Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing major changes I think are a foot - or at least heightened scrutiny. Frankly, I think we're looking at a situation, Barry Kenyon was very prescient, the late great Barry Kenyon down at the Pattaya Mail, was quite prescient about this past summer when he came up with the notion that he thought in this upcoming Parliament we would likely see something akin to comprehensive Immigration Reform in terms of a new Bill regarding Immigration here in Thailand. Now I actually disagreed with him at the time for a variety of reasons. I now recant that if you will or I now have come around to I think he was right; I think we're probably going to see that. And in light, I've made another video contemporaneously with this one where we have now seen multiple different foreign actors here in Thailand having been discovered with caches of arms okay, in Thailand. This is a real problem. This has elevated the entire issue of Immigration to a national security level priority amongst the Thai Government, and we are seeing the ramifications of this change playing out top to bottom. Again, buckle up, this is probably going to be a longer video than ones we usually make because there is a lot of analysis to do and some level of conclusions to be drawn about the possible outcomes long-term as to what this could result in. 

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That said, let's jump into this because this is big. This is game changer stuff folks. That's the reason I'm doing this as an ALERT. Quoting directly from a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Government to impose stricter visa criteria. Quoting directly: "The Government will undertake a comprehensive review of all Visa categories" - all Visa categories; this is not now just pertaining to Visa Exemption, this is everything, as we will get to, it's everything - quoting further: "in a move to tighten oversight of foreign visitors and prioritize their overall quality rather than sheer numbers." And on top of that, again referencing a video I made contemporaneously with this one, also the discovery of caches of arms being held by foreigners here in Thailand; I think it's even more than just quality over quantity tourists. This is now in the paradigm of national security at a policy level. So I think we will see fundamental changes probably to various aspects of the Immigration System. Quoting further: "Government Spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said on Monday that Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul had informed a meeting of Ministers from his Bhumjaithai Party that existing Visa regulations required improvement. This is the PM saying something needs to be done about this visa situation. Quoting further: "The review will cover the full range of visas issued by Thailand to students, investors and tourists." And going over here very quickly to another citation which came from Bloomberg actually, under the headline: Thai Anger at Misbehaving Foreigners Triggers Visa Rules Review. Bloomberg goes further and it seems like Bloomberg was there at the same meeting and provides some further nuance. Quoting further: "Possible measures include reducing the 60-day Visa-free stay for tourists to 30 days" - we've already talked about that - "and reviewing the criteria for categories including investment, long-term stay, student and Digital Nomad visas, officials said." So in the Bangkok Post version they didn't quite get to the more salient point specifically for the Nomad folks. Nomad Visas, at least according to Bloomberg are under review as well. And from reading the Bangkok Post article, it's clear everything is under review. That said, quoting further: "Visitors from 93 countries are currently eligible for the 60-day waiver." Now that said, let's get back over here to Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, again the article is titled: Government to Impose Stricter Visa Criteria. Quoting further: "Mr. Anutin, leader of the Bhumjaithai Party has assigned Deputy Prime Minister Pakorn Nilprapunt to supervise the process. The decision reflects growing concern within government circles over problems associated with increasingly convenient entry arrangements for foreign nationals, he said."  Tourism and Sports Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul said discussions at Monday's meeting focused on whether current policies struck the right balance between accessibility and control. He noted that the ease of visiting Thailand had in some cases led to issues that now warranted closer examination. As a result, the Cabinet was expected to set up a Committee on Tuesday tasked with revising the criteria applied to all types of visas granted by Thailand." I state that again: "tasked with revising the criteria applied to all types of visas granted by Thailand." They are going through a systematic top to bottom review folks. That's what's happening here; this is big, big news. 

Now I'm not trying to make this video to scare anyone. If you're in like a standard Non-immigrant Visa: things like the O Retirement Visa, the O Marriage Visa, the standard Business Visa, I don't think that we're going to see - we could see retooling - but I see it happening in a more gradual sense. Some of these new visas that have just been created out of whole cloth, especially recently the so-called Long Stay Visa down in Phuket, we've heard of people that are down there saying, "whoa, whoa, what are we doing about this?" Meanwhile, the DTV. I have brought up my concerns regarding the policies underlying that and its whole creation in my opinion was less than optimal. Then we've got the LTR where it seems to just be sort of being done on an ad hoc basis and I have still never understood where BOI seems to get the authority to override the Immigration Act of 1979 and say you don't have to do 90-day reporting. I also don't understand where BOI got the ability to grant work authorization unilaterally. I thought all that had to go through Labour Ministry. Yes, there's the One-Stop System that involves both Immigration and Labour but exactly, again BOI is specifically mentioned in the Immigration Act of '79 as being able to issue visas, but the presumption there is that they are issuing visas associated with ongoing business in Thailand, not visas in and of themselves for people to just sort of come in. There's a lot of disconnect here between policy and unfortunately, a lot of these issues got exacerbated in the last government which was less than optimal - especially in the aftermath of Bhumjaithai pulling out and leaving it with what I called the Rump Coalition government, we just saw a lot of visa schemes pop up out of nowhere and the result has been a very haphazard, ad hoc, patchwork sort of Immigration System where no one can really figure out quite where they stand, and each different Visa is being treated sort of differently. Also bringing up the Elite Visa, Thailand Elite Visa which in the past was sort of touted as something "hey, it's for convenience; you go ahead and you buy into this membership program you get your visa, it becomes hassle free." Now we're starting to see all these restrictions and demonstrations of Tourism intent and things of this nature, I definitely think this is good on the Government's part to do a top to bottom review and figure out what the best policies are and if possible streamline them so we have frankly an Immigration system that you can make some sense of, even at a lay person level. 

That said, quoting further: "The panel will be responsible for proposing changes aimed at strengthening screening procedures while maintaining the country's international appeal. According to Mr. Surasak, the existing 60-day visa-free scheme will be brought to an end, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs set to submit the proposal for Cabinet approval. Under the revised approach, visitors will be subject to more stringent scrutiny, and financial means alone will no longer ensure Visa approval." That's an interesting one as well. Very interesting data point there. Again, scrutiny is going to be scrutiny. Everything is not going to be determined by money. That's a big deal. Quoting further: quote: "The Government will not emphasise the quantity of visitors but their quality," the Tourism Minister said. He added that rising arrival figures did not necessarily translate into increased revenue or long-term economic benefit. And I would go even further. I did a video critical of Thaksin over the summer where he had been at some speaking engagement and he had come up with some golden visa or something. I really, this whole "Rich Guy Visa", I question whether it is this major boom to any given jurisdiction. Yes, I understand that high-net worth individuals, they are people that you don't really have to worry about coming in and being a burden on the system, so from that standpoint I get it. But some of these visas just kind of let folks in here unfettered and they just aren't really under any further scrutiny. It rings a little odd; it strikes an odd tone, especially in light of what we have been seeing the past couple of weeks. That said, quoting further: "Earlier on Monday Mr. Anutin said any reassessment of visa-free entry would require consultations involving multiple agencies. The objective, he said, was to find an appropriate balance between supporting economic growth and tourism on the one hand and addressing National Security concerns on the other." Quoting further: "Visa-free entry does not mean allowing people to enter without conditions," the Prime Minister said." Again, this is the Prime Minister talking. Quoting further: "Previously, many questioned why Thailand did not offer Visa-free access. Now we must determine the most appropriate balance." I think he's right. At the end of the day we need to look at what is the upshot of these policies or lack of policy coordination and cohesion, especially at a national level. We are seeing all these people come in with all these different visas and all of these different criteria, protocols, parameters associated with them and some of the so-called parameters don't even make any sense in light of the clearly promulgated law on Immigration. So I'm hopeful - I don't want to see some big crack down on foreigners, let me be very clear - although when I start seeing, if I was back in Kansas and there were people moving into Kansas, in fact if you look at the history of Kansas, there were people that moved into Kansas and decided to start voting a certain way in order to get us to enter the Union in a certain way. It kicked off what was called Bloody Kansas, or Bleeding Kansas depending on what you read, because the locals didn't want foreigners in their state in that situation, before they were part of the Union in their what could be, state is probably the right word, in their territory, on their land, in their home, with caches of weapons and then trying to change the way that that place worked, and that's why Kansas stood up and said "no, we're not doing this", and history has borne out how that all played out. 

But long story short, I completely get where the Thais are at. I see why there is heightened concern over foreign nationals being in Thailand, what their purposes are in Thailand because when we're finding foreign nationals with caches of weapons - and I don't care what their nationality is - we've seen that there was a situation in Chonburi that involved I believe it was a Chinese National if I recall correctly, I did video on that; recently did a video regarding raids down in the islands, this is not something the Thais particularly care about what nationality you are. It comes down to the analysis of Thai versus not Thai; it comes down to the analysis of foreigners in our country basically arming themselves, and then the question becomes, "for what?" Is it to undermine us? It's unacceptable and clearly the Government is taking this seriously. It remains to be seen exactly how this plays out, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.