If you are studying with Patong Language School for either your TEFL certificate or to develop your Thai, English, German or Japanese language skills, you will need the relevant visa to enter the country.
We can help with the process of obtaining your ED or Non-immigrant B visa from your home country before you arrive in Phuket, but what happens if that visa is due to expire and you want to continue staying in Thailand? This is where the visa run comes in!
The “visa run” means leaving the country and crossing the border to either Malaysia or Cambodia (or any other country for that matter) and visiting the Thai Embassy to request a new visa.
There are several ways you can do this; you can take a flight to the country of your choice and arrange to visit the Embassy of your own accord, you can take several buses to a neighbouring country and then visit the Embassy, or by far the easiest and cheapest option is to arrange a trip with one of the many visa run companies that are available in Phuket.
These companies will charge around 4,500baht to take you to Penang, Malaysia and back again. The trip includes overnight travel by mini-bus to Penang, 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, dinner and an overnight stay in a 3* hotel. Possibly the best bit about organising your visa run this way is that your driver will normally handle all of the paperwork for you. Which means you may not even see the Thai Embassy! Your driver should collect all of your paperwork, your passport and cash for your visa and return the next morning with your passport stamped. It really couldn’t be more simple.
Yes, you hear horror stories about how disastrous visa runs can be, but if you have all of the correct paperwork and can keep yourself amused on the 11-hour bus ride each way, there really is nothing to it.