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What is the current status of Lao border crossings and visa policies for foreigners?

Visa On ArrivalLaos Border CrossingCOVID-19 Impact
Mar 19, 2020
5 years ago
Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
ATTENTION MEMBERS:

ANYONE traveling to the Vientiane or Savannakhet border this morning please post your experience HERE in this thread.

**

Okay we have confirmation that the Lao border crossings (the ones that weren't closed the other day) are open and selling visa on arrivals to foreigners who are going to thai consulates or bouncing out and back in.**

Lao made an announcement that they canceled the "visa on arrival policy" <- meaning you can't buy a visa for Lao at the border, (only from a consulate or online BEFORE you go) BUT that appears to be something they will implement TOMORROW.

Right now Lao borders are as they always were.. (except for those 3 borders they closed yesterday)
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TLDR : Answer Summary
The Lao borders at Vientiane and Savannakhet are currently open and providing visas on arrival to foreigners traveling to Thai consulates or making border runs. However, an announcement has been made that the visa on arrival policy will be canceled starting tomorrow. Visitors can still cross the borders today under the existing rules, but it's important to note that the specific entry requirements and regulations may change rapidly due to ongoing COVID-19 measures.
Jemes *********
I need some help and advice...

My Tourist visa is expiring soon..... is it possible to get new 60days visa from Laos In this covid-19 situation?? Any body experienced getting visa during this crises?
5 years ago
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Jemes *********
Benjamin Hays thanks.. ๐Ÿ˜Š stay safe !
5 years ago
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Jake ********
@Kinzang *****
 youโ€™re weeks behind mate, shit is getting serious. I suggest if youโ€™re on a tourist visa you should probably get a ticket home.
5 years ago
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Jake ********
@Kinzang *****
 unless youโ€™ve got a WP, you ainโ€™t doing no border bounce. This isnโ€™t a time to be doing them anyway.
5 years ago
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Jake ********
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Jake ********
I just bounced at Chiang klong
5 years ago
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Timothy *****
@Jake *******
 FYI, yesterday, this post saved the day for me and I think a bunch of others. Was half way to mae sai when I saw the reports that evisas were rejected. Then a few minutes later, Jakes report for Chiang Khong. Raced up and got there in the evening, looked like a ghost town but it was open and made it through, 30 days more exemption.

Thai side said Laos would close tomorrow.
5 years ago
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Kintaro ****
@Jake *******
 So nice, I am on the way for Chiang Khong :D Feel less stressed now
5 years ago
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Richard ********
@Jake *******
 what about the Visa for the Laos side?
5 years ago
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Richard ********
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Austin *******
I spent about an hour riding to and from the Mae Sot - Myawaddy border checkpoint today for the pupose of collecting info for this group. I spoke to an immigration official that gave me info about foreigners not being allowed to cross over, starting Saturday. However, foreigners can still fly in. Now I can't see what I posted. Hopefully this comment doesn't get deleted again.
5 years ago
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Connor *********************
Sorry.... Thanks guys.
5 years ago
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Robert *******
PLEASE: This is asked: ANYONE traveling to the Vientiane or Savannakhet border

Mae Sai border is a different border to a different country.

Applied for a visa in Chang Mai.

This has NOTHING to do with Vientiane or Savannakhet.

STAY ON topic.
5 years ago
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Austin *******
I didn't want to start a new thread about this because the info is similar to situation with Laos.
5 years ago
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Robert *******
Mae Sot is the border checkpoint to Laos, near Vientiane or Savannakhet as asked in the OP announcement.

Please do not mix up different countries and borders to avoid confusing in answers.
5 years ago
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
So Mae Sot is bouncing like normal until saturday.

Thanx (y)
5 years ago
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Tod *********
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Patrick ********
The Thai consulate in Savanakhet is no longer issuing tourist visas and is demanding health certificates for many different countries. Things are changing by the hour it seems.
5 years ago
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Bryan ********
Did you hear that they specifically for sure need a COVID certificate with the lab?
5 years ago
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Bryan ********
@Patrick *******
. I guess it would better to phrase it a COVID-19 certificate without lab results as apposed to one with lab results. I went to a hospital today and they said they were going to charge me 11,000 baht for that test and it would take 4 days to receive. They said it was not at all necessary based on me not having any symptoms and also not having travel history in the countries that are being most affected. So I did just end up getting the COVID-19 certificate WITHOUT the lab. They need to swab the mucus membranes and when you don't even have a runny nose or anything there really isn't much to be able to analyze I gather.
5 years ago
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Patrick ********
Expect to be singled out as ANY foreigner (anybody not holding Thai or Laos passport) and asked medical questions, signing a medical declaration and having your temperature taken.
5 years ago
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Patrick ********
Employee at the consulate who was denying tourist visas and asking for COVID-19 certificates claimed there was a real risk of the Savanakhet border closing soon. We then asked the immigration officials attending the border post who said the border would never close. So I think even within different ministries there is still a lot of confusion and miscommunication about whatโ€™s to come.
5 years ago
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Patrick ********
Ones specifically ruling out covid19
5 years ago
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Bryan ********
@Patrick *******
 normal health certificates or ones specifically ruling out covid-19?
5 years ago
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Bryan ********
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Scott ********
I'm heading to mukdahan now,from yasothon, crossing my fingers and wearing a mask for a 90 day turnaround
5 years ago
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Scott ********
Made it no problem, must have been the crossed fingers
5 years ago
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Scott ********
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Tom ******
Iโ€™m on my way now to the Mukdahan to Savannakhet border but will arrive late tonight. What time does the border close?
5 years ago
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Ladek ******
Hello, I stay in Vientiane and I plan to get back to Thailand. It seems that everything is changing every hour. Can someone confirm that I can cross border at Nong Khai from Lao side? I am a Czech nationality, so I should get visa exemption. Do I need a medical certificate or something more than passport?
5 years ago
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Ladek ******
Thank you very much๐Ÿ™
5 years ago
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Lynn *********
@Ladek *****
 I crossed yesterday from Laos at Nong Khai was not that busy and at the immigration counter they told me I had to see their Doctor who is in the little office where you get of the shutttle bus and he just looked on his list and said Australia is OK and just took my body temperature and stamped my arrival card with an international health check stamp and that was it.
5 years ago
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Lynn *********
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James ***********
Anyone aware also of friendship bridge 3 Nakhon Phanom is operating as usual for a bounce?
5 years ago
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Ahkim ********
also interested
5 years ago
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Linda ********
I would also like to receive information about this. Thanks!
5 years ago
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Linda ********
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
๐—ข๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐˜„๐—ฒ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐—ผ ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜€ (๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป'๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜†) ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฎ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ผ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ด๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ถ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐—ถ๐—ป.
5 years ago
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Nick ********
So if we are doing normal border runs for Thai visa's NongKhai should still be doing VOA after today? The new VOA rule is to stop random tourist from crossing without a reason if I understand you correctly?
5 years ago
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Nick ********
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Scott *******
Will the e-visa count as buying one in advance?

You still to have the actual sticker issued at the border
5 years ago
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Chris ************
Aussie passport was 30Ys at the border, but 45Us for evisa
5 years ago
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Henry *********
A Lao e-visa is a printed email confirmation. Applying online is easy although copy of passport and photo have to be uploaded. Then it takes up to 5 days to process.
5 years ago
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
having never seen how the evisa system works I couldn't say, I doubt ANYONE has bought an evisa to lao seeing as you used to buy a visa on arrival at the border
5 years ago
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Tod *********
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Joe ***********
Link for online visa purchase please
5 years ago
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Joe ***********
@Tod ********
 - Thank You
5 years ago
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Joe ***********
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
๐Ž๐Š๐€๐˜, ๐ข๐ญ ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐›๐จ๐ญ๐ก ๐ฆ๐š๐ข๐ง ๐›๐จ๐ซ๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ (๐๐จ๐ง๐  ๐Š๐ก๐š๐ข - ๐•๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐š๐ง๐ž, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐Œ๐ฎ๐ค๐๐š๐ก๐š๐ง - ๐’๐š๐ฏ๐š๐ง๐ง๐š๐ค๐ก๐ž๐ญ) ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐ง๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ๐š๐ฅ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐›๐ž๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ก๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ž๐ง ๐ญ๐จ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ.

๐’๐Ž ๐ˆ๐Ÿ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ'๐ซ๐ž ๐ ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐จ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ž ๐›๐จ๐ซ๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ƒ๐Ž ๐ˆ๐“ ๐“๐Ž๐ƒ๐€๐˜..
5 years ago
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Jake ********
@Tod ********
 anything on Chiang klong?
5 years ago
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Nick ********
@Tod ********
 will flying into Laos still be able to do VoA? Or are flights not cancelled too?
5 years ago
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Nick ********
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Koos *****************
Guys, if you want to follow the post, just turn on the notifications at the top of the post, stop spamming it with "following"
5 years ago
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Meladi ******
@Ben **************
 have you managed to come back into Thailand no problems
5 years ago
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
they are ENTERING Lao this morninig.. NOT exiting.
5 years ago
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Tod *********
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Nick ********
@Tod ********
 how long does the visa online process take. I need to cross into Laos next Monday or Tuesday
5 years ago
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Scott *******
@Nick *******
 last time I did the online process it took 48 hours
5 years ago
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
let's wait and see if they are actually going to enforce this OR not

AND I have no idea how long the evisa to lao process takes
5 years ago
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Tod *********
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Ben ***************
Update. We can enter. Today is the last day. New rules apply tomorrow.
5 years ago
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
so you just entered today by buying a visa on arrival at the border and the rules they announced as far as NO visa on arrivals being sold take effect tomorrow?
5 years ago
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Tod *********
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David ***********
Following this to see. Maybe it will take some time to be implemented after the announcement.
5 years ago
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Ian *********
Following this also
5 years ago
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Janny **************
I've to follow this update too๐Ÿ™
5 years ago
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Henry *********
When does this take effect from?
5 years ago
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
we are trying to find that out
5 years ago
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Tod *********
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Mollie ********
Including Chiang Khong?
5 years ago
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Tod *********
ORIGINAL POSTER
report back IF you can bounce there or not.
5 years ago
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Tod *********
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Ben ***************
I have just got to the border with an agency. News has just got through to everyone and the staff all seem stressed. I'll update
5 years ago
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Ben ***************
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