Volume 13, Issue 05
16 - 30 November 2013
What’s Inside:
30 BAHT
T
he Royal Thai Immigration Bureau has confirmed that holders of passports of certain countries, arriving at Thai border posts without a prior visa, will now receive 30 days permission to stay instead of a fortnight. The beneficiaries of this important rule change are passport holders from UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan. It is believed that there is no restriction on the number of times foreigners from these countries can use the recently-announced facility. They can also receive 30 days on arrival when visiting Thailand by air as in the past. There are no changes to the regulations covering air-borne passengers.
Immigration announces VISA-ON-arrival changes
Passport holders from most other countries will continue to receive only 15 days at Thai borders – at any rate for the time being. Those excluded for now from the widely-welcomed rule change include Australians, New Zealanders and smaller countries within the European Union. To obtain 30 days they must continue to arrive by air. However, there are exceptions. Russians will continue to enjoy a 30-day permission whether they enter by land or air, a discretion they have enjoyed since 2006 as a move by the Thai authorities to encourage Russian tourism and investment. A few countries from Latin America and South Korea receive an automatic 90 days at Thai airports and land-crossing points without, a Continued on page 6