00:00If you're planning on coming to Thailand in the next few months, I would highly suggest to keep
00:04an eye out on the visa rules and what this visa exemption is going to be at in the next
00:10couple
00:11of months because...
00:36G'day guys. Happy Monday, at least it's Monday here in Thailand. This is a bit of a different type of
00:42video today. I'm going to be breaking down the recent news that I've seen online. This actually
00:48showed up, I think, on my Instagram feed and it's pretty big news. It actually relates to the visa-free
00:55stay in Thailand, which is currently 60 days for certain countries. So if you're from a country
01:01like Australia or the US or Canada, pretty much any European country, the UK, which is where most of
01:08our audience is from, and you've been planning on coming to Thailand or you've come to Thailand in
01:12the past, you would know that you get a visa-free entry for 60 days when you come here. You
01:19can even
01:19extend that another 30 days, which means you can come to Thailand for 90 days. Well, it looks like
01:25that's all about to end as the Thai government just announced a couple of days ago, actually,
01:31that the period of visa-free stays in Thailand is set to be reduced from 60 days to 30 days.
01:38And I'm reading this directly from the Bangkok Post article in which I found it. So I'll put that up
01:43on screen so you guys can follow along. But so basically it says here that the related authorities
01:50have agreed in principle to the move in an effort to curb the risk of illegal businesses
01:57exploiting the visa exemption scheme, according to the tourism and sports ministry. So apparently
02:03there are some businesses that are doing a little bit of a dodgy and they're bringing people into
02:08Thailand on this visa-free exemption and I guess letting them work without having actual work visas.
02:15It says here, tourism and sports minister Sarawang Thia Thong said the foreign ministry acknowledged
02:21the issue as it had been widely discussed among all related stakeholders in the past few weeks.
02:28He said they all agreed in principle to reduce the period of stay from 60 days to 30 days for
02:34citizens
02:35from countries granted a visa exemption under the program. So if you're not sure if you fall under that
02:40visa exemption program, I'll leave a link down below with a list of countries, but it's pretty
02:46much all the countries that I named earlier. It says here, however, additional details would be
02:51discussed before formally announcing the adjustment to the regulation. So since July 2024, the government
02:58has allowed passport holders from 93 countries to enter Thailand for tourism purposes for a period not
03:04exceeding 60 days. This had earlier been granted to citizens of 57 countries. So last year in July,
03:12they increased it from 57 countries to 93 countries. And it says here, however, tourism operators expressed
03:19concern over the extended period as long haul tourists typically stayed for only 14 to 21 days on average,
03:27while short haul travelers spent less than two weeks per trip or around seven days on average. Now,
03:33I agree with that in principle where people coming here for a holiday generally only spend like two
03:39to three weeks, maybe four weeks max, but that's not really taking into account a lot of the people
03:44who come here for extended periods of time such as retirees. So where we live here in Hua Hin,
03:51there are a lot of retirees who spend half the year back home and pretty much come here for the
03:56other half of
03:56the year, I think basically to escape the cold. So as soon as Christmas is over, starting in January, they
04:02come here,
04:03they get their 60 day tourist exemption when they arrive on arrival. They then can extend that for another 30
04:11days,
04:11which gives them a total of 90 days in the country. And that only costs 1900 baht, which is like
04:1770 or 80 bucks.
04:18So they can stay for 90 days, then they've got to do a visa run, which is basically a land
04:22crossing between either
04:25Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar, you get another 60 days and the process starts again. And they get to spend six
04:31months of the year here
04:32without having to buy a visa, go through the application process, do any of that sort of stuff. And a
04:38lot of those people
04:39have properties here, I believe that they rent long term, like some of our neighbors around here, they're not here
04:44half a year,
04:45and then the other half a year, they are here. And I would assume maybe they're avoiding getting the
04:51retirement visa because that's obviously a costly visa. And that also means I believe there are some tax
04:57implications. So now you're considered a tax resident of Thailand, whereas previously they're a tax resident
05:02back home. And I just want to come to Thailand to spend some of the winter months. I know people
05:07actually
05:07do this in Canada, like I have friends and family who do similar things where in the winter months,
05:13especially January, February, March, they own like construction and trucking companies, like the
05:20business actually slows down a lot during those months. And they get really sick of spending the
05:25winter back home, and they just want a little bit of a break. And it's usually like two or three
05:29months,
05:29they'll head down south to Mexico or Nicaragua or Costa Rica or something like that. And they can run
05:35their business remotely just by phone or on the laptop. And they can get away from the long dreary winters
05:42that you get in the northern hemisphere. Now, as an Aussie, we don't really get that we have winter,
05:47but it's not untolerable. I think it's more of a northern hemisphere, European or North American
05:52thing. But there's also a lot of digital nomads who take advantage of the visa exemption, obviously.
05:59So it looks like that's kind of what they're cracking down on a little bit more. And obviously,
06:05the people who are coming here and actually working for businesses like a lot of the tourism based
06:10businesses have people coming from other countries and working and staying for six months without
06:15getting the right visa. So it says here in the article, the Association of Travel Agents earlier
06:21raised this concern with the ministry as there is a growing number of foreigners illegally working or
06:26conducting business in the country. While the Thai Hotels Association believed this was partly to blame
06:32for the increase in the number of condos being illegally rented out to guests on a daily basis,
06:37which is super interesting because believe it or not, it's actually illegal to rent out a apartment
06:44or a condo on a daily basis. They have to be, I think, at least on a monthly basis. I'm
06:50not too sure
06:51when that law came into effect or why, but it is a law here in Thailand that obviously doesn't really
06:57get followed. If you go into Airbnb now and you look for a condo or a hotel room in any
07:03major tourist
07:05city, you're going to find a nightly rental pretty much anywhere despite the fact that it is technically
07:10illegal. It goes on to say, given the recent call by a former member of parliament in Phuket urging the
07:16government to crack down on foreign businesses using nominees and reduce the visa-free period to 30 days,
07:23the ministry's permanent secretary said the ministry has instructed the tourism department to enforce the
07:28tourism business and tourism guide act more seriously. She said the special joint operational
07:34center operated by six authorities included the tourism department and tourism police has consistently
07:40investigated illicit activities taking place in Phuket and five other popular tourism related areas,
07:47Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Koh Samui and Bangkok. She said the department revoked the licenses of 40 companies
07:53in 2024 as they were found guilty of secretly changing the authorized directors and the proportion of
08:00directors and shareholders resulting in their disqualification from operating a tourism business. In Phuket,
08:0615 tour companies licenses have been revoked. There was also the case of a Thai committee of a tour company
08:12also being registered under five different company names. So what this looks like and honestly, this isn't really a big
08:20shock to me. It looks like there are a lot of people taking advantage of the quite lax visa regulations
08:26in
08:27Thailand and people are coming here and basically moving here and working illegally or setting up businesses
08:32illegally because it's cheap and it's quite easy to bypass some of the rules if you know the right people
08:38and if you're willing to pay a bit of a price. Now, what does this mean for you? If you're
08:44planning on coming
08:45to Thailand in the next few months, I would highly suggest to keep an eye out on the visa rules
08:50and
08:51what this visa exemption is going to be at in the next couple of months because we have a great
08:57visa
08:57agent who helped us with our education visa and now our DTV visa who basically explained to us that
09:02the Thai government often can put out messages like this and then nothing happens for months and months
09:09and you end up wondering what was the whole point of the announcement. But on the other hand,
09:12there's been instances where overnight they can just make a quick change to a rule or a law without
09:18giving any notice. So before you go and book your trip to Thailand and before you book accommodation,
09:23you need to keep an eye out on the Thai embassy and see what the regulations are for entering Thailand
09:30and the visa-free status whether it's 30 days or 60 days because if you're planning on coming for
09:36a two-month trip that will seriously affect how you travel because you're going to have to go in and
09:41extend your 30-day visa. If you're planning on coming here for an extended period of time and this is
09:46affecting your plans, for instance, if you did think about coming here for 60 days, either you're living
09:51off savings or you're working remotely, I'd highly, highly suggest looking into alternative visas,
09:59especially the DTV visa. The DTV visa is probably the best option for anybody who works remotely or online.
10:07It's quite easy to get as long as you fulfill all of the requirements and you can apply for it
10:12before
10:12you come. And you can come and go in Thailand as much as you want for a period of five
10:17years as long
10:18as you're not staying for over 180 days at a time, which isn't too bad. And it's quite inexpensive,
10:24it's about 10,000 Thai baht, but you do need to show proof of income and employment and you do
10:30need to
10:31have, I believe, 500,000 Thai baht in your bank account to prove that you're able to support
10:36yourself for a period of six months. And again, keep an eye out on the government website because
10:42this could change overnight without any warning. I'm assuming they're going to just put this into
10:47effect on either April 1st or May 1st at the start of the month and there's going to be a
10:51big
10:51announcement. There's going to be no warning. It's just going to all change from 30 days to 60 days,
10:56which, if you've already got your trip booked, makes it a little bit tough because you're going
11:00to have to figure out how to extend your visa while you're traveling around Thailand.
11:04Nonetheless, guys, I'll leave a link down to all the information down below. And if you found this
11:08video helpful at all, I'd really appreciate it if you hit that like button and the subscribe button.
11:12And if you want to see more content like this, we'll see you in the next one. Cheers.
11:26Bye.
Comments