Expats now need THREE MILLION BAHT health insurance

Foreigners applying for non-immigrant (O-A) visas for stays in Thailand of up to one year are now required to have a health insurance policy with minimum coverage of three million baht for in-patient medical fees, instead of the previous 400,000 baht.
Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha said yesterday that the new rule is intended to ensure that they will receive proper medical treatment if they fall ill during their long stay in the country.

According to the Thai Immigration Bureau and the Department of Consular Affairs, 3,768 foreigners were granted non-immigrant visas last and this year.

The insurance policies can either be purchased in Thailand or in their home country, but the coverage amount of foreign issued policies must be on a par with the sum stipulated in policies issued in Thailand.

The announcement will likely be met with displeasure and backlash from international travellers hoping to make Thailand their home long-term, or at least for one year.

It is especially difficult for those hoping to retire in Thailand as insurance policy premiums are infamous for skyrocketing once the applicant passes a certain age, increasing exponentially with age under the assumption that older people are more prone to illnesses and accidents.

As Thailand releases plan after plan to lure back tourists, many complain that the complicated entry process, the rising costs, and constant changes to immigration policy, not to the benefit of international travellers, seems to be simultaneously pushing away the same expats with money that the country claims to be encouraging.

Source - BangkokJack

VISA AGENT

Thailand - Non-immigrant OA visa applicants required to have ฿3m health insurance

Foreigners applying for non-immigrant (O-A) visas for stays in Thailand of up to one year are now required to have a health insurance policy with minimum coverage of three million baht for in-patient medical fees, instead of the previous 400,000 baht.

Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha said today (Tuesday) that the new rule is intended to ensure that they will receive proper medical treatment if they fall ill during their long stay in the country.

According to the Thai Immigration Bureau and the Department of Consular Affairs, 3,768 foreigners were granted non-immigrant visas last and this year.

The insurance policies can either be purchased in Thailand or in their home country, but the coverage amount of foreign issued policies must be on a par with the sum stipulated in policies issued in Thailand.

Source: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/non-immigrant-visa-applicants-required-to-have-3m-health-insurance/

Source - ASIAN NOW

Our VISA AGENT

 

6 groups of visitors allowed into Thailand

 

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration announced on 29 September 2020 the 6 groups of foreign visitors allowed into the Kingdom. The Centre also announced the extension of the Emergency Decree until 31 October 2020. The 6 groups of foreign visitors allowed into the country along with the regulations for each group is as follows, 

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1.  Foreigners planning to compete in the Royal professional bicycle race taking place from 6-16 October of this year. The route includes many provinces including Samut Songkhram, Petchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Ranong, and Surat Thani. Participants will be at the State Quarantine Center Royal Rattanakosin Hotel.

2.  Thai Airways Pilots and Crew on Pepatriation Flights bringing Thais back home and sport participants into the Nation. Those on the flight will be quarantined in a state quarantine center. At least 300 persons are estimated to be in this group.

3.  Non-Immigrant Visa Holders traveling into Thailand. The foreigners must show their 6-month statement with at least 500,000 THB of deposits.

4.  Special Tourist Visa Holders planning for Long Stay in the Nation. Foreigners will have to quarantine for 14 days at the state quarantine center in the province where they are traveling to. Foreigners can travel within a 1-kilometer radius. After they are confirmed to not be infected with Covid-19, the foreigners can leave the state quarantine center and remain in Thailand for 90 days. Visas can be extended 2 times, a total of 270 days. If they wish to travel into a different province they must quarantine again for 7 days.

  5.  APEC Card holders, these are businessmen approved by 18 Apec countries. This is to help boost Thailand’s economy. The businessmen allowed in are limited to low-risk countries including New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, China, Hongkong.

    6. Short term and Long term visitors can travel into the nation for 60 days. Another 30-day extension is allowed with an exception, provided that the foreigners must show their 6-month statement with at least 500,000 THB of deposits. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will determine whether the visitor can apply for the 30-day extension. 

 

FB Caption: The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration announced on 29 September 2020 the 6 groups of foreign visitors allowed into the Kingdom.

Source - Pattaya News

TM28: Thai immigration scraps requirement for foreigners to report

There is some good news for foreigners in Thailand.

Thai immigration have all but scrapped the controversial TM28 change of address reporting requirement for foreigners.

According to the new requirement, while TM28 is still listed, a long list of exceptions have been added, which for all intents and purposes means that almost no one is now required to submit a TM28 form.

The list of exceptions, covered in sections 2.2 and 2.3 [here], includes just about every foreigner in Thailand, from diplomats and those performing official duties through to students, those working in Thailand, foreigners married to a Thai or who are a parent to a Thai child and those staying in Thailand for retirement.

According to the immigration website, the regulation regarding TM28 is dated February 14 but came into effect on January 28.

However, foreigners need to be aware that they are still required to inform immigration if they change address permanently. [This is covered in form TM27].

For example, if you rent a condo for say 6 months then you move to live in another condo, you need to inform immigration of your new address.

The previous requirement stated that foreigners who had stayed in another province for more than 24 hours were required to inform their local immigration office when they returned.

For example, if a foreigner who lives in Pattaya went and stayed at a friend’s place in Bangkok overnight, they would be required to inform immigration once they returned to Pattaya.

The reality was TM28, which is listed under section 37 of the Immigration Act and has been a requirement since 1979, was seldom enforced by Thai immigration and hardly ever completed by foreigners after returning from an overnight stay elsewhere in Thailand.

Many foreigners, including those who have lived in Thailand for a number of years, didn’t even know the requirement existed.

At least that was the case until last year when TM28 briefly started being more strictly enforced by some immigration offices.

This coincided with immigration also strictly enforcing TM30 – the requirement for hotels, guesthouses and property owners to report foreigners staying at their address.

(TM30 often gets confused with TM28, with TM30 sometimes used as a kind of catch-all term to describe both but they are actually two separate requirements – and TM30 is still required.).

The sudden enforcement of both TM28 and TM30 resulted in Thai immigration being on the receiving end of fierce criticism from the expat community and foreign business leaders in Thailand, who said TM28 was not just inconvenient but archaic, draconian and not fit for purpose today.

A group of expats in Thailand even launched an online petition calling for the TM28 and TM30 to be abolished.

And while the petition failed to reach its target for sign ups, it undoubtedly helped to bring the issue to the attention of senior immigration officials in Thailand.

The subject also received widespread negative coverage in both Thai and English language media in Thailand and was also covered by international news outlets including the BBC and Nikkei Asian Review.

The updated regulation regarding TM28 can be found on the Immigration website:

https://www.immigration.go.th

Source - Pattaya One News

#Vietnam to update tourist visa regulations

The 14th National Assembly will debate this week some draft laws, including the law amending and supplementing some articles of the law on entry, exit, transit and residence of foreigners in Vietnam, as part of the ongoing eighth session.

Vietnam’s tourism has developed strongly over the recent past and brought about high economic values.

 However, experts in the tourism sector said there still remain bottlenecks, one of which being policies on the entry and exit of foreigners, which need to be settled in order to improve the sector’s competitiveness, thus attracting more international visitors.

Hoang Nhan Chinh, head of the Secretariat of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board, said the law on entry, exit, transit and residence of foreigners in Vietnam should be more open.

He cited as an example the stipulation that requires a gap of at least 30 days between two visa-free visits.

Chinh further said that many international visitors, especially those from Western Europe, Northern Europe and Russia, want to stay in Vietnam longer than the maximum visa-free 15 days.

He also emphasized the need for a national website that publishes official information about visa policies, citing a survey by the Vietnam Tourism Advisory which showed that most websites of Vietnamese embassies abroad fail to update latest information on the country’s visa policies.

Such a website should be prescribed clearly in the law on entry, exit, transit and residence of foreigners in Vietnam, he said.

Chinh also pointed to problems in visa granting at Vietnam’s border gates, which still requires visitors to apply for visas at embassies and receive visas at the border gates. He said this has reduced the tourism sector’s competitiveness.

Experts in the tourism sector are concerned about the fact that the visa exemption policy for tourists from major markets like Russia, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK) will end on December 31, 2019.

They said the number of visitors from those markets would drop 30-50 percent if the policy is not extended.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, proposed expanding the list of countries and border gates eligible for e-visas.

 Besides, Vietnam needs to reform visa grant procedures at border gates and review its unilateral visa waiver policy, she said. – Vietnam Plus

Source - BangkokJack

EABC RECOMMENDS REMOVING TM.30 COMPLETELY

More industry and NGO groups are lining up with criticism or calls for abolishment of the embattled TM30 and TM28 immigration forms. Most of the criticisms focus on the draconian nature of the forms, confusion around interpretation and the problems with inconsistent implementation.

Trade and commerce organisations are saying it flies in the face of the government’s wishes for Thailand to be a place to invest in and conduct business.

Now, the European Association of Business and Commerce is recommending to the Thai government to completely do away with the TM30.

“And, as an immediate step towards achieving that, remove from its scope many categories of foreigners.”

They say the same applies to the related TM28 form as well.
 
“The TM30 process has been in the news due to its inconvenience, questions about its value and usefulness, the questions it raises about commitment to ‘ease of doing business’ and the recent, almost inexplicable crackdown via an old law much of which has been dormant for decades.”

“The TM30 form and process in effect requires landlords to report on the location and movement of foreigners who are their tenants. Hotels have the same obligation but for foreign tourists staying in hotels, it is not noticed by those tourists as the hotel uses the TM6 arrival card information from their foreign guests.”

“Section 38 of the Immigration Act (which is the basis of TM30) has been around since 1979, but was not enforced until since late March 2019. It is being enforced inconsistently with various local interpretations. TM.28 (supported by s. 37 of the Immigration Act) is an often overlapping obligation on foreigners to report.”

The submission has been made to Dr. Kobsak Pootrakool, Deputy Secretary‐General to the Prime Minister for Political Affairs.

Source - EABC and The Thaiger

#Thailand - Fake visa stamp gang arrested in Nonthaburi

Two Thais have been arrested over fake visa stamps being used at a foreign employment agency in Nonthaburi, northern Bangkok, yesterday.

The Immigration Bureau reports that the Nonthaburi Immigration Office was notified of the allegedly fake visa stamps.

Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn led a team of officials to search CBS World Company, a foreign worker employment agency. Officers arrested two suspects, a Thai man 60 year old Surawut Sintawacheewa and a 42 year old Burmese woman name Namfon.

Police have also seized 489 passports and 29 fake visa stamps.

The pair confessed that they have been providing fake stamps for more than 10 years.

Source - TheThaiger

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Romance scam #Nigerian gang busted by joint forces

Thai police have joined their Malaysian counterparts to bust a Nigerian gang operating online romance scams, the same gang that fled Thailand a year ago to set up in Kuala Lumpur. 

Thai immigration police head Maj-Gen Surachate Hakparn, in his capacity as deputy director of the Thailand's Action Taskforce for Information Technology Crime Suppression (TACTICS), on Wednesday led his team to join with Malaysian economic crime busters to search seven locations in Kuala Lumpur. At the same time, Thai police raided three locations in Thailand that allegedly had links to the gang. 

The operation in Kuala Lumpur led to the arrest of seven Nigerians, all of whom were wanted for alleged fraud in Thailand, and seven female Thai accomplices. 

Officers also seized computers and cell phones showing chat messages with victims, many of whom were in process of being convinced to wire money, and some scripts to persuade victims.

The romance scams would usually involve criminals using bogus white male identities to woo and later persuade women to wire money to pay an import tariff and fee for the delivery of overseas “gifts".

Surachate said TACTICS had come down hard on this gang, prompting the criminals to flee to Malaysia about a year ago. The gang set up their new base and resumed the romance scams, he said.

Surachate claimed that this gang had duped people of nearly Bt100 million in total.

Last year, TACTICS co-operated with their foreign counterparts to make nine arrests in seven countries.

Source - TheNation