Special Tourist Visa (STV) is being completely withdrawn

[reader]

From Pattaya Mail

The Special Tourist Visa (STV) is being completely withdrawn and the final end-date for flyers is July 2. Extensions once here are possible up to September 30 but not afterwards. The STV was introduced last year to cater for “snowbirds” and other tourists wanting a Thai vacation lasting up to nine months. It was never popular numerically and was heavily bureaucratic, requiring for example general medical insurance on top of Covid-19 cover. It might have proved more popular if travel bubbles and charter flights had been introduced, but frequent coronavirus flare-ups in Thailand and other Pacific-rim countries prevented that.

According to the Thai embassy in Bern, visas for medical tourists have now been suspended until further notice. Some other embassies, but not all, have quietly dropped medical tourism as a valid reason to request entry to Thailand. In normal times, about one million tourists a year have come under this category, the biggest single catchment being gender-reassignment and plastic surgery. No formal announcement has been made about this apparent visa cancellation, but is likely linked to the latest Covid-virus clusters plaguing Bangkok in particular.

Another cancellation is the visa-on-arrival which has been suspended until September 30. This visa covers 18 countries, China and India being the main sources, who were entitled to a stay of 14 days (plus 7 days extension) in pre-Covid times on payment of 2,000 baht on arrival in Thailand. Instead they have been told to apply for visas in their own country. There were only four European countries included in the visa-on-arrival arrangement: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta and Romania.

The visa exempt category – 58 countries including the UK, the US and most of Europe – traditionally entitled to 30 days on arrival has survived the axe in this time zone. But their stay has been extended to 45 days because of the recent re-introduction of a two weeks’ mandatory hotel quarantine on all arrivals (whether vaccinated or not) required by the Thai authorities. The visa-exempt category was formerly very popular with short-stay tourists, but is now expensive because costs include health checks prior to departure, compulsory Covid-19 insurance and an isolated two weeks’ sojourn in a Thai hotel.

All other visa categories remain more or less the same in the period before the end of September. Tourists, students, retirees, foreigners with Thai families, permanent residents, business people, Elite visa holders and condominium owners are all eligible to apply for a certificate of entry from the Thai embassy in the country of departure. The documentation required varies according to the specific visa required.

The termination of the STV (see above) means that general medical insurance – as opposed to specific coronavirus cover – will mostly have disappeared from embassy visa requirements. The one exception will be those applying for any kind of visa based on retirement, whether type “O” or “OA” or “X”. Unless the issue is addressed, they will continue to need general medical cover to the tune of 400,000 baht (inpatient) and 40,000 baht (outpatient) on top of Covid-19 cover. Whether this idiosyncratic logic is a deliberate attempt to squash retiree applications (but no others), or a simple oversight, remains to be seen.

The unpopular three months’ address reporting for expats and long-term visa holders is likely to be cancelled. It might be replaced by a computer app. which will record the relevant details and require updating only if the foreigner moves house. Such a system seems to work well in Cambodia.

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/overseas-thai-embassies-update-visa-guidance-for-foreigners-354372

 

[Ruthrieston]

I for one would be very pleased to see the cancellation of the 90 day address reporting requirement. It simply makes no sense to me whatsoever. But I am not holding my breath. Believe it when I see it.