In recent months, much has been made of Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin's proposal for a six-nation regional visa, which has perhaps drawn premature comparisons to the much more established Schengen Area visa in Europe.
The proposal would see a joint visa program between the nations that make up Mainland Southeast Asia, namely Thailand and Malaysia (with these two countries alone drawing in more than 50% of visitors to the region in 2023), Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar.
While the initiative is certainly an ambitious one, the implementation of such a supranational visa within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is likely to encounter several hurdles.
The proposal
Under Srettha's proposal, like the Schengen Visa, tourists would be able to travel from one country to another (within the six-member bloc) using the same visa or visa status.
Such a "unified visa" would facilitate and simplify intraregional travel and would encourage travelers to visit multiple countries within the region. Under such an arrangement, a review of visa validity across the six-nation bloc would be necessary, perhaps extending such validity to 90 days across the board to make the status attractive and more practical.
Although Srettha's proposal has recently picked up steam, it remains in the early stages and much negotiation is still required (on a bi-lateral and multi-lateral basis). In the existing framework, for example, the following are likely to be barriers (among others) to developing such a visa:
- Multi-lateral alignment on visa-free entry and nationality restrictions. By way of example, Thailand has recently implemented visa-free entry for Chinese nationals (reversing a long-standing policy to require visas for such nationals) and, in fact, is looking to expand visa-free entry to even more nationals. (This trend can also be seen in other countries in the region, like Vietnam.) However, other countries in the bloc (such as Myanmar, which is comparatively much more closed off than the other countries) still have nationality-based restrictions in place. These policies would need to be aligned across all six countries.
- Alignment on purposes of travel permitted on the Schengen-like visa. As it stands, each country in the six-nation bloc has particular rules when it comes to what activities may be performed on visa-free entry, with some more particular and nuanced than others.
- Reconciling differing infrastructure and technology. The various nations making up the proposed six-member bloc currently utilize vastly different technologies and have varying levels of resources dedicated to visa issuance and enforcement.
Even if the above could be reconciled across the countries, significant political, economic and national security concerns remain that would also need to be resolved (which is likely to take time and ultimately could prove insurmountable).
The following country-specific examples illustrate why a Schengen-like visa across Mainland Southeast Asia likely remains aspirational.
Malaysia: Economic policy versus national security
The idea of a Schengen-like visa would be ideal for those who wish to travel to Malaysia. From the Malaysian economic standpoint, it could be seen as very attractive for travelers to include Malaysia as part of the countries they are visiting, again considering that Malaysia is already one of the top two countries (Thailand is the other) in the region when it comes to number of tourists.
Additionally, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, has been actively courting investors and organizations to expand their businesses in Malaysia to expand the Malaysian economy. By having the Schengen-like visa, Malaysia's economy may be in an even better position to take advantage.
Towards the end of last year, the Malaysian Immigration Department released updates about the Visa Liberalisation Program. One of the most interesting updates was allowing Chinese and Indian nationals to enter Malaysia for social and business purposes, without the need to apply for an entry visa. This ruling took effect on December 1, 2023, and will remain in place until December 31, 2024.
Several months after the implementation of the ruling, the Malaysian tourism sector has indeed seen an increase in travelers from China and India, and this visa exemption could be further extended.
Recently, the Immigration Department has also released an update whereby a total of 63 nationalities will be able to use the auto-gate at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Though it may sound like a simple development, it eases the process for foreign nationals traveling to Malaysia and avoids the hassle of clearing the immigration process.
Despite these efforts, the Home Minister, Saifuddin Nasution, affirmed that Malaysia will always seek a balance between economic potential and maintaining national security. In his view, there may already be structures in place that can address the freedom of movement within the bloc. In that vein, it would also take time to study the proposal and to ensure that any high-risk scenarios are reviewed and addressed (including the issues of border control, overstaying, and other risks).
Vietnam: A 'tourism first' mentality?
Of the six countries in the proposed bloc, Vietnam is arguably one of the most likely to benefit from such a regional visa. Those involved in the Tourism sector have been hailing the proposal, touting its potential to bring more tourists to the Southeast Asian country and to keep the region competitive.
That said, to make this a reality, the country does need to look further at its current visitor visa policy. As it stands, there remains confusion around the country's immigration rules vis-à-vis its labor rules, which may not necessarily align.
For example, while this proposal is likely to be viewed favorably by the Immigration authorities (and, of course, the tourism authorities), the same cannot necessarily be said for the labor authorities, who may take a different view of what those traveling as visa-free nationals may do in the country. Vietnam would need to internally settle the question of whether business travel (and what types of activities that includes) can be done under such status or whether such status can only be used for tourism purposes.
If the latter, then this would limit the viability of such status (particularly for those bona fide business travelers) and would need alignment with the other countries in the bloc (some of which are more flexible in that regard). Throughout the last few years, Vietnam's labor authorities have been taking a harder-line stance on such activities and stays.
Furthermore, while Vietnam's visa policy has recently been liberalized, it still requires many nationals (including Chinese and US nationals) to apply for an e-Visa (so such nationals are not technically visa-free). Such status would therefore have to be aligned and agreed to among the six-member bloc as acceptable throughout the region.
Thailand: Attractive changes to immigration regulations
As mentioned, Thailand's Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, has been key in taking up the initiative to potentially update Thailand and ASEAN's immigration policies. Srettha was the first ASEAN head of state to open this discussion on the concept of having a Schengen-style visa for the bloc.
In the meantime, for its part, Thailand has been taking the proposal seriously and the Thai Cabinet has approved several measures to simplify and encourage travel to the country. The changes are expected to come into effect in July, and can be divided into three categories:
- Nationals from a total of 93 countries will receive a 60-day visa exemption for tourism and short-term business visits, which doubles the current 30-day duration permitted on visa exemption. Before the new measure, there are 57 countries and territories that are entitled to this visa exemption. There will be an additional 36 countries including China and India added to the List.
- Nationals from 31 countries will be permitted to apply for visas on arrival for 15-day permitted stays.
- A new "Destination Thailand Visa" will come into effect for periods of stay of up to 180 days which will permit foreigners to undertake remote work or enroll in certain types of training classes such as cooking or Muay Thai.
With these changes, Thailand has arguably become one of the most flexible countries in the region when it comes to tourism and inbound travel. In that light, it perhaps comes as no surprise that it is the country that is leading the push for the Schengen-like visa. That said, it will need to cultivate the support of the other five countries in the bloc to make its proposal a reality.
A pipe dream?
While it may be easy to simply brush off Srettha's proposal as a pipe dream, it at least has had the effect of putting this back on the agenda (while the details are ironed out).
On the other hand, it has also put into stark relief the several obstacles that must be overcome to realize such a Schengen-like visa for the region.
Whether the political will is there to resolve those hurdles remains an open question (and each country will have to make that calculation on its own), and only time will tell whether Srettha's vision can become a reality.
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