Getting a 60-Day Thai Visa in Kuala Lumpur

As we mentioned in our other post, Kuala Lumpur is not exactly a place we’d choose to spend a ton of time, so the main reason we went to Kuala Lumpur was to get a 60-day Thai visa. Travelers from many countries can get visa exemptions or visas upon arrival in Thailand (30 days if arriving by air, 15 days by land). Not only had we already done this twice over the past couple months (and had heard they might be cracking down on it), but we had a feeling that we’d want to spend a bit more than 30 days in Thailand on this visit.

Upon reading posts on forums and Facebook groups, we were somewhat apprehensive about the Thai visa process in KL. From everything we’d read online, it seemed much more challenging to do it there than it would have been in Laos or Cambodia (or ideally, in the US). Citizens of certain countries can’t even apply for a Thai visa in Malaysia unless they’re permanent residents. Some people online said they were flat out refused the visa, even though they seemed to have all the required documents. Upon further research, those who were denied may have applied for the double-entry, and it seems that the Thai Embassy in KL only issues single-entry visas. Knowing all of that, getting ours in KL made the most sense for us, so we decided it was worth a try, especially since we only needed a single-entry visa.

Preparation

The official requirements on the Thai Royal Embassy’s website are quite strict and even state that any foreign documents need to be either notarized by your home diplomatic/consular mission or a notary public and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia. This alone probably would have taken a week to get. We decided that we would just be as prepared as we could reasonably be, arrive early, dress well, and be very polite. That really was the best we could do.

Fortunately, our guest house was right upstairs from a print shop run by a very nice Chinese couple. They got to know us pretty well over the days we spent collecting and printing out documents. They’re also responsible for our awesome new visa photos.

Application Day

The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur is located at 206 Jalan Ampang, about a 10-15 minute walk east of the Ampang Park LRT station. We noticed that many people arrived by taxi, but it’s actually very easy to get there by public transportation. Just make sure to cross to the north side of the street before leaving the mall area because there aren’t any other sane places to cross once you start walking.

We’d read that they open the gates at 9 AM to let people in and then start accepting applications at 9:30, so we decided to aim to get there around 8. Google Maps stated that it would take us over an hour to get there from our guesthouse, so we left at 7 and arrived at…7:35…whoops, guess we could have stopped for breakfast! We were by far the first ones in line and ended up waiting until 9:30 when they actually opened the gate. The man behind us in line actually seemed slightly peeved that he wasn’t first–apparently he does this a lot and is always first…sorry, dude! By the time they did open the gate, there were actually at least 25 people behind us in line, so we were glad to have gotten there early, even though it was way earlier than necessary.

Since we were first in line, we were very glad that we’d filled out our applications ahead of time. The embassy provides applications, but filling out the application is not exactly something we’d want to do while short on time. We took a number (the machine gives you two copies–be sure to hang onto both because they’ll ask you for the second one later). We sat down but only waited a minute or two before our number was called. We put on our nicest smiles and were “greeted” by the very surly woman behind the counter, who simply put her hand in the slot without even glancing up or saying a word. We first handed her our applications, photos, passports and signed passport copies. She glanced at them and told us to sit down until called up again. We waited patiently in the front row and watched many other people called up, then called up again for additional paperwork, then called up to pay and then leave. We were still waiting… We eventually were asked for just our ticket into Thailand then told to sit down again. Again, more people finished the process and left (did we mention that we’d been first in line?)…we waited and waited a bit more. After about an hour and a half total (and after really starting to get nervous that we’d be denied), we were asked for our 300 Ringgit (150 each), handed a receipt and told to return the next day.

Although we were starving by that time (it was almost 11, and we’d been up since 6:30), we felt pretty great and assumed that everything was fine. We met up with our friend Natalia right afterward, and she explained that that was how far she’d gotten with her Chinese visa the first time, only to be denied when she arrived the next day to pick it up. We knew we’d done our best, and we had several additional documents with us that they didn’t even request, so we put it out of our minds as much as possible.

Visa Pickup

To our great excitement, we showed up at the embassy the next day and received our passports back with visas inside. To pick them up, we just walked right in without a wait. All in all, it was an annoying process, but in the end, it was relatively straightforward and easy. And after hearing from Natalia about the Chinese visa, this was nothing. Fortunately, she managed to successfully get hers the second time, so it was a success all around!

Detailed Information for Getting a Thai Visa in Kuala Lumpur

Required Documents

1. Original passport valid not less than 6 months with a [signed] copy of information page(s).
2. Visa application form duly filled out with one 4×6 cm. sized photograph (white/blue background, taken within the past 6 months)
3. Original Letter from employer to certify the employment
4. Original letter for bank account confirmation from the bank and bank statement
5. Confirmed air ticket [into and out of Thailand] and hotel booking [including name and address of the hotel]
6. Supporting documents, i.e.
   1. Letter from the school/college/university certified by authorized school director and affixed by the seal of the school/college/university or
   2. Letter from the spouse and copy of marriage certificate and spouse’s identity card

Hours

Open: Monday to Friday

Closed: Saturday, Sunday and public holidays [including both Thai and Malaysian holidays]

Visa Application: 9:30-11:30 AM

Visa Collection: 2:30-4:00 PM (on the next working day)

Fee

RM 150 (about 35 USD)

(We heard others successfully pay in Thai Baht, but we’re not sure of the exact cost)

Dress

There is a sign outside (we really wish we’d gotten a picture of) detailing what is acceptable dress at the embassy. Basically, they don’t allow shorts, t-shirts, sleeveless shirts or sandals. We’d both worn the nicest clothing we have with us, but it almost didn’t make the cut according to the sign (our nicer shoes are our sandals). From what we saw, they don’t stringently hold people to it though because we certainly saw women who looked like they’d just come from the beach and men in shorts, t-shirts and sandals. From our outside observation, though, it did sort of seem like those people were asked for more documents.