Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing December and processing of Thai Visas. We are talking here about primarily in country, things like extensions, 90-day reports perhaps TM30, those kinds of things conversion even into a new Visa and some of this analysis applies to Visas applied for outside of Thailand at Thai Embassies and Consulates abroad. But the main thrust of this video, yeah pertains to get sort of extension, Visa status here in the Kingdom. 

I started thinking about this when I was reading an article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Two Upcoming Thailand Public Holidays will close Immigration. Quoting directly: "The immigration Bureau reminds everyone that there are public holidays on Monday December 6 and Friday December 10. Immigration services are not available on public holidays. Foreigners whose visas or permissions of stay expire on a public holiday or weekend should report to the local immigration office on the next open day." Now also remember the end of the year we have got a holiday, New Year's Eve, International New year's Eve and then on top of that there are Western holidays which yeah directly does not have a big bearing on Thai Immigration, they are not going to be closed for example for Christmas but I know a lot of especially folks from the English speaking world from Europe those holidays are significant and somebody may not necessarily want to be down at Thai Immigration on Christmas Eve or the Monday after Christmas weekend in this in this case this year.

So the point I am trying to make with this video is December has always kind of been a bit of an obstacle race when it comes to Immigration processing. A lot of that stems from the fact that there are all these public holidays here in Thailand, there are a number of them in December, in this case they all kind of happen in one week here toward the beginning of the month but there is one at the end of the month that will have an impact. It will close Thai Immigration on a business day and then on top of it you have got Western holidays that people's personal plans often get in the way of dealing with Immigration matters. 

So those that have issues during this month it is a good idea to really think ahead about dealing with things like Visa processing. The other thing to remember, yes technically the rules stipulate that if you show up on the next business day when Immigration is open, you will be able to deal with that as if you dealt with it on the day that it expired. As a practical matter, it has always kind of been my rule of thumb to get it done before the expiration date. Now it is not as if Thai Immigration Officers are trying to be like arbitrarily difficult about dealing with this. I have seen it; they know how the rules work. If you deal with it on the next available day they will treat it, for example if your Visa expires on a Saturday if you show up on Monday it has been my experience yes they will deal with you but I have always felt like it is a more prudent way of dealing with things to try and do it beforehand. In some situations it may not be possible but where possible it is always better to keep yourself in status before you have even a technical expiration of status.