Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing how the reduction of Visa-free status could impact or I would say increase the amount of Border Running we see in Thailand moving forward. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Shorter Visa-free Stays on the cards. Quoting directly: "The Tourism and Sports Ministry insists the Government's plan to reduce Visa-free stays from 60 days should not impact tourism, as most foreign tourists on average stay for less than a month." Quoting further: "The Tourism and Sports Ministry provided supporting research for this committee, which is expected to reduce Visa-free stays to 30 days."

So I urge those who are watching this video, if you want, go check out that article. But long story short yeah, they are reducing Visa exemption status it looks like from 60 days down to 30 days and if you read the article, they are able to do this before even the new Parliament comes in; the Cabinet can execute this in the meantime as we're awaiting a new Parliament. 

So I don't know exactly when they are going to impose this, but it could be in coming weeks, and it could happen relatively quickly. Like I am kind of waiting around frankly to see just reports of people saying, "hey, I just flew in and I got 30 days instead of 60 days." Be on the lookout for that because I think that that's probably coming. 

That being said, quoting further, and this pertains more to the Border Run issue: "Since the end of last year, the Immigration Bureau has imposed tighter scrutiny on foreigners visiting the country via the Visa-free scheme, targeting those making multiple Visa runs in particular." Yes, as we discussed in other videos, they had increased up to 60 days but then there was heavier scrutiny on Border Runs. I'm going to expect with this thing being knocked back to 30, we could see an uptick in Border Runs overall, because if you look backward where you got 60 days with the option to extend by 30 which they then changed and said you only get that on the first time you request it - you get 15 on the second time - still it's almost 180 days in-country with only one Border Run that you could have had under the old scheme. If they re-impose this, again you will be able to get 30, up it to 60, but then presumably you would have to do a Border Run to get any more exemption time in-country.

So yeah, I would expect we could see an uptick of Border Running being done albeit under heightened scrutiny from Immigration here in the Kingdom of Thailand.