Thailand is a beautiful country. Many Westerners go for a visit and quickly find themselves enchanted. Just don’t get so bedazzled that you overstay your visa! And if you do overstay, make sure that you have enough money to pay the required fines.

This article on Phuketwan.com provides a cautionary tale to illustrate the point: An American tourist who called herself “Nick” was arrested earlier this month for overstaying her Thai visa. Apparently, the overstay was discovered when she went on a “visa run” to the Thai border, with the intention of getting a new visa issued when she re-entered the country.

Per Phuket Wan, the visa run did not go as planned:

Precise circumstances of the case are being clarified, but it appears the woman either misunderstood the conditions of her permission to stay in Thailand or failed to realise there was a 500 baht a day penalty for overstaying. As a result, she was arrested by Immigration officials when she attempted a one-day ”visa run” from Phuket to Ranong and was unable to pay the overstay fine.

“Nick” is currently in jail in Bangkok. Not how you want your holiday to end!

If you enter Thailand by air, you can automatically stay up to 3o days, with no need to apply for a visa in advance. If you enter by land, you get 15 days. Also, if you opt to come to Thailand without applying ahead of time for a visa, you are limited to spending 90 days in any given 6 month period in the country. For longer stays, you can get a Thai visa at an embassy before your trip that will be good for 60 days and can be extended if necessary.

To get one, here’s what you’ll need:

• Your US passport
• A completed visa application
• 2 passport photos
• A copy of your round-trip ticket
• A copy of a bank statement showing a balance of $500 per person or $1000 per family.

RushmyTravelVisa.com can help you get your Thai visa, as well as any other visas you need for your trip. We’ll research your travel needs and help you get the appropriate expedited travel visas in hand before you leave.

Apply for your Thai visa today!

Tags: Thai visa, Thailand, Thailand visa

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 16th, 2010 at 10:36 pm and is filed under Government Regulations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.