So you're traveling around South East Asia have wondered into Vientiane, Laos and have decided to extend your trip and relax here for a little longer than your original 30 day visa allows for? No problem.
What you'll need..
Your passport
A passport type photo 3 x 4 size
Service fee - 25,000 kip
Application fee 2,000 kip (should be, I was charged a little bit more, details below)
Visa Extension Fee 20,000 kip per day or 10 USD per day for any days you have overstayed
(Extension fee of stay for Laotian holding foreign nationality and Laotian with non-nationality, taxing cost 10.000 kip/day, service fee 25.000 kip
Where to go..
You can apply for the visa extension at the Immigration office which, since 2022, is is no longer located in downtown Vientiane. It's now a little ways away. I would not suggest you walk... not like my OCPD issues caused me to walk twice or anything. 5 miles, not a fun or view filled time. And you get stared at by everyone because they assume...rightly, that your an idiot. So right before you turn onto a currently gravel road to the Department of Immigration off of a road that I do not have the name of and can't see on google maps, you will pass the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Be sure to be on the look out for the dinosaur in front! :)
The office is open Monday to Thursday, from 8:00-16:00 (closed 11:30 to 13:30 at lunchtime) and Friday, from 8:00 to 11:30.
My Experience..
Everything went way smoother than I was expecting (I always expect the worst). I arrived at around 9:00 am. The office is on the first floor (the floor you walk in is the ground floor) so head straight back and take the elevator up one floor, as I arrived I looked around and headed to the left because the sign said visa extension... I found out that this was the wrong window, that instead I needed to go the window across the room that said "information".
So when you go, exit the elevator, turn to the left (the only way you can), and then head to the window on the right, this is where you will ask for the extension form to fill out.
After I filled it out, I figured I should give it to the person at the window that said visa extension... again I
was wrong. I was actually supposed to give it back to the person in that same window.
She glanced at what I filled out, asked how many days I wanted, I said thirty, she said she could do that for me, I tried to hand her my passport photo and she said that she didn't need it, I was a little bummed because I got these passport photos made specifically for this and it was a weird size so probably not usable for other situations.
Anyways, she took my passport made a copy and I paid her what she asked for (640,000 kip, I thought it would be 627,000 given the information I was given - so 600,000 for each day + 25,000 service fee + 2,000 application fee) I didn't ask why it was that much, since it was so close and I always get nervous dealing with police and other official people. I always feel like I'm about to get into trouble. The woman handed me the copy of my passport, and told me to return the next day at 10:30am.
I went back the next day and went to the window on the left, handed the copy sheet of my passport, and was handed back my passport with the new visa, I thanked them and that was that.
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