Opening to foreign tourists: "More convenience over visas" promised as NSC meet Foreign Ministry today

[herfiehandbag]

Convenience in obtaining visas is being considered - by a General!

 

Which tells you all...

[soi3eddie]

2 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

When you apply for the 1-year extension based on your original Non Imm O-A Visa and you do this for a different reason than RETIREMENT (e.g. marriage, Thai dependent children, ...) the health-insurance requirement is NOT applicable.  So if he is in that case there is no need for him to convert to a Non Imm O Visa, a switch to a Non Imm O Visa would only be relevant if he can only apply for his Non Imm O-A based extension for reason of retirement (as that requires a mandatory Thai IO-approved health-insurance policy).

>> I compiled a comprehensive guideline document outlining all options/details on how to do that, just PM me if you want to receive a copy.

Thanks. Yes, no insurance requirement is why he converted to marriage extension. Next year he will convert extension to straight non-o retirement with no insurance. Why not stay on marriage? Because the renewal is easier on non-o retirement (no visits etc.). 

[webfact]

Related topic:

 

Special Tourist Visa: Thailand opens to the world - But will the tourists really come?

 

Full story: https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1195955-special-tourist-visa-thailand-opens-to-the-world-but-will-the-tourists-really-come/

[Peter Denis]

10 minutes ago, soi3eddie said:

Thanks. Yes, no insurance requirement is why he converted to marriage extension. Next year he will convert extension to straight non-o retirement with no insurance. Why not stay on marriage? Because the renewal is easier on non-o retirement (no visits etc.). 

Yes, that's correct.  But unless he can make use of the Embassy issued income letter method, the financial requirements are way lower when applying for reason of marriage.  When using the funds-in-bank method opting for the retirement reason means you permanently park +400K on your Thai bank-account compared with the marriage extension.  So unless 400K THB is peanuts for you, the additional hassle by opting for a marriage extension is well worth it.

[soi3eddie]

1 minute ago, Peter Denis said:

Yes, that's correct.  But unless he can make use of the Embassy issued income letter method, the financial requirements are way lower when applying for reason of marriage.  When using the funds-in-bank method opting for the retirement reason means you permanently park +400K on your Thai bank-account compared with the marriage extension.  So unless 400K THB is peanuts for you, the additional hassle by opting for a marriage extension is well worth it.

 

Didn't mention the financials as parking 800K permanently is no problem.

 

[ICELANDMAN]

On 12/8/2020 at 11:53 AM, jomtienisgood said:

How long ago was it abolished in Eu or USA ????????

 

You did not study at school I see, ma if your are Thai of course not.

 

[DogNo1]

Quarantine should be required for everyone, even those vaccinated.

[Trip Hop]

6 hours ago, DogNo1 said:

Quarantine should be required for everyone, even those vaccinated.

The problem with quarantine for tourists is that it is currently too long to be convenient or accepted by your average Joe with a lot of people with any previous knowledge of Thailand being dubious as to whether they will be ripped off by the hospitals and ASQ?  In a land where dual pricing and ripping tourists off appears to be an accepted national sport, I can't blame them TBH? Therefore Thailand either has to vaccinate everyone or up their testing game including making it free to everyone, so that outbreaks can be contained and isolated immediately.

[Thailand Forever]

If the vaccines work and Covid is declared over or even semi-over, I will be coming to Thailand/SE Asia for my usual 3 month holiday.  I spend about $75US per day so for the 60 days in Thailand I will be spending there $4500.

I am just an average guy, not high end by any means.  But neither am I a cheap charlie or one of them old retirees who linger over beers at the two bit bars.

[JP canada]

Maybe an idea to open up should include

the recently announced Holland Model. 
1 test before your flight. 1 test on arrival. 
If no positive ... good to go ... no quarantine. 

[Peter Denis]

23 minutes ago, JP canada said:

Maybe an idea to open up should include

the recently announced Holland Model. 
1 test before your flight. 1 test on arrival. 
If no positive ... good to go ... no quarantine. 

Yes, that Holland Model makes more sense than the current quarantaine model.

It would however require that the test on arrival would NOT be the current PCR-test which takes approx 2 days before results are available (so that would mean quarantaine till results are available). 

So that implies that a covid-19 AntiGen test needs to be used, of which the results are available in 5 minutes, and which is actually MORE reliable and far cheaper than the PCR-test.  When Thai authorities would switch to that method, and combine with a 10-day track-and-trace regime for those entering, the doors would finally be open again for regular tourism.

[Artisi]

On 12/7/2020 at 2:28 PM, MasterBaker said:

... but still force us to report every 90 days like we are all criminals here

Well you are in the eyes of many......