Applying for a Thai visa in Laos in Vientiane - personal experience

Once done Thai visa in Malaysia, this time I decided to try to get a Thai visa in Laos, more precisely in Vientiane. So, I share my personal experience and information from friends, and from the forums, all in one place.

If you just want to read my impressions of Vientiane and see photos, then you can do it here Vientiane - the capital of Laos and French Asia.

The content of the article

Applying for a Thai visa in Vientiane

Visa type and cost

In Laos, you can only get 3-4 single-entry Thai visas in a row, then you will be suspected of illegal work in the kingdom. Therefore, you need to either make a student visa, not a tourist visa, or show an account statement in a Thai bank and a certificate that the money is coming from abroad. It's like a guarantee that your income is outside of Thailand..

Single entry Thai visa cost - 1000 baht.

Single entry tourist visa for 90 days. It is given for 60 days, and you can renew it for another 30 days. This extension costs 1900 baht.

There is also a multivisa, but this is a very niche and gemoric product, and besides, you still will not get it in Laos. You can read more about the types of tourist visas in Thailand here: All about visas in Thailand.

Consulate opening hours

The consulate is open from Monday to Friday. You can apply for a visa from 8.30 to 11.30. You can pick up your passport with a visa the next working day from 13.30 to 15.30.

Be sure to pay attention to non-working days and holidays, so as not to accidentally come to the closed doors of the Thai Embassy. This information can be read here.

How to get to the consulate of Thailand

The address of the Thai Consulate in Vientiane is Route Phonekheng, Vientiane, P.O. Box 128. But the address will not help you in any way, in Asia they are of little use. If anything, the consulate is located next to the Lao-Singapore Business College, but it is better to navigate by the point on the map, which is at the bottom of the article.

You can walk to the Thai consulate from the Vietnamese bus station: walk along Rue Nongbone street to the right and after 7-10 minutes turn right near the bank. After passing the river, at the next intersection, turn left, there will immediately be a consulate on the left side of the road. Well, or just take a knock knock.

The bank you need to turn off at on the way to the Thai Consulate

Consulate of Thailand in Vientiane

Documents for a Thai visa

The website of the Thai Consulate in Laos contains a list of documents required for a Thai visa, in real life we ​​only needed for a single entry visa:

  • Passport valid for 6 consecutive months.
  • A copy of the passport of the first page and the page with the issued visa when crossing the border from Taya to Laos. The latter will have to be done directly in Laos.
  • 1 photograph 4 × 6 cm (if there is a child entered in the passport, then for him too). I pasted a photo of 3.5 * 4.5 cm, no one said anything.
  • Visa application. We take the questionnaire itself at the consulate or download it from the official website from this section (here is a direct link). Only links are often broken, Thais constantly change addresses.

The above list has been rolling for years.

How to fill out an application for a Thai visa

Here is such a sample filling in pdf format, although it is for Malaysia, but this does not change the essence.

Points that might cause some confusion:

Nationality - Russian. Russia or Russian Federation - no difference
Nationality at birth - written by Russian
Occupation - written by the manager and blogger, they did not indicate the place of work - no problem. Many people write Not working - and everything is fine too.
Issued at - do not write to the police department, FMS and any other abbreviation they do not understand, just write your city / country.
Current Address in Lao PDR - write here the address of your hotel in Vientiane (from a business card, for example).
Permanent Adress - You can write here «same as above» or address in Russia.
Duration of Proposed Stay - no difference, you can write 90 days or 3 month or something like that.
Countries for which travel document is valid - written as in the example «all countries».
Name and Address of Local Guarantor - again we write here the address of your hotel in Vientiane.
Name and Address of Guarantor in Thailand - the address of your hotel / condominium in Thailand.

Visa application process

First day

There are two options for a queue:

1. Live queue. If there are a lot of people, then its end may be outside the gate..

2. Not a live queue, but a numbered one, according to a coupon. That is, first you will need to get a coupon with a number, and then use it to go to the window to hand over documents.

But the result should be as follows: submission of documents and receipt of a receipt for issuing a passport the next day. There will be helpers on the street who offer to skip the line. In fact, they will not do anything sensible, they will just try to shove you in front of other people closer to the beginning..

If you suddenly forgot something from the documents, you can use the services of the help on the street (more expensive), or inside the consulate on the 2nd floor. A4 copy 5 ?, photo 80 ?, fill out the form 20?.

Photocopy, photo is inside the embassy

Second day

The next day, it is better to come to the Thai consulate a little in advance if you want to get free early, because passports are often (but not always) issued on a first come, first served basis. Issuance takes place in the same building where the receipt was issued to you. But in any case, don't get lost, follow the stream of people.

Convenient hotels in Vientiane

Near the consulate

Nearby there is a newly built Muong thanh luxury . An excellent hotel, everything is good and the rating is more than 8, but it also costs about 2500 baht. After all, 5 stars.

I specifically give a link to Roomguru, since you can see all the discounted prices on it, and choose where you will book. Usually, this hotel is cheaper on Agoda than on Booking.

Nice hotel next to the Thai consulate in Vientiane

Inexpensive Douangpraseuth Hotel . 1 night in this hotel costs only 800-1000 baht for a double room. It is very conveniently located, right next to the consulate on the opposite side across the road.

But the hotel has deteriorated lately, the rating has dropped dramatically and, in fact, apart from the location, there is nothing good there already. Therefore, I can no longer recommend it..

Douang Pra Seuth Hotel

Douang Pra Seuth Hotel

Area with guesthouses and hotels

If you need something else, then look in the same place, on RoomGuru service, benefit of hotels in Vientiane dofiga. You can look directly on the map to get a closer look.

True, the main area with hotels is not right next to the consulate, it takes about 15-20 minutes to walk (or go by tuk tuk). For convenience, I made a screenshot with a schematic location of the consulate and hotels, to make it clearer.

Hotels in Vientiane

How to get to Vientiane

Via Udontani

  • First, we need to get to the Thai city of Udonthani, located 50 km from the border with Laos, where we can change to a direct bus to Vientiane. There is a railway station in Udontani, so from Bangkok, you can take the train. And from Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai you can fly by plane. There are night buses from major cities such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai, travel time is 10-14 hours.
  • There are two bus stations in Udontani: number 1 (number one) in the city center near the railway station and number 2 (number two or new bus station) on the outskirts. We need NUMBER 1, as buses leave for Laos from there. My bus Chiang Mai-Udontani came to number 2, so then I had to go by tuk-tuk to the first bus station (80-100 baht, 15 minutes driving time). So keep in mind that buses can arrive at both bus stations..
  • It is best to come to Udontani early in the morning (5-6 am) if you want to have time to apply for a Thai visa on the same day. The bus to Vientiane leaves the bus station No. 1 at 8.00, 10.30, 11.30, 14.00, 16.00, 18.00, travel time 2 hours, cost 80 baht. The ticket window opens at 7 am, and there is already a queue. At 7.30 am, tickets for 8 am were sold out completely, and the sale was going on at 10.30 am.

Bus Schedule Udontani - Vientiane

The bus to Vientiane stops twice - in front of the friendship bridge, where you pass the Thai border guards, and after the friendship bridge where you pass the Lao border guards. Getting lost there is hard, just keep your crowd out of the bus.

If you travel everywhere by tuk-tuk, and arrived at the border on your own, then you need a bus to cross the Friendship Bridge, it costs 15 baht.

Other options

  • Direct buses to Vientiane also run from cities such as: Nong Khai (Nong Khai) is almost on the border, and Khon Kaen is 150 km from the border. Therefore, if there are such buses, then you can get from your city to Nong Khai (the most convenient option) or to Khon Kaen.
  • Nong Khai can be reached from Bus Station # 2 in Udontani. Buses start operating at 8 am, travel time is 1 hour. And already from Nong Khai to get to the border by tuk tuk, or take a direct bus to Vientiane.
  • From the bus station in Udontani, take a tuk tuk to the border with Laos.

Back road to Thailand

You can take a tuk tuk right from the Thai embassy to the Thai border. At the exit, the drivers pounce directly, offering services. The cost is about 60 baht per person, not high, because the whole group is recruited.

And, if you go by bus, then the schedule of the Vientiane - Udontani bus and the Vientiane - Nong Khai bus is below. It is better not to rely heavily on the last flights, as there may be no tickets.

Bus schedule Vientiane - Udontani

Bus schedule Vientiane - Nong Khai

Pattaya-Vientiane-Pattaya

Information from our reader, Alexey, thank you!

07.07.2014 bus ticket «407 companies», which is located on Sukhumvit road, on the territory of a gas station, almost immediately after turning off the central Central road (see photo pin on the map), costs standard = 551?, VIP = 680 ?. Took at 20.00, the price includes water / roll / rice with some kind of minced meat. 2-storey bus, in the standard it is quite comfortable and there is where the legs are stretched out with an increase of 185 cm :)
07.00 arrived at BusStation in Nong Khai, i.e. the road was 10.30-11.00 hours. From there, on another bus to Vientiane, that is, we arrived from Pattaya to Nong Khai and immediately bought a ticket for the next bus to Vientiane.

Location of buses 407

Ticket office in Nong Khai

The reverse scheme for returning to Pattaya is the same. At the Nong Khai bus station, where we got from Vientiane, we take a ticket to Pattaya. We left at 17.30 and arrived in Pattaya only at 08.00 in the morning, i.e. the road was almost 15 hours, either because of its route (made many stops along the way in settlements, picking up and dropping off passengers, or because of weather conditions - it was raining, then a gloomy fog, in which the speed was naturally minimal. from people, according to their experience, they left at 20.00 and arrived in Pattaya by 06.00 in the morning, i.e. 10 hours on the road.

Consulate on the map

Consulate of Thailand

Consulate of Thailand
Thai consulate where everyone makes single entry visas.
More details.

Thai consulate where everyone makes single entry visas. More details.

I highly recommend nice and detailed maps of Vientiane, which you need to save on your computer or print, if you are going to move around the city a lot, there are guesthouses and attractions, and in general all the necessary places. Although, you can just put Maps.me, it also already has a lot of everything you need.

Yes, I almost forgot, I recalculated the rate of Lao kip to baht in this way - 10.000 kip = 40 baht. The course is approximate, but it seemed to me convenient, to count in dozens.

P.S. Happy Thai Visa!

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