Thailand’s ETA to shake up visa-free visitors

Thailand is tightening its borders with a new Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, set to launch between December this year and June 2025. This system will be mandatory for all visa-exempt foreigners entering the country by air, land, or sea.

Though not technically a visa, the ETA will act as a computerised security check, similar to the ETIAS programme for Schengen countries. It’s designed to enhance security, curb illegal migration, and monitor health risks.

Foreign visitors will receive email confirmation of their ETA approval, usually within 24 hours. However, the fine print is still a mystery. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has yet to reveal exactly what documents will be required, though it’s likely travellers will need to show proof of accommodation and outbound travel, much like systems in Malaysia and Cambodia.

Currently, Thailand offers a 60-day visa-exempt entry for citizens of 93 countries. This can be extended to 90 days at a local immigration office, and foreigners can use a border run to reset the clock – a loophole many use indefinitely. But with the new ETA system, it’s unclear if restrictions will be introduced to limit these back-to-back entries.

The ETA is expected to be free and will be issued via the government’s e-portal, www.thaievisa.go.th. Once approved, travelers can pass through electronic immigration gates using a QR code. The system will also run checks on criminal records and passport authenticity, potentially avoiding confrontations at immigration desks, reported Pattaya Mail.

ORIGINAL STORY: Aussies now need an ETA to enter Thailand

Australians planning a getaway to Thailand will soon have an extra step to complete before boarding their flight. The Thai government is introducing a mandatory electronic travel authorisation (ETA), which must be obtained ahead of travel.

This new system, introduced by Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is designed to enhance the screening and tracking of foreigners entering the country.

“The ETA will be an important tool for screening and tracking the movement of foreigners entering Thailand.”

The Thai ETA is required for travelers from nearly 100 visa-waiver countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and most European nations. It’s a system similar to the USA’s ESTA and the upcoming travel authorisation systems in Europe, the UK, and Japan.

Scheduled for a pilot launch by December this year, with a full roll-out by June 2025, ETA applications will be processed online via the official Thai e-Visa website. Unlike other countries’ ETAs, which may allow multiple entries over several years, the Thai ETA must be applied for each time a visitor plans to enter Thailand. However, it’s expected to be free of charge.

Once approved, ETA holders will benefit from the convenience of automated passport gates at immigration checkpoints. This comes alongside the recent extension of stay for tourists and business travelers from visa-free countries, who can now enjoy up to 60 days in Thailand, with the possibility to extend for another 30 days upon arrival.

In addition, Thailand introduced the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV), tailored for remote workers, digital nomads, and visitors attending approved activities. Priced at 10,000 baht (430 Aussie dollars), this visa allows a stay of up to five years, provided applicants can prove they have at least 500,000 baht for the duration of their stay.

The DTV also covers the holder’s spouse and dependent children, offering them a five-year stay with multiple entries, extendable by another 180 days, reported Executive Traveler.

Source: The Thager

New rules for re-opening in Thailand

Bangkok restaurants that want to serve alcohol must have SHA (Safety and Health Administration) certificates and service must end at 9pm, City Hall said on Saturday as it detailed regulations for the lifting of many Covid restrictions starting on Monday.
Nobody has been prepared to explain just what this has to dpo with preventing any new virus outbreak or people’s health and welfare. Worse still, it appears nobody is asking these questions anymore either.

Many other types of businesses, including gyms and cinemas with certain conditions, will be allowed to resume as the capital prepares to welcome international tourists. However, entertainment venues, pubs, bars and karaoke shops will remain closed.

The communicable disease control committee of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced the new rules a day after the central government designated Bangkok, Krabi, Phangnga and Phuket as tourist-oriented “blue zones” as part of the tourism and economic revival plan.

Disease control officials stressed that businesses allowed to open or conduct some activities must continue to abide strictly by universal Covid prevention guidelines and must have Covid-free settings.

The eased restrictions will be in effect from Nov 1-30 but authorities reserve the right to make changes as needed.

Officials advised restaurants that want to serve alcohol to improve their venues in line with the new normal conditions brought about by the pandemic, as a way to boost the confidence of customers including tourists.

Businesses that can resume operations and conditions are:

Nurseries, child development centres and special-needs child centres (The BMA Health Department will consider the opening of facilities based on suitability);
Care centres for the elderly (Both service recipients and officials must be fully vaccinated and random checks must be conducted every week);
Restaurants/eateries can open normally, but alcoholic drinks are allowed only at shops that meet SHA standards set by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and consumption must not extend beyond 9pm;
Cinemas can open with audience capacity limited to 75% of seats;
Convenience stores, fresh markets and flea markets can open normally;
Libraries and all kinds of museums can open, but food and drinks are not allowed and activities must not be organised;
Beauty clinics, beauty salons, nail salons and tattoo shops can open via appointment . Customers at tattoo shops must be fully vaccinated or have RT-PCR or ATK results within 72 hours;
Spas and Thai massage shops can open via appointment. Customers at tattoo shops must be fully vaccinated or have negative RT-PCR or ATK results within the previous 72 hours;
Public parks, sports grounds, stadiums, swimming pools and water activities can resume operation;
Gyms and fitness clubs must strictly abide by disease-control measures. For spas, customers must be fully vaccinated or have negative RT-PCR or ATK results within the previous 72 hours);
Stadiums can stage events but all spectators must be fully vaccinated or have negative RT-PCR or ATK results within the previous 72 hours);
Hotels, exhibition halls and convention centres can open, but alcohol consumption is prohibited. There must be break times for air ventilation and meals must be served to guests separately;
Shopping malls and community malls can open normally but activities with large crowds are discouraged;
Playhouses and theatres require permission from the BMA Health Department;
Boxing and martial arts schools and dance schools require permission from the BMA Health Department;
Weight-control services, amulet centres, zoos and animal shows can open;
Children’s playgrounds require permission from district offices in their areas;
Water parks and amusement parks can open.
Businesses that will remain closed are entertainment venues, pubs, karaoke shops, massage parlours, game arcades, internet shops, cockfighting rings and horse racing tracks.

Activities with more than 1,000 people are not allowed, unless permission has been obtained from the Health Department.

This final ruling appears to be little more than an attempt to curb anti Lockdown protest groups from gathering.

Source - BangkokJack

VISA AGENT  /  How to register for: THAI PASS 

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#Philippines - The new-Boracay opens with a whole new set of rules

It’s open again. Boracay Island, forced to close after being described by Philippine President Duterte as a’cesspool’, has undergone a major makeover of infrastructure and opens with new rules to help control tourist growth in the future.

Tourists flooded back onto the island today as the island re-opened. Suffering the same problems as Maya Bay and southern Thai islands, Boracay Island had been suffering for years under the burden of too much tourist-love but without the necessary infrastructure to contain the growth. At its peak Boracay Island was attracting two million visitors a year, well above its ability to maintain services.

Under a new set of rules the Boracay beachfront has been cleared of the masseuses, bonfires, beach vendors and sunset bonfires. Even the builders of its famous ‘selfie’ sandcastles have been cleared away.

Buildings have been bulldozed and beach businesses set back to create a 30 metre buffer zone from the waterline.

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 Many hotels and restaurants have been shut down because they didn’t meet the new standards and less that 160 tourism-related businesses have been approved to open their doors again.

All water sports have also been banned for the time being.

The island also had three casinos but they’ve also been shuttered whilst their future is being considered by Duterte.

The new rules have also determined that only 19,200 tourists will be allowed on the island at any one time. The government says they will be able to enforce that by controlling the number of hotel rooms available for bookings.

Additionally, drinking or smoking on the beaches are now banned and the huge beach parties dubbed “LaBoracay”, that would draw thousands of tourists during May each year, will not be operating in the future.

Tens of thousands of island workers were left without employment when the island was closed down six months ago. Many welcomed the re-opening of the island and hope its days as a ghost-town island are over.

Some of the new rules. Please note “Don’t vomit in public!”

Source - The Thaiger

Thai Visa Run Tales: The Road To Poipet

It actually feels like a punishment.

“You want to spend another 30 days in Southeast Asia?!”

“Yes, please.”

“Then you shall suffer!”

Leaving the big smoke smouldering behind on the horizon, you attempt to seek some semblance of comfort within the cramped confines of the minibus.

This isn’t easy for several reasons: the first being that you are sharing the back row of seats with an assemblage of fellow visa-runners who between them weigh more than the fucking van itself; and secondly, of course, the guy behind the steering wheel appears to be in a tremendous hurry – couple this with the shot rear suspension and it’s a miracle you have yet to stipple the vehicle’s interior with a recently digested Moo Sub Mama cup.

So, a mere 30 minutes into the journey and you have already sunken into a pit of woeful despair.

There’s probably only one solution to your current plight; well actually there’s two but one of them tends to see you banged up in the Immigration Detention Centre for a fortnight before being escorted to the airport and banished from the country for eternity, or two years, or something like that.

No, the more – and I begrudgingly use the word – sensible option is to ask Khun Maniac-Driver-From-Hell to pull over at the next available beer Chang retail outlet and purchase no less than seven large bottles.

Advantage – you. Now you have the upperhand.

Although you will morph into a most perturbing presence – and thrice-per-hour comfort breaks will become a trend – Aranyaprathet, the last Thai town before Cambodia, is met in fine fettle and you can now go about perusing the many hundreds of quirky stalls at the border market.

Indeed this is the trip highlight – unless of course you yield to the Cambodian visa tout’s offer of a Vietnamese national with pretty eyes and, I quote, “big milk”.

But for argument’s sake we’ll eschew this option because it’s downright sordid, depraved and unwholesome behaviour, said nobody, ever…

In amongst the market now and you discover that while tourists go to Chatuchak in Bangkok, locals come here, to Rong Klua. Indeed, walking around the entire market will see you yomp passed an incredible five kilometres worth of, let’s face it, tat – but very affordable and interesting tat nonetheless.

The market is a nice prelude to the main event. Now surrounded by a mob of Cambodian touts who, upon seeing you brandish a British passport, begin to imitate Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses, and much to your total awe and utter amusement, Vicky Pollard from Little Britain, you surmise through beer Chang-induced befuddlement that a little help for a few hundred baht would actually be just the ticket.

And before you ask, no, I do not require the services of a large-breasted, Vietnamese lady or a whistle-stop tour of Cambodia in the back of your 1976 Toyota Celica.

With the tout having performed his magic, you go through the motions and are presently stamped out of Thailand and into Cambodia, where you spend your allotted three seconds buying cheap cigarettes and whiskey, fanning yourself with the visa paperwork and, dare I say it, holding your nose.

Poipet – the Cambodian border town – has something of a fetid waft to it, not dissimilar to that of an extremely ripe piece of Roquefort – but it definitely is not Roquefort, if you know what I mean.

Back into Siam now, after having had your visa extended and your passport subjected to varying degrees of scrutiny, you pay the tout, trudge back to the minivan, forlorn at the thought of another four hours of travelling but buoyed because it’s the concluding leg of the trip, and take your seat, clutching the freshly-purchased bottle of whiskey like a comfort blanket.

They say that only two things in life are certain: death and taxes.

They obviously forgot about the visa run.

I am sure, however, that there are those who combine it with a long-weekend in Miami, or a snorkelling fortnight in Fiji.

But for many it’s the minibus, and gulp upon gulp of Cambodian duty-free.

*hick*

Source: Sukhumvit

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