Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing denials of Visa applications for the Destination Thailand Visa specifically. I have actually received a number of emails recently from folks who have applied for the Destination Thailand Visa and been turned down and there are various reasons it looks to me for this. One is just the very discretionary nature of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Officers. They are able to deny and they may not necessarily have to articulate a reason, but they may have just an issue with the person, and they don't think they want to issue a 5-year visa to that person, or a Visa capable of being used over the course of 5 years. I hesitate to call the DTV a 5-year Visa because it was rolled out under the auspices that it was for nomads; it was not so you were living here. Again, it's the whole opaque nature of the visa to begin with which wasn't really spelled out. It was all kind of left vague and nebulous, mostly because they wanted to juice the numbers of "tourists" at that particular time, for political reasons, which I've gone into in great detail in videos in the past; I don't want to get into that. But the long story short is it was not actually rolled out on the basis that the Visa was a 5-year Visa; it was to be used over 5 years. As I discussed, it was kind of like a longer version of the old multi-entry 1-year visas. For those who remember, if you go back to the era of Honorary Thai Consulates, there was a time when you can get 1-year O, 1-year B Visas but when you came to Thailand - they were multi-entry - and when you came to Thailand you would be stamped in for 90 days at a stretch. Now you could use Border Runs to keep up your status, or you could extend your status using a Business Visa extension in=country. But that said, at the end of the day I guess what we're saying is, it was not specifically articulated as a Visa that you just stay in Thailand for five years. It was kind of like if you go back, they were talking about a Pan-ASEAN Visa and then that didn't go over, so they said, "oh okay, Thailand will be sort of your hub. You can use this Destination Thailand Visa and then travel the region; that was sort of the thinking. Again, it was all formed in a very nebulous way, and it has resulted in a lot of policy, frankly confusion, in the aftermath of its creation. 

But the purpose of this video is to talk about the fact yeah, we have seen a lot of correspondence from folks that have been denied for the DTV. It primarily seems to be stemming from the financial requirements and the "seasoning" of those financial requirements; basically can someone show that they have the financial requirements met and can show that they have been met over a period of time. So basically, can you show evidence going backward that you in fact do have the money. That it's not just basically a pretense or a pretext that you have just sort of put money into an account, but it might not be yours; you might have taken a loan from somebody or something of that nature. 

So again, we're seeing a number of denials with regard to that. We are seeing a fair few number of denials with respect to extensions of status. I get into that in another video I have made contemporaneously with this one, but strictly speaking, what we're talking about is folks that are applying for this through the Visa portal overseas being denied and not being able to get it. And then they come to us and they say, "well what should we do?" Well an immediate reapplication may or may not be in someone's interest. Again, it's going to depend on the underlying facts in the given case with respect to how best to deal with trying to get a DTV Visa in the aftermath of a denial. For those that are confused or sort of overwhelmed by some of this stuff, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.