Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing extra scrutiny associated with Thai Visa Extension applications.  For those who are unaware, if you travel to Thailand on a Non-Immigrant Visa, for example Business Visa, O Visa, O Retirement Visa, you may need to extend your status in Thailand. Meanwhile, if you travel to Thailand on a Tourist Visa or even on an Exemption Stamp and get 30 days upon arrival and you want to extend, you are going to have to deal with Extension at a Thai Immigration Office here in the Kingdom. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article, well actually it wasn't a recent article, it was a comment on one of our recent videos, quoting directly: "I'm not experienced in this field but I applied for my first "Non-Immigrant O Marriage Visa" excuse the name on the 2nd of April in Petchabun. My application has been sent to Chiang Mai for "checking". The Immigration Police also visited my home and neighbours, I don't know if this is normal but my initial 90-day Non-Immigrant O Visa has been extended by 30 days to allow time for this. What I assume is extra scrutiny."

So as we have discussed in other videos, yes there is a review period of 30 days for a non-immigrant visa extension, actually in the O Marriage category as well as the B Visa category, the Business Visa, as well. That also has pretty much like clockwork a 30-day review period wherein the relevant authorities, in this case Immigration Police are going to scrutinize the applicant and whether or not they meet the requirements. As we discussed in other videos, the Thai O Marriage Visa can be somewhat problematic for these types of situations. What I mean to say, we have talked about this before, there was a sham marriage issue that popped up some years back wherein there were a number of foreign nationals, who had figured out, they basically corrupted a Government Official and were able to get marriages legally put into the system, or they looked legal, they weren't legal but they were in the system and looked legal. Then they were utilizing these to go ahead and extend Marriage Visa status based on the underlying marriage. Then lo and behold, people mostly women, started turning up at Amphur Offices, District Offices to get married themselves only to find that in the system they were already registered as married which caused major consternation down the line. 

So yeah there is scrutiny. In fact we talked about at the end of the Emergency Decree back in October 2022 to expect heightened scrutiny especially compared to what folks had been dealing with for about the year and a half up to that point because well quite honestly there was no longer the discretion inherent in the Immigration Officers to just sort of make favourable determinations to allow folks to remain in the Kingdom somewhat perpetually under sort of the Emergency Decree scheme. Basically you just cited exigent circumstances and you could get some form of an extension. Now we are back to status quo ante, the Thai Immigration Law as it normally stands, and under these circumstances no it's not just a matter of essentially filing for an extension and effectively being granted it, no now you're back to the heightened scrutiny and this is most assuredly out there; there is tons of scrutiny associated with O Marriage Visas. 

So the thing to take away from this video and understand is that yeah, there is more scrutiny compared to even a year ago for those who are looking to extend their status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.