Vietnamese may have to obtain visas to enter Thailand



BANGKOK: -- Vietnamese citizens may be required to obtain visas to enter Thailand after new rules aimed at cracking down on illegal migrants came into effect on Tuesday.

According to a bilateral agreement between the Vietnamese and Thai governments, Vietnamese passport holders can stay in Thailand for 30 days without visas if they enter by air and 15 days if they enter by land.

But under new regulations issued by the Thai Immigration Bureau, if Vietnamese citizens who frequently enter Thailand fail to prove that they're visiting Thailand for travel purposes, they will have to apply for visas.

For Vietnamese citizens who successfully prove that they're entering Thailand for travel purposes, Thai authorities will decide the length of their stay based on their travel itinerary, instead of offering them a blanket 30 day exemption.

With the new regulations, Thai authorities recommended that foreign tourists prepare papers such as return air tickets and room booking confirmations just in case Thai customs officers required them to show.

Thailand issued the new regulations to crack down on tourists using the ''visa run'' tactic to leave and re-enter Thailand on the same day in order to extend their stays or even work, according to the Bangkok Post.

A ''visa run'' is used by foreigners to activate an additional entry of their tourist visas, or simply obtain another 15-30 days of visa-free waiver status. Commercial services shuttle foreigners to a border checkpoint where they walk over, then return only minutes later to get a new passport stamp.

How long they can stay depends on the agreements Thailand has with each neighboring country.

In northeastern Thailand, most visa runners are those from Vietnam, South Korea and Russia, the Bangkok Post reported.

Last year 2,812 Vietnamese people were arrested in Thailand, including some 803 people who were found working without permits, according to Thai statistics.

It is estimated that some 500,000 Vietnamese people travel to Thailand every year.

thanhniennews

 
-- Samui Times 2014-08-14

ASEAN is beginning to look like a farce at least from the thai side


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ASEAN is beginning to look like a farce at least from the thai side


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ASEAN has nothing ot do with this. There is no ASEAN agreement for visas or entries.

Off topic and inflammatory (troll) posts have been removed. Attempts to take this topic off topic will not be tolerated.

And very soon there will be nobody coming to the kingdom with all these crackdowns !

So just like everyone else that qualifies for visa free entry ...

And very soon there will be nobody coming to the kingdom with all these crackdowns !

This is the same tightening of the visa exempt rules and nothing new. There has only been one crackdown and that is on those that are abusing visa exempt entries.

 

And very soon there will be nobody coming to the kingdom with all these crackdowns !

 

This is the same tightening of the visa exempt rules and nothing new. There has only been one crackdown and that is on those that are abusing visa exempt entries.

 

True. This is the same crackdown and nothing new. I have met quite a few Vietnamese doing the back to back in/out border runs to extend their stay in Thailand.

 

Hopefully the extra scrutiny given to visa-exempt entries will mean it's not necessary for Vietnamese to lose their visa exempt status. Loss of visa-exempt status would be reciprocal. 

 

ASEAN is beginning to look like a farce at least from the thai side


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ASEAN has nothing ot do with this. There is no ASEAN agreement for visas or entries.

 

 

I am glad you set me straight on that. I was under the impression that Asean meant the free movement of people and workers between all the member states....... no visas and unrestricted entries.
 

"In northeastern Thailand, most visa runners are those from Vietnam, South Korea and Russia, the Bangkok Post reported."

 

This must anger all the farang visa runners, thinking that all the new enforcement was strictly about them!

"In northeastern Thailand, most visa runners are those from Vietnam, South Korea and Russia, the Bangkok Post reported."

 

This must anger all the farang visa runners, thinking that all the new enforcement was strictly about them!

 

Russia = Farang

"In northeastern Thailand, most visa runners are those from Vietnam, South Korea and Russia, the Bangkok Post reported."
 
This must anger all the farang visa runners, thinking that all the new enforcement was strictly about them!

Some genius will be along shortly convinced this is just another sign of anti-farang sentiment in Thailand.

ASEAN ... open community ... yeah right

 

I see the same happening but different. Vietnams one party state in harmony with Thailand and following with similar policies.

 

 

ASEAN is beginning to look like a farce at least from the thai side


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ASEAN has nothing ot do with this. There is no ASEAN agreement for visas or entries.

 

 

I am glad you set me straight on that. I was under the impression that Asean meant the free movement of people and workers between all the member states....... no visas and unrestricted entries.
 

 

It is the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) that stars and there is no freedom of movement as part of the agreement.

Many people get this wrong because they equate it to the EEC which it is nothing like.

  Under the previous rules there was no need for a RETURN ticket, just an OUT OF COUNTRY ticket.

Now that might have been a return ticket but the rules only stated an out-of-county exit ticket.

Maybe they still do, maybe the OP got it wrong or missed the distinction between a return ticket and an out-of-country ticket for valid tourists?

Or maybe a translation problem in the original post?

I guess we will see soon enough.

.

 

 

 

 

ASEAN is the governing body over AEC2015 - where this subject falls into. The 500'000 Vietnamese are the understatement of the century. Whoever crossed the Friendship Bridge 1 between Nongkhai and Thanalaeng can confirm the permanent queues of young Asian men without luggage, a green passport and the arrival/departure cards in their hand. I cross there regularly and all those Vietnamese are definite visa runners.
Given the ongoing personnel shortage in Thailand they find jobs, work hard and get their friends across too. Lets wait and see what happens in 16 months and 17 days from now. That's when AEC2015 kicks in. Most likely nothing will happen on D-day but in 5 to 10 years from now Thais will dam the fact, that they've been selling their votes for money and now are getting overrun by more dedicated, more educated and more willing neighbours seeking work. 
The writing is on the wall ............ 

ASEAN's main purpose at the moment is to create a free trade zone between member countries.

 

Although labour restrictions will be relaxed there will not be a free movement of labour without documentation. At least for now.

So just like everyone else that qualifies for visa free entry ...

Basically, but we will still get a hyperbolic 6 pages of comment from the usual suspects on it.

Nobody uses printed tickets any more. What are you supposed to show, the email that Air Asia sent you? I have a friend in Vietnam who visits 3 or 4 times a year, and stays with me so he has no hotel information or itinerary to show. I hope that won't be considered too frequently.

"Although labour restrictions will be relaxed there will not be a free movement of labour without documentation. At least for now."

Thailand announced quite a while ago that after Dec 2015 employment for between ASEAN members would be restricted to 7 professional categories. engineering, nursing, physician, dental, architecture, surveying and accounting. The agreements between the 10 Asean member countries mean licensed and recognised professionals in these fields can move to other Asean countries to practice, but they are still subject to pass that countrys licensing test.

Edited August 14, 201411 yr by biggles45

In whatever country, if there is no real rules and orders, people of that country will behave badly. Therefore, they are not welcome by others free world country is understandable. Imagine if the American did not withdraw from the war it started. Vietnam cities would have metro running everywhere and superhighways. See vietnamese in America for example, they came with empty hand and now there is even a brigadier general of the US army. And soon will have a rear admiral too. In just 40 years, vietnamese in america many are successful , polite.  and live similar lifestyle as people in Thailand. Thailand deep down really feel sympathy for the majority of the poor people of its neighbor.

   It will be interesting to see how, or if, this affects the Vietnamese crossing the border at Nongkhai.

 

   There are lots of Vietnamese living and working in the Vientiane area of Laos, many of them are doing border runs across the friendship bridge to Thailand and back into Laos. Many days the border buses are full of them. A few weeks ago I was in line behind a young Vietnamese woman and overheard the Thai Immigration Officer asking her why she was entering Thailand. She did not seem to understand Thai and he asked her several times. She finally uttered a single word, " Jang", which means "stamp". The officer shook his head but stamped her passport and let her through.

So far so good for the hundreds of Laos passport holders living in Thailand on back to back 30 day stamps. I wonder why the Vietnamese have been singled out?

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commie eats dogs and cats. Buddism don't eat dog/cat

commie eats dogs and cats. Buddism don't eat dog/cat

In Loei they do. Also reported a lot of commies there back in the 70s.