Okay For Tourism, Not So Sure For Visa Runners

From the Travel Blackboard:

In a bid to streamline tourism to the region, Cambodia and Thailand have signed a deal that will allow tourists to visit both countries with a single Visa.

Once implemented, visitors will be able to apply at both Cambodian and Thai embassies for the new Visa.

"Tourists just apply for a single visa at one place, and they can travel to both Cambodia and Thailand," said Cambodia’s foreign minister Hor Namhong for The Economic Times. According to Namhong, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam could also eventually sign up to the deal.

The Visa was developed through the Ayeyawady-Chao Phya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), a joint development scheme that includes the five nations.

Now, it is a little difficult to figure out effect this will have on people who do visa runs to Cambodia.

You don't need a "visa" to get into Thailand (you can just get a stamp in your passport), but you need one to get into Cambodia. Do you get... do you have to buy... one of these Thai-Cambodia visas now to get into Thailand? Or just if you plan on going to Cambodia?

As best I can figure, you arrive at the airport in Thailand and get your 30-day visa same as before. You then go to Cambodia and get one of these "new visas", same as before... but instead of a Cambodia visa, it is now a Thai-Cambodia visa. (How many days they are good for is currently not known. We'll say 30 days.) You then come back to Thailand and when you cross the border you probably just get a 30-day stamp, same as before. (In that scenario, nothing has changed.)

I can't see anything else changing, but the devil is obviously in the details.

What happens when the visa expires while you are in Thailand? Can you just go back to the border and renew it? Can you only extend it? What if the visa is issued in Thailand instead of Cambodia? Can you get one of these visas in Thailand, cross over to Cambodia, and then back into Thailand, and still have the visa be valid? Can you repeat this process over and over again like you can currently with Cambodian visas or is the Thai government going to dictate the rules?

Oh hell: I can sit here and ponder this one all day until my head hurts. What it certainly means is that Thailand and Cambodia (and potentially Laos and Viet Nam) are going to agree to have the exact same rules regarding visa runners... and that could either be a good thing or it could mean the complete end of visa runs altogether.

As for what it means to tourists, currently: I suppose that they will only have to pay the $25 visa fee once, instead of possibly (but rarely) two or more times, while traveling between Thailand and Cambodia.

Until the third and fourth countries join the list though, it's not really too helpful, unless you go from Thailand to Cambodia, then back to Thailand, and then back to Cambodia again... before the visa expires.