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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawMore Information on Thailand's Long Stay Special Tourist Visa Scheme

More Information on Thailand's Long Stay Special Tourist Visa Scheme

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called long stay Special Tourist Visas yet again.

In a recent article from the Bangkok Post print edition, Monday September 21, 2020, the article is titled: Phuket Targets Long Stay Scandinavians. There was information in here just of a general nature associated with the Special Tourist Visa. Quoting directly: "A Special Tourist Visa will be issued to foreign tourists intending to stay in Thailand for at least one month." Quoting further: "Holders of this specific Tourist Visa are required to give their consent to undergoing a 14-day COVID-19 quarantine at specifically certified hotels during which time they will be tested at least twice for COVID-19 infection before being allowed to travel freely within the country." Quoting further: "Upon agreeing to come to Thailand under the program, the visitors are required to purchase a COVID-19 quarantine hotel package, furnish details of accommodation where they plan to stay after the mandatory COVID-19 quarantine imposed upon arrival and explain how they intend to pay for the accommodation in advance." So a lot going on here, I thought I would go ahead and provide this update and thanks again to the Bangkok Post. 

We are trying on this channel to provide as much information as we can as this Special Tourist Visa evolves and we are trying to provide as much nuance and information as we can to folks who are looking to come in to Thailand on this type of Visa. As we have noted in videos made contemporaneously with this one, this Special Tourist Visa is not an overly broad Visa category at least is at the time of this video. As they have stated previously there are going to be about 1,200 folks that are going to be admitted to Thailand in this category. Meanwhile it appears that only those who are coming in by charter or private jet will be allowed to enter Thailand with a Special Tourist Visa at least for the immediately foreseeable future. 

So as of the time of this video, the point I am trying to make is it is a narrow visa. It appears that it may be the first step on a broader program of opening up and we will get into that as things progress if we do in fact see them opening things up in much the same way they opened up Thailand here internally in sort of a phased stair step way of reopening. But as of the time of this video, I urge people to understand yes Special Tourist Visas are being brought online. There are a lot of criteria, a lot of requirements associated with obtaining one and also maintaining status in Special Tourist Visa status once in Thailand. It also should be noted that it is a somewhat narrow category compared to the more broad tourist visa categories folks were used to dealing with prior to this shutdown.