Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, is ID required to post a letter in Thailand. Well, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article, no sorry not a recent article, a recent email from a viewer, quoting directly: "I watch Ben's YouTube videos regularly. They are a great source of information. I just want to ask Ben if being required to show one's passport or ID Card is normal now for posting a letter in Thailand. It happened to me this morning at the Post Office close to Hua Hin airport. I can't recall ever being asked for ID previously, and I have posted quite a number of letters to the UK over the years I have been living here." 

Yeah, I do think I did a video touching on this a while back. This did happen about a year and a half ago I think, and I started noticing it when occasionally I have to go to the Post Office to send stuff out regarding case matters, for example arising especially in a US Immigration context, but yeah I am not thrilled about it. I think you can probably surmise my thinking on it, but it is what it is. And yeah, ID is required now here in Thailand to be able to post letters. They will ask for passports. I always notice they don't quite know what to do with me initially because they will ask for a passport and I will pull out my Thai ID and then they kind of go "Oh". But yeah, it is an issue. 

Also look, ever since all this tariff stuff started happening with Trump and I don't know how you mess up the mail - we have sort of had that right in America since Benjamin Franklin - but somehow that has happened and here we are, but it has had ramifications here in Thailand. I've tried to post some things back the United States, primarily documentation and things, and I've gotten a big run around about having to get vouchers or something associated with tariffs. At the end of the day, I ended up having to go to the Thailand Post Office headquarters downtown where they didn't seem to have much of any problem at all. They just okay, pay, da, da, da but yeah, for whatever reason, mail has become increasingly nettlesome; I don't know why this is overly necessary. Again the whole notion that the mail could be messed up. That was one that if I went back, going into the election of 2024, somebody would have told me by 2026 the mail would have issues, I would have said, "what?" That said, there's a lot of things I would have said "what" about going back to the election of 2024. 

So yeah, unfortunately this is a Thailand thing, and again I'm kind of spouting off about American stuff here, but this is a Thailand thing. Yes, it is a rule; yes, it is something we have to deal with, but it is what it is. On top of the OECD stuff I lament it. I really wish Thailand would take a closer look at these things because the very things that I fell in love with Thailand for, and the freedom that I love about being Thai, these very things would seem to erode that, and so to my mind it would behoove us, especially with the new government in place and things, to really sit back and review these type of policies. OECD, policies regarding this ID with letters and things. That said, I'm not overly optimistic that much will get done. In any event, we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.