Question for Thailand - Multiple entry with Vehicle

[Andrew White]

Hi ,

My desired route will take me through - Arrive to Thailand - Laos - Cambodia - Thailand - Malaysia....

Obviously regular Visa processes allow for multiple entry into Thailand.... But with a vehicle and therefor a temporary import/export... Is the multiple entry still possible?

Anybody got recent experience with this?

Cheers

[somemustard]

Hi Andrew

You can do the Thailand in and out thing with your vehicle as often as your visas allow. You may only receive 30 days for your vehicle initially, even if your visa says 60, but it depends on the border crossing and it's at the discretion of whichever official you happen to get.

You can then extend that 30 days for up to another 150 days, at any customs office in Thailand. After which you can export the vehicle, and simply reimport it and start the whole thing over...

It's a pretty painless procedure, even with the language barrier, just try and avoid doing it in Bangkok.

Cheers

[Andrew White]

great cheers....

I am actually shipping mumbai to Thailand this week..... and was in email contact with customs brokers in thailand... They threw me a little by saying that its a long a difficult process to apply for temporary importation... but with a carnet its straight fwd...now i ofcourse have a carnet but i was under the impression it was used in thailand.....im concerned when i exit at a land border with a carnet, they will not be able to sign it off??

[somemustard]

No, Thailand isn't a part of the whole carnet deal. But we've seen a fair bit of confusion in SE Asia, which I think stems from the fact that the CDP and the ATA Carnet are two different documents. But it does make it easier for the person registering your details into the Thai system, so it's definitely worth producing it to at least show them. We've done this temporary import thing half a dozen times now, and the only time it's an issue, is if you're unlucky enough to get some official who hasn't got a clue.

Laos customs stamped our carnets in and out at the friendship bridge near Vientianne. And the Thais insisted on signing them when we crossed back over from Laos, but the carnets we gave them had expired at that point, so it hardly mattered At the time it was like... WTF?? But it was also less hassle, especially as they were going to charge us an import fee otherwise. Laos may not recognise the carnet, but customs officials definitely know what they are.

However I doubt the Thais will stamp you out at any border crossing, so you may end up at the Malaysian border with a carnet with a missing exit stamp. Whether the Malaysians will care, I have no idea. The border crossing at Bukit Hitam is so slack we could have ridden back and forwards any number of times without producing any documents. They'll care when you finally ship out of there though...

Ultimately, when all this craziness crosses the desk of some FIA bureaucrat, who knows what they'll make of it all?