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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawWill We See Special Tourist Visa Arrivals to Thailand in October?

Will We See Special Tourist Visa Arrivals to Thailand in October?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Special Tourist Visa yet again. It is quite a hot topic in recent weeks because it is one of a few; there are other Visa categories that may be able to get a foreigner into Thailand, Business Visa for example; O Visa if you are married or have Thai family; in some cases very limited though they may be, perhaps an ED Visa. For the most part we are mostly seeing you know the light at the end of the tunnel if you will seems be involving this Special Tourist Visa. A lot of questions have arisen regarding when we are actually going to see arrivals in this category. 

Now I have personally said that while they may bring it online in October, I think November is more likely or I have said I thought November was more likely for actually seeing arrivals in this category. Apparently I will stand corrected on that and I will be happy to do so. If I end up being wrong on that, I am happy to stand corrected as I would like to see Thailand see some tourists sooner rather than later. 

To that end, in a recent article from the Bangkok Post I think bangkokpost.com, the article is titled Ministry Vows Bangkok Special Tourist Visa arrivals by October. Quoting directly: "The Tourism Ministry is pledged to bring the first batch of international tourists to Thailand by October with Bangkok as the primary destination as it wants tourism operators to gear up marketing plans right away."  I find that to be laudable. I hope that is the case. I think it is notable, Tourism Ministry is not Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of the Interior is Immigration; Tourism Ministry is also not Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs is tasked with adjudicating Visa applications at Thai Embassies and Consulates abroad so while I think this is laudable, I do believe them and I do think probably the Tourism Ministry is leading the charge if you will to go ahead and try to get some momentum behind this and get some of these Visa applications moving through and get some of these folks in Special Tourist Visa status admitted to Thailand sooner rather than later. Again full implementation of this program remains to be seen. As of yet I haven't seen any clear and concise regulations associated with the visa itself. It has mostly been discussion and it has mostly been documentation and announcements handed down from the Cabinet. So as of yet the details of this remain to be seen.

That stated I hope I do stand corrected. I hope that we do see Special Tourist Visa entrants into the Kingdom of Thailand in the month of October of 2020.