Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well already are we seeing issues with Thailand's E-Visa program? As I discussed in another video it appears that starting Jan 1 of 2025, all visas that are going to be issued for Thailand from abroad through an Embassy or Consulate, are going to go through the digital visa portal in order to do that. That's a major change to the way the process of applying for and obtaining a Thai Visa has been in the past, this is a major change. It really is a big difference. How exactly it's going to look remains to been seen; how it interacts with the proposed Electronic Travel Authorization along with the Thai Immigration System, the TIS, and the ETA remains to be seen. We will be keeping you updated on this channel as that evolves. 

That being said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Avoiding the hassles of online travel and hotel bookings. “Vicky's Travel which can also help with entry requirements to most other countries. "We are finding some people are having trouble with E-Visas or entry authorization procedures, so helping out there has been added to our services. You might need a travel document as well as a flight ticket these days even to board a plane." Unfortunately, and this is very unfortunate, I'm not thrilled about this. It looks to me like what was going on under COVID was sort of a beta test for what they're trying to roll out now. I'm getting into that in another video we're making contemporaneously with this one, but long story short for purposes of this video, understand going into 2025 we are looking at a very different immigration system overall. When they roll things like this out, expect it to not be the smoothest process in the world. There will be bugs; there will be hiccups; it could be problematic. Those who are looking to come to Thailand, especially folks who are looking to come here to retire or folks who are looking to come here for long-term status, it probably is not a terrible idea to contact a legal professional and gain some insight and guidance because going into this new system, there could be a lot of unforeseen pitfalls if you will, with regard to moving through the process. 

Now we dealt with this very much on an urgent basis when we saw the lockdowns come in 2020. Then we saw them start to reopen and they had limited ability of people to come to Thailand. You needed certain visas, you needed initially a Certificate of Entry, what later became Thailand Pass and now it looks like they are trying to roll that system effectively back out calling it Electronic Travel Authorization and then this Thailand Immigration System here in Thailand they're rolling out. 

Long story short, none of it is particularly a great thing in terms of ease of travel. In fact, as I have said in many other videos, anytime they add these new digital protocols or digital hoops to jump through it never makes it easier. I've been dealing with this in the US Immigration System for going on almost a decade now. We were dealing with it in earnest especially during the Trump Administration when that started, but even going back into the last two years of Obama we were starting to see stuff associated with this especially with the digitization of the National Visa Center in the US Immigration System which quite honestly in my opinion, didn't make anything easier to deal with, if anything it made everything harder to deal with. I expect we'll probably see something similar with regard to the Thai Immigration System and we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as that situation evolves.