DFAT border advisory: what the Thailand-Cambodia situation means for your move
In short
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) advises against travel to areas near the Thailand-Cambodia land border, following armed clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces that began in mid-2025, escalated sharply from December 2025, and have continued into 2026. Seven Thai provinces along the border are affected, and all official border crossings between the two countries are currently closed. Thailand's major expat and retirement hubs - Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Hua Hin and Krabi - sit well outside the affected area and are not covered by this advisory.
What's changing
DFAT's Smartraveller advisory for Thailand has, for some years, sat at Exercise a high degree of caution nationwide. That baseline advice has not changed. What has changed is the addition of a specific do-not-travel warning for the land border area shared with Cambodia, covering Sa Kaeo, Buriram, Si Saket, Surin, Ubon Ratchathani, Chanthaburi and mainland Trat provinces. The warning follows military clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces, and reflects the ongoing risk from unexploded landmines in parts of the border zone. All official crossing points along the Thailand-Cambodia border are currently closed, so overland travel between the two countries is not possible at any point along this stretch. The situation has evolved since the clashes first escalated in late 2025 - the precise boundary of the affected zone has been adjusted more than once as conditions on the ground change, which is a further reason to check Smartraveller's live page rather than rely on any single article, including this one, for the current picture.
Who is affected
This advisory matters most if you have property, family, a retirement plan, or a visa application connected to any of the seven named provinces, or if your itinerary was ever going to cross the land border into Cambodia via Thailand - even as a day trip or a transit stop. If any of that applies to you, treat the current Smartraveller guidance as a hard constraint on your planning, not a suggestion. It does not affect the destinations most of our clients are actually moving to. Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Hua Hin and Krabi are all well clear of the affected provinces, and there have been no border-related incidents reported in any of them. If your relocation plan is centred on one of these cities - as most are - this advisory changes nothing about your plans.
What you should do
Check smartraveller.gov.au directly before finalising any travel or relocation plan that touches one of the seven provinces above - advisories on an active border situation can change without notice, and the precise boundary Smartraveller currently applies may differ from what is described here by the time you read this. If a visa application, in-person filing appointment, or long-stay plan intersects an affected province, speak with a Visa Centre specialist: we will help you find an alternative filing location or route so the situation does not stall your plans. For the large majority of our clients - relocating to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Hua Hin or Krabi - this advisory has no bearing on your plans at all.
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