45 days visa exempt

[Ryanqqq]

Hello,

has anyone got info if 45 visa exempt will be extended after March?

Thanks

[gayinpattaya]

Nothing has been confirmed yet in any Thai media. 
I personally think they would be stupid not to. It's certainly helping people I talk to lengthen their trips before return back to the west. 

[MarcSingap]

Coming back in LOS yesterday from Siem Reap, I had a 45 day length visa. I asked if I will enjoy the same welcome in April and the officer said "yes it will be given also during Songkran month (april)"

[Ryanqqq]

Thanks for the info. I hope they extend this to the end of the year. 
if they extend on April, I really doubt they’ll just extend it one month so here’s hoping.

[fedssocr]

I think the inertia of these things will be difficult to change. Just like the "suspension" of the TM6 arrival/departure form

[gerefan]

Aren’t they having an election in late May?

Surely nothing will be announced until we’ll after that. 

[iendo]

I decided to get a Tourist visa, but was half regretting it afterward. My passport is good to next year, and I am requesting a new one tomorrow. This will probably render my online visa useless because it has been linked to my current passport. Maybe immigration will accept my new passport if I can show/bring my old passport and give me the visa on arrival.

 

But the point is that it really doesn't matter that much because I arrive in 2.5 weeks. The difference is 15 days, and that makes it very acceptable in my case. So yeah, I hope they keep the scheme alive.

[reader]

Late last week Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Yuthasak Supasorn made this observation on the possible extension of the 45-day VOA:

"If the government continues their scheme of extending tourist visas and visas on arrival, from 30 to 45 days and 15 to 30 days, the TAT believes people will take advantage and stay in Thailand for longer. But the scheme’s extension from March 31 to the end of the year still requires cabinet approval. And, if the plight of foreigners sticking it out in Thailand during the pandemic showed us anything, approval often comes a day or two before visa programs expire or even later."

[reader]

Barry Kenyon chimed in today on the outlook for an extension of the 45-day Visa on Arrival scheme which expires March 31. Here's some excerpts from his column in the Pattaya Mail:

"The argument in favour of extending the visa exempt and visa on arrival schemes to the end of 2023 is to boost the number of international tourists to Thailand in the post-covid environment. Conversely, it can be argued that the Thai tourist revival is proving so popular that additional visa privileges are hardly necessary. Moreover, adverse publicity about foreigners (mostly but not entirely Chinese) paying cash to receive corruptly long stay visas has prompted proposals that more power should be placed in the hands of Thai embassies abroad to award tourist and longstay visas rather than encouraging a free-for-all.

Other potential ambiguities include the number of same day visa runs which would be permissible and documentary requirements by Thai embassies abroad when awarding visas within their particular remit. It is also possible that any announcement could be delayed till after March 31 as, during the pandemic, immigration news was not uncommonly delayed post-deadline. A final issue is that the current caretaker government, awaiting the May 14 general election, is unlikely to approve new groundbreaking immigration rules. After all, This Is Thailand."

[Ryanqqq]

Thanks for the article, reader. I was hoping for a better news but not surprised if it will not be extended. Agree with the article, they might not really need this anymore as the tourists are back, and due to the coming elections.

I’m going for a year of sabbatical or perhaps pre retirement and the 45 day visa would have been very convenient.

[fedssocr]

certainly lots of discussion about this. The consensus I've seen seems to point to it's expiration as scheduled. Apparently people who have been arriving in the last week or so have only been getting the number of days until the end of April on their entry into the country rather than 45 days from their arrival.

[Lucky]

On 3/7/2023 at 7:33 AM, iendo said:

I decided to get a Tourist visa, but was half regretting it afterward. My passport is good to next year, and I am requesting a new one tomorrow. This will probably render my online visa useless because it has been linked to my current passport. Maybe immigration will accept my new passport if I can show/bring my old passport and give me the visa on arrival.

 

But the point is that it really doesn't matter that much because I arrive in 2.5 weeks. The difference is 15 days, and that makes it very acceptable in my case. So yeah, I hope they keep the scheme alive.

In Brazil, bringing the visa on the old passport worked just fine for me. Not sure about Thailand.

[iendo]

3 hours ago, Lucky said:

In Brazil, bringing the visa on the old passport worked just fine for me. Not sure about Thailand.

I arrived yesterday and they needed to get a captain to help me, but they got it done in 10 minutes.

[reader]

From Pattaya Mail

Visa exempt 45 days is back to 30 days at Thai airports and border crossings

By Barry Kenyon

Notwithstanding intense lobbying by the Tourist Authority of Thailand, citizens of the 60 or so visa-exempt countries will no longer receive 45 days on entry. Tourists from mainland Europe, the UK, the US, Australia, Saudi Arabia etc will receive from April 1 only 30 days if they choose to arrive without a prior visa. However, they will be able to extend for a further 30 days just once at Thai immigration. This is a return to the situation prior to October 1 2022 when the 45 days rule was brought in as a temporary measure to boost tourism until March 31 2023.

In other words, nationals from visa exempt countries now will have a maximum of 60 days rather than 75 before their time expires. However, they will still be able to leave the country, however briefly, and repeat the procedure for a further 30 + 30 days. But land border runs are limited to a maximum of two in a calendar year. There is no formal restriction on entries by air, though immigration officers can refuse admission if they feel a formal visa from a Thai embassy should be obtained in advance. “Don’t try to live in Thailand on short permissions of stay,” has long been a common refrain in the country’s immigration halls and border posts.

Citizens of a further 19 countries, wishing to enter without a prior visa, are categorized as visa on arrival. They pay 2,000 baht on entering the country and are mostly from China and India. In the period October 1 2022 to March 31 2023 they received 30 days on arrival, but this has now been replaced by 15 days which was the situation until the end of September last year. Nationals from visa on arrival countries can now receive only a seven days extension at immigration bureaux provided they can show a return airticket to the home country. They cannot extend their stay by a border run.

No official announcement was made by immigration or the government about the reversion to historical precedent. The decision to liberalize the rules for six months only was agreed by the Cabinet last autumn and thus, technically, required no termination notice. Most Thai embassies abroad, including those in the UK and the US, have long had notices on their websites about the March 31 truncation. From April 1, foreign tourists were subject to the new entry rules at both Thai airports and land crossing points.

One reason for the decision not to renew the scheme is the belief in some government circles that Thailand is seeing a welcome rebound in international tourism without special measures. Some visa gurus say that abuses in the system may also have played a part. Last December, immigration commander police lt gen Pakpoompipat Sajjapan promised to tighten visa rules after mainly Chinese tourists were shown to have corruptly obtained visas to which they were not entitled.

Thailand has various other bilateral agreements with several countries. Citizens of South Korea and four Latin American nations receive 90 days on arrival and are unaffected by the latest changes. Russia allows visa free, short-term travel for Thai nationals and, in return, Thailand for the past six months has awarded 45 days on Russian passports, though without the 30 days bonus opportunity at Thai immigration. From April 1, the 45 days becomes 30 once again for Russians amongst other nationalities. No extensions internally, but they can do a border run to receive a new 30 days. The nationals of about half the countries in the world, including most of Africa, cannot have any sort of visa free travel to Thailand and must obtain a prior visa at their nearest Thai embassy. Nobody said immigration rules are a quick read – anywhere in the world!

[reader]

Barry Kenyon speaks about other visa and immigration matters at a recent meeting of the Pattaya Expats Club.