FOR the past ten years, Suppanit ‘Geng’ Seakeng has been helping farangs living in Phuket to ‘stay legal’.
Most people know her as Eve and she operates probably the best known visa run service on the island.
Khun Geng started out organising visa runs for employees at a local haulage company back in 1999, and the business grew into today’s very successful Express Visa Extensions (EVE) service, bussing hundreds of farangs each year to Ranong, Khota Baru, and Penang to renew their visas.
She has discovered that immigration officials in Khota Baru, just over the Malaysian border, will issue three-year Non-Immigrant B visas.
After starting her visa runs a decade ago, Khun Geng took over a tour business on Rawai beach and has built it into a thriving business.
She is a lady with lots of determination and an endless supply of drive.
She has lived and worked on Phuket for most of her life and says she doesn’t ever want to live anywhere else.
After leaving school, she became a self-employed area agent for Singer Sewing Machines where she was responsible for sales as well as servicing and repairing the sewing machines.
She saved her money and eventually opened her own electrical repair shop.
“It was a dismal failure,” she said.
“I went into business with a friend who was good with electrical goods, but he spent most of his time gambling instead of working.”
The venture closed after only 10 months, and Khun Geng went into the restaurant business, then became a buyer for a Taiwanese company, which meant she had to move closer to Bangkok.
In 1999, she returned to Phuket and started the Phuket Geng Tour company on Rawai beachfront.
Business wasn’t all that good, so she started organising visa runs to Ranong.
Clients would pay her just enough to cover the petrol and a little extra, but Khun Geng wanted more.
“At that time there were only two of us doing visa runs,” she said.
“It was very tough for me at the start because nobody would help me or tell me what I had to do. I had to figure everything out for myself.”
As more and more farangs moved to Phuket and needed visas, the business grew.
Khun Geng investigated the different types of visas and where to get them, and she is now considered something of an immigration expert, and her regular visa runs to Ranong and Penang, and now Khota Baru, are often booked out, so she must be doing something right.
“My customers always come first, and they know I will look after them. You might say my service has ‘heart’,” she said.
Khun Geng puts a lot of effort and long hours into running her business.
She is often out of bed at 4am to drive clients to their buses and she is usually still in her office at 10pm.
“Whenever I start a new visa run, I always go along on the first few trips,” she said.
“I have now started doing runs to Kota Bharu, and I have been on every trip so far.
“I like to talk to people, make my own contacts and see what are the best deals for my clients.”
Until recently, the only company doing visa runs to Kota Bharu was one based on Koh Samui, and Khun Geng said she started her own trips to Kota Bharu after she heard people complaining about the Koh Samui operators.
“I went to Kota Bharu to set up all the contacts and I discovered I could maintain my usual standard of service at a good price,” she said.
“If I wasn’t sure I could do it properly then I wouldn’t have done it.”
The Kota Bharu trip is cheaper with EVE, and it’s also a lot more convenient for people based in Phuket.
It also a lot friendlier and includes three meals.
“I charge only the proper visa price. There are no extras or add-ons,” she said.
She said the main advantage of doing a visa run to Kota Bharu was that you could get a three year, multiple entry, Non Immigrant B Visa for 11,500 baht, which is a definite bonus for foreigners with work permits.
Even though the number of foreign workers on Phuket has fallen as many businesses look for savings, Khun Geng assures her customers that they will always receive the best treatment.
“I have built my business on people talking about me, and I don’t want to lose that reputation,” she said.
On one trip, her hard-earned reputation saved one of her clients from having to make a second trip.
He had the wrong paperwork, but he was given his visa on the proviso that Khun Geng brought the correct papers on the next trip -- which, of course, she did.
Khun Geng said the secret of her success was a combination of initiative, good business sense, and a big heart.
She is well known in the Rawai area as a tough cookie with a wicked sense of humour.
For further information, call Khun Geng on 0891 954 877 or 0815 352 637, or call into her office on Rawai Beach Road, opposite Nikita’s Bar.