Thailand - Online visa extensions for ex-pats coming soon

The Immigration Bureau (IB) unveiled its Electronic Extension of Temporary Stay (e-Extension) service on Tuesday to make it easier for expats to apply for visa extensions.
Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, the national police chief, said the e-Extension would enhance visa services as the system lets them lodge the extension request online.

The service covers the whole process including the payment of fees via a dedicated website, Thaiextension.vfsevisa.com.

It will reduce the time to process the application from one hour to three minutes, Pol Gen Damrongsak said.

According to the IB, over 200,000 expats seek to extend their visas each year for about a dozen reasons including taking holidays, teaching jobs, studying, working at a state agency or due to family ties.

The growing number of applicants spurred concern about the time-consuming and inconvenient nature of the process.

The e-Extension service will be piloted first for expats living or working in Bangkok.

They can file an application online at the cited website.

However, they must show up in person to verify their identity and get a visa sticker at the IB office on Chaeng Wattana Road.

The IB plans to make the service available at all IB offices nationwide in the future.

Source - Bangkok Jack

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More than 57,000 passengers arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday

 Thailand - More than 57,000 international passengers arrived at the Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday, confirmed by Immigration Officers.
Immigration Bureau Spokeman Major Geneneral Choengron Rimphadee confirmed yesterday (November 10th) that there were about 25 international flights arriving at the Suvarnabhumi Airport with about 57,000 passengers. Of those 49,000 were foreigners.

This is approaching the same average numbers before Covid-19 which was approximately 60,000 people a day. During this time there are up to 3,000 passengers arriving at the airport per hour. Immigration Officers can check their passports at 3,500 people in half an hour. Immigration stated that they can still manage with no passengers needing to wait outside the main Immigration area.

TPN notes, however, that many complaints have surfaced online from tourists arriving stating that they personally found the arrival process hectic and crowded, depending on the time of day of arrival.

Immigration, however, has blamed most of the issues on airlines or language and communication issues with tourists from some countries and not their own staffing or processing.

Source - Pattaya News

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Russians the biggest tourist group in Phuket in November so far

Russians have made up Phuket’s biggest group of tourists so far in November. From November 1-10, Phuket saw 18,370 Russian tourists.

The total number of foreign tourists was 75,247, The Phuket Express reported. The next top four countries for tourism in Phuket were: India with 8,939 tourists, Australia with 5,275 tourists, the UK with 4,511 tourists, and Germany with  4,152 tourists.

In September, the TAT said that Malaysians made up Thailand’s biggest tourist group this year. The next three countries with the most tourists were India, Laos, and Cambodia.

But the number of Russian tourists appears to be growing in some areas of the kingdom. Last month, the first direct flights from Moscow to Phuket International Airport resumed.

Also last month, the island of Koh Samui expected to see a surge in Russian tourism, especially in December. Russian tourism has been a big revenue-producing staple of Koh Samui but was stymied by the Covid-19 pandemic and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The return of Russians is expected to bring a big boost to tourism on Koh Samui and the surrounding islands, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao. Residents of Russia and other European countries that experience freezing cold winters are plotting their escape to the warm tropical weather in Thailand.

As of October 26, Thailand witnessed 7,349,843 international tourists arriving, surpassing the 7 million mark. It’s put the country within its goal range set by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) of 7 to 10 million visitors for 2022.

Source - The Thaiger 

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Thailand Named #1 Destination in Asia for Global Retirees

BANGKOK (NNT) - Internationalliving.com has ranked Thailand the best destination in Asia and the 11th best in the world in its 2022 global retirement index.

According to the website, the rankings and indices are based on various factors including the cost of living, food, medical cost, visa convenience, weather, things to do, tradition, and culture.

The website said Thailand has always been popular among retirees from around the world because the country does not offer only beaches and other beautiful natural attractions but also convenient places as well as friendly locals.

Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Hua Hin of Prachuap Khirikhan are the top 3 cities among retirees. Foreigners can choose to live for different costs of living starting from 1,000 US dollars or around 33,000 baht per month.

Thailand is also well-known for its affordable and high-quality healthcare which is one of the first things retirees seek for healthy and secure living after retirement, while applying for and obtaining a long-stay visa is also easy and fast.

Meanwhile, this year’s top 10 countries for retirement are Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Portugal, Ecuador, Colombia, France, Malta, Spain, and Uruguay.

Source - ASIAN NOW

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Thailand must reopen soon if it wants to survive: FTI

 

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) is concerned that tourists may not be interested in Thailand if the country takes too long to open its doors.

Also, he said, the number of daily cases has dropped, and Thailand has the facilities to treat Covid-19 patients. However, he said, the authorities should speed up the vaccination rate in the business sector before reopening the country.

Suphan predicted that Thailand’s gross domestic product will grow by less than 1 per cent as the number of tourists visiting under sandbox schemes was lower than expected.

He said that though the economy is showing signs of recovery and economic activities have resumed after the lifting of lockdown, the government still needs to lend a helping hand to small businesses. He said most SMEs cannot reopen due to liquidity problems.

Source - TheNation

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Thailand removed from the UK “red list”, list reduced to only seven countries

 

Thailand/UK-According to the UK government, only seven countries will remain on the so-called “red list” that requires mandatory quarantine at a government quarantine center upon return and is a major deterrent to travel

Thailand, a previous country on the list, has been REMOVED, despite rumors earlier in the day (which TPN media did NOT report on) that it wasn’t being removed. This means visitors from the UK can now travel to Thailand without a mandatory quarantine upon return, only having to take a Covid-19 test on the day after their arrival back into the country.

Only seven countries will remain on the UK red list from a previous list of 54.

The seven countries that will remain on the red list are Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Venezuela.

This will be effective from Monday, October 11th, 2021, according to the UK government.

Source - Asian Now

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