Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Visa Runs here in Thailand. As a preface and I will get into this further analysis after I quote what I am going to quote here. I have oftentimes, I know it sounds like a semantic point but I make a distinction between Border Running and Visa Running because in my mind they are two different things.

A Border Run is running over a border be it a land border, getting on a plane, flying out, getting on a boat even and sailing out and then basically just turning around and coming back into Thailand and receiving a new stamp thereby creating a new duration of lawful status here in the Kingdom. So for example, you have a 30-day stamp, you are a US Passport holder, you come to Thailand, you have a 30-day stamp, it is coming up for expiration.  On day 29 you get on a plane you fly to Malaysia, you fly back in. Okay boom, you get another 30 days; oftentimes that is the way that it works. The land border can work that way too although they are more stringent along the land borders than they were pre-Covid or I should say pre pandemic or the protocols associated with the Emergency Decree that was triggered as a result of the finding that there was a pandemic, however you want to look at that, pre 2020 if you will, a lot easier to do land Border Runs than now. That being said, things have lightened up quite a bit, land Border Runs are becoming more and more feasible, but that is what we are talking about when we are talking about Border Runs. 

Visa Runs, in my mind, notwithstanding the quote, notwithstanding how it is referred to in this quotation, notwithstanding the quote in the title and the quotation of about to cite, Visa Runs to my mind are when you go to an actual Embassy abroad, get a new visa and come back, that is like a Visa Run. 

This person that I am going to quote, they are using them interchangeably. Again I am not making this point to be semantic, I am making this point and I will get to it further in my further analysis. Quoting directly: "Good information, thank you. Thai Immigration is also cracking down on Visa Runs. I flew to Malaysia with only my backpack and left most of my belongings here in Thailand expecting to get another 30-day Visa stamp on arrival. I was rejected, detained and deported back to Malaysia without any information on when I could return. Embarrassed and disappointed I spent two months in Malaysia." Yeah that is a sad state of affairs. Now I don't know what the underlying facts are in that situation. As we have discussed in other videos there is an Immigration Decree that was in The Royal Gazette which stipulated that two "Border Runs" were possible in a given calendar year and that has been the rule of thumb to this point. Anything past that, and again even that is subject to Immigration discretion, so even if they opt, if they see somebody who is coming in for the first time to Thailand and a Thai Immigration Officer just has some issue with them, they have the discretion to just say NO in any case. But the rule of thumb and the rule of thumb for Thai Immigration is you get two of those a year. I don't know if this person was on more than two, I don't know if they have done multiple Visa Runs, excuse me even I mess this up, multiple Border Runs, I would call this a Border Run not a Visa Run. A Visa Run would be running to an Embassy in Malaysia, getting a Visa and then coming back, not just flying out to Malaysia, flying back in and using a Visa exemption. That is how I look at it and I think there is a good reason for the distinction because one of them actually has a Visa, one of them doesn't. But okay this person that did effectively a Border Run, I get their consternation here. They were detained, that's not good; they wanted to come back into Thailand and stay here. But again as we have discussed since about 6 or 7 years ago, there was a major crackdown on tourists and those using exemption stamps to effectively live here. Prior to that point, this is another one of those scenarios where when people tell me I am being a fearmonger about things like tax or Work Permits or Immigration things and they say "oh you know they don't really want to mess with that." Yeah they said the same thing to me 15 years ago about living in Thailand on 30-day stamps or living in Thailand in overstay. There were a lot of people who told me that years ago, "oh you just live here in overstay", or living even on visas but just Tourist Visas. Yeah that era is over and Thai Immigration is very cognizant that people want to try to live in Thailand utilizing 30-day stamps, utilizing tourist visas or even trying to go into overstay. As for overstayers, we have seen a lot of new enforcement associated with that and I think it is just a bad idea in general, probably not even going to be effective in the long run to just live in Thailand on overstay. 

That said, and the thing to take away from this video is are they cracking down on Visa Runs or Border Runs per se? No I don't think so. What they are doing is more heavily scrutinizing people who are coming into Thailand on multiple Visa Runs or multiple Tourist Visas. And I think moving forward you need to be aware of that. If you want to stay in Thailand long term you need to get a long term, well not long term, but you need to get a Non-immigrant Visa that is in line with your intentions to remain in Thailand so as to be in Thailand legally and not put yourself in a position where you run into this problem as a result of just crossing a border.