@Jim *******

they're also just one street over from one of my favorite cafes in Asia. (

@Sometimes ********

)

Maybe try the Bless Hotel & Residence on Sukhumvit 33. The rooms are large and clean, and they have bathtubs — you might find an epsom salt bath really helpful for your muscles. And just a couple blocks from the EmQ mall, so tons of restaurants with elevator access.

Not walking distance to Bumrungrad if you’re dealing with hip stuff, but a pretty short ride on Grab (Thailand’s Uber).

I typically book on a monthly basis, so the rates are lower, but I think even shorter trips should still be in that $30 price range if Agoda has a good coupon code.

The Bless Hotel & Residence

+66 2 662 2444

@Steve ******************

I think they just started doing it late last year. Pretty smooth process. Note: this is a 60-day tourist visa, and then you can extend it for another 30 days at immigration (not the airport) once you’re here.

@Andreas *******

at least for me, the Chiang Mai office made me get the 30-day extension before I could apply for the Covid “extension,” but the Covid visa was actually considered a new visa that started from the date of issuance, so it wound up overlapping with that 30-day extension instead of getting added to the end.

So, your safe bet might be to get the 30-day extension now, along with all the paperwork for the Covid visa, and then go back to immigration on the 24th with all that paperwork already ready, to see if they’ll let you get the Covid visa. If they extend the program yet again, they probably won’t announce that until the 24th, so you won’t know until you show up.

@Curt's *****

I think that’s only for the first extension — in my case, they treated my first extension in January as if they were converting my tourist visa to something new, so the sixty days started from that conversion/application date. But when I went back for another extension last week, they treated it as a 60-day extension from my new expiration date, so there was no need to wait until the last minute.

@Nguyễn *******

I was wondering if that was happening. The "covid extension" ordinarily comes after the 30-day extension that I was thinking you'd have gotten after your exemption. It sounds like either the exemption for travelers from Vietnam is different from what Americans get, or they were giving you the wrong extension (which, to be fair, would give you 60 days instead of just 30 for the same price, so it's super-generous if you can pull it off).

The letter from the consulate/embassy seems to be something some officers insist on and most officers don't. Like, fear of travel due to covid, not actual border issues, has been enough. But it sounds like either they're tightening things up, or you wound up with an unusually strict officer. I'm glad it all worked out in the end!

@Carlos ********

I mean, don’t get me wrong, Thailand is amazing, but sometimes you’ve just got to get over to Hanoi for a pizza, man. (And don’t even get me started on the egg coffee. Or the bun oc.)

@Nguyễn *******

oh man, that sucks. It sounds like the exemption rules must be different for Vietnam than they are for the US, unless the officer thought you were applying for something different?

Can you get what you need from Vietnam’s embassy?

At least for me, it’s been sort of both. Technically, it’s an extension, but in Bangkok, they treated my first application in January as if it were a conversion of my existing tourist visa to something new, so my sixty days started on the date of application. (Chiang Mai’s office also told me it’d be treated this way.) But I went in to extend again last week, and they gave me sixty days from when my current extension is due to expire.

I’m not sure about Pattaya, though.

@Nguyễn *******

the Thailand Pass just means you satisfied the covid-related requirements for entering. The visa is what says why you’re coming (tourism, education, marriage, etc.), and how long you can stay — like a tourist visa for 60 days, for example. But Thailand also has specific exemptions for citizens from various countries that basically let you come in for thirty days without any visa at all.

In your case, it sounds like you did the paperwork for the Thailand Pass, but didn’t also apply for a specific visa, so you got in with a 30-day exemption. If so, you can probably get a 30-day extension at the immigration office. Assuming your exemption and extension follow the same rules that folks from the US get, Michelle’s comment above gives the basic info, and the information desk at immigration will have most of the paperwork you need. For passport photos, there are lots of places around town with signs on the window advertising passport photos, so just pick one with decent reviews on Google maps. You’re also going to need a printout of form TM 30 — wherever you’re staying needs to submit your info online and give you a printout to bring to immigration (If you’re staying at a hotel, they’ll know what to do. A private Airbnb might need to do some registration stuff in the system first.) And you’ll need copies of your passport page that has your photo on it, the passport page with the stamp for your current visa/exemption (i.e., the age with the stamp that says you can stay until the 26th), and a copy of your TM 6 — that’s the little “departure card” they would have given you when you first entered Thailand. They may have stapled it into your passport for you.

The extension costs 1900 baht, cash only.

I hope that helps! Visa extensions/exemptions/renewals/whatevers were super-confusing and stressful for me at first, but the officers are really helpful and patient.