Big Thailand visa changes from June 1

[El Matador]

"At this time, the government has announced that the visa will only be available from June 2025."

 

Well it seems we can forget the digital nomad visa for next winter. And they have the time to change 10 times their mind.

I still take that 2 months visa exemption instead of waiting weeks for the evisa.

 

"In 2024, foreign tourism on track to generate ฿1.254 trillion, far short of nearly ฿2 trillion generated in 2019. Cabinet wants ฿3 trillion in receipts"

 

Interesting to see that despite a high number of tourists, the money coming from tourism has dropped by a lot. It gives an idea about the current opening towards Russian, Chinese and Indian tourists. It hasn't attracted wealthy tourists.

Edited May 30 by El Matador

[ThaiPauly]

On 5/28/2024 at 7:45 PM, Captain Monday said:

Because so many ”married expats” appear to be skels?

Who were allowed into Thailand  without police checks and are likely to re-offend?

Rubbish

Edited May 30 by ThaiPauly

[buddyy]

Sorry i havent been through all the post in this topic, but does the 60 day exempt also applies to land borders?

[DrJack54]

6 minutes ago, buddyy said:

Sorry i havent been through all the post in this topic, but does the 60 day exempt also applies to land borders?

Yes. 

[dinsdale]

5 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Teachers have more benefits - 

- get visa and WP paid for.

- get free health insurance for life

- can get PR or Thai Citizenship

- can get free lunch sometimes 🙂

Your information is misinformation. Not all teachers get visa and wp permit paid for, free health insurance for life???????????? you're kidding, Thai citizenship, no way but free lunch yes, but only at some schools.

[DonniePeverley]

22 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

 

Are there any infrustructure plans on the horizon for Phuket , Koh Samui ?

 

I'm guessing nothing planned. 

[DonniePeverley]

2 hours ago, El Matador said:

 

"In 2024, foreign tourism on track to generate ฿1.254 trillion, far short of nearly ฿2 trillion generated in 2019. Cabinet wants ฿3 trillion in receipts"

 

Interesting to see that despite a high number of tourists, the money coming from tourism has dropped by a lot. It gives an idea about the current opening towards Russian, Chinese and Indian tourists. It hasn't attracted wealthy tourists.

 

 

Attracting low quality mass tourism, then wondering why revenue is down despite numbers being high. 

 

Solution - add more mass tourism. Just squash them in. To hell with locals, or giving tourists a good experience, or (forbid) attracting quality tourism by cleaning all the problems up, investing in infrustructure etc 

Edited May 30 by DonniePeverley

[DonniePeverley]

7 hours ago, StayinThailand2much said:

 

The eternal struggle between greed and xenophobia. Nothing changed in 20 years...

 

It's not just Thailand. Europe, Japan, and some other tourist centric regions have seen the local population hit back at mass tourism. It's not always xenophobia, but rather you can't just push mass tourism/immigration onto a local population. 

 

 

[george]

1 minute ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

It's not just Thailand. Europe, Japan, and some other tourist centric regions have seen the local population hit back at mass tourism. It's not always xenophobia, but rather you can't just push mass tourism/immigration onto a local population. 

 

 

 

Let's keep on topic and go back to VISA issues only.

 

Feel free to open a separate thread about mass tourism.

Thanks! 🙏

[Lorry]

4 hours ago, anchadian said:

there certainly is a market for this across the world, particularly in Western countries.

I didn't know Russia is a western country. 

The DTV will legalize all the Russians here who are living and remotely working here already anyway.

[Highlandman]

I'm confused about the supposed addition of Laos and Cambodia to visa free entry into Thailand. For almost 20 years, nationals of both countries have been able to enter Thailand visa free, so the insinuation, based on the info graphic that these 2 countries are only now being afforded visa exempt entry into Thailand is highly misleading. 

 

So far, Laotians have been permitted unlimited 30 day visa free entry, while Cambodians have been receiving 14 days and vice versa for Thais visiting those 2 countries.

 

What will change here? If they meant that they too will receive 60 days visa free, that would be a significant change BUT it doesn't change the fact that Laos and Cambodia are 2 nations who've been eligible for visa free entry into Thailand for many years and with no official limit on the number of entries either. 

[Lorry]

2 hours ago, george said:

Let's keep on topic and go back to VISA issues only

Which is, in a nutshell:

 

60 days visa free for the whole world (except for the kind of countries Mr Trump found a special word for), starting immediately

 

Everything else is put off until June 2025 - there may be a new long-time visa, the DTV

 

If you are on a retirement visa, watch September-December 2024, change may come.

[Pattaya57]

24 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

I'm confused about the supposed addition of Laos and Cambodia to visa free entry into Thailand. For almost 20 years, nationals of both countries have been able to enter Thailand visa free, so the insinuation, based on the info graphic that these 2 countries are only now being afforded visa exempt entry into Thailand is highly misleading. 

 

So far, Laotians have been permitted unlimited 30 day visa free entry, while Cambodians have been receiving 14 days and vice versa for Thais visiting those 2 countries.

 

What will change here? If they meant that they too will receive 60 days visa free, that would be a significant change BUT it doesn't change the fact that Laos and Cambodia are 2 nations who've been eligible for visa free entry into Thailand for many years and with no official limit on the number of entries either. 

Currently Cambodia  and Laos have free entry under bilateral agreements (which includes unlimited entries). Both will change to 60 day visa exempts from 1 June which does raise the question about only two visa exempts allowed by land per calender year (maybe bilateral agreements stay in place as well?)

Edited May 30 by Pattaya57

[unblocktheplanet]

23 hours ago, Solrac1 said:

With the cancellation of the Re-Entry Permit

Really???

[El Matador]

I just realized Taiwan only gets a 15 days visa on arrival while China is now getting a 60 days visa exemption.

It is hard not to see the hand of the CCP. It doesn't make much sense.

Happy for ASEAN citizens they start getting a better treament from their neighbor with that 60 days visa exemption.

 

Edited May 30 by El Matador

[unblocktheplanet]

2 hours ago, george said:

 

Let's keep on topic and go back to VISA issues only.

 

Feel free to open a separate thread about mass tourism.

Thanks! 🙏

Thanks for your efforts to keep us in line, George. It could be chaos!

 

Will you please point us to the tax thread or tell us where to search? Thx.

[DrJack54]

7 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Will you please point us to the tax thread or tell us where to search? Thx.

@Mike Lister will assist

[Callmeishmael]

OK, I am confused.  In THIS thread:

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1328540-reduction-in-number-of-non-immigrant-visa-types-from-sep-2024/

 

the government announces that they are going to cancel all of the extra visa types and just keep 7 visa types active.  Meanwhile everyone in THIS thread is still discussing all of the details of the visas that were announced last week.

 

So which is it?  Do we still have a bunch of new visa categories or have they all been cancelled?

[Mike Lister]

13 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Thanks for your efforts to keep us in line, George. It could be chaos!

 

Will you please point us to the tax thread or tell us where to search? Thx.

 

The tax threads are linked below:

 

[Neeranam]

3 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Your information is misinformation. Not all teachers get visa and wp permit paid for, free health insurance for life???????????? you're kidding, Thai citizenship, no way but free lunch yes, but only at some schools.

I'd say 99% of teachers get a WP paid for, visa maybe not. 

health insurance is mandatory in most schools, all govt. schools. When you reach 55 you can opt to keep it for life, for 432 baht a month. 

I worked at a govt school, getting 40k a month and got citizenship, so is possible. 

[Shocked farang]

6 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

 

This is incorrect, visa on arrival is not a visa purchased in advance from an embassy. VOA are typically non extendable and valid for just 15 days. 

I did say it's purchased in advance from an embassy. I said the first step on arrival is to purchase the Visa and then you get your stay stamped 

[ian carman]

ATM do we know if enter visa exempt from uk ,60 days ,will a border run be an additional 60 or will they restrict it to 30 

[daysein1]

So the DTV is 180 days one time and 180 days extension for 10k baht each? They're essentially saying if you want to live and earn money from overseas in Thailand you can but 20k baht per year, correct?

[DrJack54]

7 minutes ago, ian carman said:

ATM do we know if enter visa exempt from uk ,60 days ,will a border run be an additional 60 or will they restrict it to 30 

If this goes into gazette there is no reason to suggest land border visa exempt entries will not be 60 days

[Paris333]

For those over 50 years old is it mandatory to have health insurance in Thailand?

I am going to travel for 3 months in Bangkok. Is it mandatory to pay private health insurance in Thailand or not?

 

[GanDoonToonPet]

1 hour ago, Callmeishmael said:

OK, I am confused.  In THIS thread:

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1328540-reduction-in-number-of-non-immigrant-visa-types-from-sep-2024/

 

the government announces that they are going to cancel all of the extra visa types and just keep 7 visa types active.  Meanwhile everyone in THIS thread is still discussing all of the details of the visas that were announced last week.

 

So which is it?  Do we still have a bunch of new visa categories or have they all been cancelled?

 

The reduction is in non-immigrant type visas. Here we are discussing the change from 30 days to 60 days for the 'visa exemption' stamp and introduction of the DTV, a type of tourist visa 🙂

[ian carman]

34 minutes ago, Paris333 said:

For those over 50 years old is it mandatory to have health insurance in Thailand?

I am going to travel for 3 months in Bangkok. Is it mandatory to pay private health insurance in Thailand or not?

 

If you get knocked down by a mad taxi driver or motorcycle expect a nice £20k bill from the hospital.Is it not worth paying for it ?

[ian carman]

Uk government website has been updated to 60 days from June 1st 

[george]

4 minutes ago, ian carman said:

Uk government website has been updated to 60 days from June 1st 

Link please!

[PingRoundTheWorld]

On 5/29/2024 at 1:43 AM, elektrified said:

 

Must maintain 500K Baht in the bank for the 180 day stay.

I haven't seen any official source to confirm this, and I doubt that's true. The visa application would be made outside Thailand in your home country, so my guess is they'd ask to see funds in your bank account etc.

 

If indeed you need to hold 500k uninvested in a Thai bank account, then the true cost (visa fee+lost yield) skyrockets to 50-60k a year. Doubt that's the case though.