Transcript of the above video:

I am going to do a quick bumper for a lot of these Immigration videos that we are going to be doing moving forward because there are a number of options that have come up here recently and unfortunately, there has just been a lot of nonsensical talk throughout the ether of the internet, as well as in even like the mainstream press; the print press has been talking a lot about Immigration and quite honestly not all of the conclusions that they are drawing are correct. So the point of this bumper if you will, is for me to just kind of remind people, it's not a terrible idea to contact a legal professional who deals with Immigration on a regular basis because there are a number of options now available for foreigners looking to be in Thailand long term. Some of them are going to be more optimal than others depending on your own circumstances.  

As the title of this video suggests, we are posing the question, "do new visa rules impact Marriage Visas?" - are folks that are seeking or maintaining Marriage Visa status here in Thailand going to be impacted by some recent changes to Thai Immigration rules?

For those who are unaware, a Marriage Visa is what's called an O Visa here in Thailand. It falls into what's called the "catch all" category, or the "other" category; it is sort of the miscellaneous category to Immigration and folks that are married to a Thai national, that have a registered marriage to a Thai national, are able to apply for an O Marriage Visa. Now bear in mind, certain things regarding marriage documentation can be rather complicated and cumbersome especially if you are married outside of Thailand. So we have done other videos on that, I urge those who are watching this video, go check out the search function, type in Marriage Visas in our channel and you will find a lot of information about how you are dealing with Marriage Visas and how to deal with them when the marriage occurred outside of Thailand. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: The 60 days Visa Exempt and Destination Thailand Visa empower Immigration Officers. Yeah the title is interesting. As we discussed in other videos, this is sort of a reaction to a recent PR blitz by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs talking about all these new changes to Immigration. The problem is while Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues visas outside of Thailand, they have nothing to do with internal Immigration. That's dealt with by the Immigration Bureau under the Ministry of Interior here in Thailand. Quoting directly: "Expats with one year extensions of stay based on marriage or retirement or the Elite Visa are virtually ignored in the latest set of changes. It will probably be many months before the Visa Exempt and DTV ambiguities begin to clear up, so expats are probably safer to stick with what they have." 

Yeah look, at the end of the day when they come up with these new visas, I urge caution, I always do; I think my urgings were warranted with regards to the Long-term Resident Visa because many people that were talking to me about it at the get-go, it wasn't optimal for them. Meanwhile when they were raising the prices associated with the Elite Visa, I told people to hold back, there may be other options, but some people decided to buy into that. I know a few people who are very angry that they did, now in the aftermath of having done it with the introduction of the Destination Thailand Visa. I don't know that their anger is all that warranted because at the end of the day, I'm not so sure that the DTV is just going to be this easy quick thing to deal with. It's Immigration, it never is, it's just sort of the way of it, and at the end of the day that is sort of what we are dealing with. 

That said what to take away from this video? Well what to take away from this video is primarily, for the most part Non-Immigrant Marriage Visas are un-impacted by recent changes to Thai Immigration Law.