Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question "can a negative immigration decision be appealed in Thailand?" I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 'Kicking' Swiss man in Phuket loses Visa. Quoting directly: "The Thai Immigration Bureau has revoked the Business Visa of the Swiss man who allegedly kicked a Thai woman relaxing on a beach near his villa in Phuket deeming him a threat to society." 

Now this story is all over the ether that is the internet; I urge those who are checking out this video, go check out other articles, that article specifically that I just quoted. A lot of good detail in there. But we are getting to specifically to the issue of appeal of an adverse decision, of a negative decision. Quoting further from the same article: "Immigration Bureau Commissioner Pol Lt Gen Ittipol Itthisanronnachai said on Thursday that Mr. Fehr could file an appeal against the Visa revocation within 48 hours." First thing to note, it is an appeal of revocation. Really to the best of my knowledge, that is not an appeal for the decision not to allow a foreigner to extend or be granted a further Visa in Thailand. So this was an already issued Visa that was actually revoked and so there is something akin to an appellate process. Now I would urge those who are watching this video to understand, the word appeal has a lot of connotation especially in an American Common Law of Vernacular that really does not apply here. I look at this as more akin to expanded review. It is not a matter that first that there's an adversarial context to this in the same way that there is always an adversarial context in the Common Law that it's two adversaries because the thought is you are going to get to the truth by having it be adversarial. In the Thai legal tradition, it is much more inquisitorial. Just getting to the facts of the given situation. The other thing to bear in mind it is pretty rare that an Immigration Commission tasked with an appeal or an expanded review if you will of an Immigration proceeding is going to greatly differ with the initial Officer who made the decision to revoke the visa to begin with. Presumably they all work together; presumably they have very similar paradigm and are probably not going to overrule someone who made a decision, made findings of fact and conclusions of law effectively on the ground if you will. 

So again that is not to say that it's a foregone conclusion that this decision will not be reversed; it is possible it could be reversed on further review, but my personal instinct thinks that is rather unlikely. The other thing to bear in mind is even if the revocation were to be reversed, it is my understanding the Visa itself is only good until the 13th of this month. That is based on other information that I found from primarily the Bangkok Post on this case. Again tip of the hat to Bangkok Post, a lot of good coverage on this case. They have been very detailed, very precise and their coverage has been quite excellent actually but yeah, this person's Visa is set to expire anyway in March, March the 13th. As I have discussed in another video made contemporaneously with this one, extension is not the same thing as revocation. A failure, a decision not to renew a Visa is a very different legal posture than a decision to revoke an already issued Visa. So the thing to take away from this video is they are two different things and you definitely should not look at appeal as if it was the same thing as we would look at in an American Common Law context.