Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Immigration Policy. This is going to be something of a comparative video albeit broadly comparative. I am not going to take specific countries and compare them. 

I have gotten a lot of correspondence in the past few weeks and let's just say feedback hasn't been overly effusive or positive on the policy set by Immigration presently. I certainly understand people's frustration. I understand people's frustration in virtually every context regarding Immigration under the current circumstances but a lot of what I read from folks basically sums up as you know that "Thai Immigration is being overly cautious or they are being overly obtuse in some of the requirements and things, when is this going to end etc. etc." 

Just for point of reference, I think it is worth noting that regionally, Thailand is probably not for lack of a better term, the worst country with respect to Immigration Policy. In fact, I would say all things considered in the totality it is probably I hesitate to use the word easier, but it is probably more certain one will be able to get into Thailand even if just in a tourist capacity. Many countries in this region, I think Philippines right now, for example Malaysia, pretty sure Singapore we have read some things regarding Vietnam recently, none of these countries are just allowing tourists. They will allow folks under certain circumstances depending on the facts of their given situation, they may allow certain foreign nationals to come into their country but tourists per se are really not exactly allowed. Now there are not a lot of tourists coming to Thailand presently but I would say that it is worth noting that Thailand remains open for tourists. Now you have to still go through a number of different requirements to be able to gain admission to Thailand and then be released from quarantine but it is still possible to enter Thailand as a tourist as opposed to many of the other countries in this region where that is not really a possibility.

Now are we still living in the era, at least at this moment, where you can just get on a plane and come to Thailand? No, it is not like that. The era of the Border Run is currently on hold. We are certainly hoping that that turns around sooner rather than later and perhaps even a year from now we might actually see the thing called "Border Running" come back. It is hard to say. I am done with speculating. This time last year I was thinking everything was going to be hunky dory and open by August of 2020; how wrong I was. 

So the reason for this video and I hope what people take away from this video, is yeah I have even been negative on outlook and analysis regarding Thai Immigration policy but due to a couple of different things, of looking at other countries here in the region and their policies, it kind of drove me to go ahead and re-examine my position on how Thai Immigration Policy is currently evolving. Now I want to be clear on this, I am not going to discontinue being critical of certain Immigration Policies or analyzing certain Immigration Policies that may not in my opinion be a particularly great idea or which don't seem to make any sense, but I hope people understand especially frequent watchers of this channel that I am not just trying to dog on or just be negative about Thai Immigration all the time. I am aware that in the grander scheme of things, Thailand frankly is one of the more open countries in Southeast Asia with respect to being able to gain admission and go about one's business here in the Kingdom.