. People could end up with more than 3 stamps if they exit before the full 90 days are up. I would suggest that in the vast majority of cases this would actually be a maximum of 4, with the 4th. stamp for only a few days the remnants of early exit from the first 3.
Technically you are correct it could be a large number of stamps for short stays.