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Will Border Runs in Thailand Ever Again Be Possible?

Transcript of the above video:

A question that has been on the lips of many folks especially our clients that have been coming into Thailand here more recently, especially processing in under Special Tourist Visa status is “Do you think there is ever going to be a Border Run again?” This comes up in the context of the Special Tourist Visa because Special Tourist Visas if you look, are affirmatively precluded from converting or changing status in Thailand. So those that seek a Special Tourist Visa be aware that when they came in to being they made it clear that you get that amount of time exclusively. 

A Special Tourist Visa can be used for as long as 9 months but understand, unlike certain other Visa categories where it may be possible to change status, Special Tourist Visas are a one-off. You can get 9 months out of them, but it is not a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination that you can convert it, you can change status in Thailand which then poses the question or in some cases begs the question, "Is there any possibility Border Running will be coming back anytime soon?" For those who are unaware, and I am sure most of the regular viewers of this channel are well aware, but Border Running is the practice that was happening a year ago and prior where folks if they had for example a Tourist Visa, they were running out of status, they might run over a border spend an hour or so across the border and then travel back into Thailand get more status that way. This was a very common practice especially in the last roughly 20 years. A lot of people use Border Runs to maintain status in Thailand.

The question is "will this return?" I think ultimately it will. I don't think it will look very much like the process of Border running prior to all of this lockdown etc. The other thing is it will not look exactly like it did and then the big question is when will it come about if ever? It is not a foregone conclusion as to when this is actually going to occur? So 9 months out we are sitting here in January looking at September, October of 2021, I mean you know I was telling people back in the middle of 2020, “yeah, end of the year, end of the third quarter, we should be looking at things resuming. That did not come to pass. I definitely stand corrected on that so I am now hesitant to speculate about anything; about Visa policy or Immigration policy that far out into the future. 9 months away is a long way off. We can't really say for certain exactly what the situation will be. Long story short what I think will probably happen is yes it will eventually come back although I can't say exactly when and we will not see a Border Run regime that looks anything like what it looked like prior to 2020.