Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Destination Thailand Visa yet again. What are we talking about here though with regard to the notion of a "Boomerang Effect"? Well I have talked about this in other videos. Okay, going back to sort of the inception of this so-called Destination Thailand Visa, which everybody ran out with all their hyperbole and said it was the greatest thing in the world, that's fine. Yes it's a good development for possible expats here in Thailand, but the people that were touting it - notably the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - made a major PR blitz regarding the Destination Thailand Visa, said a lot of things like they were foregone conclusions, but they're not the ones that are going to make those decisions. 

As we discussed another videos, yes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can create a Visa, but it is Immigration's prerogative whether or not to admit people to Thailand or to allow for extension of stay once in the country. And as we've noted in other videos I should say, the fact that they're going to extend or allow folks to do Border Runs on this, on a frequent basis, is not necessarily a foregone conclusion; we've discussed this at length in other videos. Most notably Immigration - the silence frankly is deafening at this point as of the time of this video - Immigration has not commented on the Destination Thailand Visa, which leads me to believe that we could be headed for a situation probably in quarter one of 2025 where the folks who initially got these visas back in like July roughly, June, July of 2024 are then going to need things like an extension or a Border Run and they may come and find out "oh my goodness, this is not going to be just the easy peasy thing that they told us it was going to be"! I suspect that's probably going to happen and that's the Boomerang Effect. This is the way these things kind of go. Also the timing of it looks to me very symmetrical to things I've seen in the past where it would be happening in the latter half of the high season.

Again a lot of these initiatives get done in order to, if you will boost tourism going into a high season, and then cyclically at the end of a high season, Immigration starts to tighten back up at the end of that because yeah they want tourism but they don't necessarily want to be subsumed by a bunch of foreigners who want to live in Thailand without any good reason for doing so. Do I think this is a foregone conclusion? Not necessarily. That being said, based on 17 years of being out here and dealing with the Thai Immigration system, it's something I'm definitely on the lookout for but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as this situation evolves.