After Wednesday’s consultations, clear criteria has been made available for foreigners who have a Thai family so they can plan on returning to Thailand and be reunited with their families.
Measures have been agreed last weekend to facilitate the return of foreigners into Thailand. It has been agreed that it would be a twin-track approach with one for spouses of Thai nationals and those with residency permits and those would be processed on a case by case basis and the other approach would be through tourism bubbles, there is no further progress being reported.
It has been reported that an agreement has been reached on the specific criteria on an entry that would be applied to foreigner spouses. On Friday the Thai embassy in London has forwarded a list of criteria that have to be met by the spouses to be able to enter Thailand. And it is not a quick and cheap process. The requirements are quite similar to the ones already needed for work permit holders which are currently able to enter Thailand.
The biggest and most expensive hurdle will be the mandatory 14-day quarantine which can be done in several hotels and the prices for the hotel, meals, and the medical staff goes from 45,000 THB to 144,000 THB for the 2 weeks.
Before even arriving in Thailand they have to submit a copy of the marriage certificate and a copy of their Thai spouse’s passport then there is the mandatory health insurance that covers the COVID 19 disease and has to be at least in the amount of 100,000 USD and then he also has to have 2 health certificates one that states the applicant is fit to fly and the other is a negative test for COVID 19 and both have to be less than 72 hours before the flight’s departure.
With the expected length of time it might take to approve these applications and the uncertainty that still surrounds flights, the embassy has warned that the tests may have to be conducted again for these two certificates if there is any change in flight plans.
So things are moving ahead but it is costly, time-consuming, and complicated. So the tourists coming back to Thailand will have to wait at least a few more months.
