Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Foreign Ministry, the Thai Foreign Ministry and we are also discussing Thai Immigration specifically under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior here in the Kingdom of Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: New Visa promotions, retiree insurance reduced. Quoting directly, and just as an aside here, we have actually talked about the thrust of what this article gets into on this channel but I urge you to read the article. I'm going to go on a slightly different way here. Quoting directly: "The Cabinet approved several new Visa promotions to attract more tourists on Tuesday including Visa Free and visa-on-arrival schemes and longer stays for students, and a reduced level of compulsory health insurance for retirees." Quoting further: "The Foreign Ministry proposed the measures to attract as many visitors as possible Government, Spokesman Chai Wacharonke said." 

So what are we talking about here? Well there has been a lot of talk about major changes to Thai Immigration. Extensions of exemption status, Visa-on-arrival status, certain new Visas, so-called Destination Thailand Visas etc. and then I have had people contacting the firm and asking us "Hey I thought that this came into effect. Why am I not getting this kind of stamp etc., etc." One, when major changes occur it doesn't turn on a dime. It's like turning a large boat or a freighter or something, it takes a minute for it to not only stop, but to turn. So that's one thing; it takes a second to implement policy changes. 

Another thing to bear in mind, the Foreign Ministry and Immigration - which has been described I believe in the Pattaya Mail as “fiercely independent” - we are talking about the Immigration apparatus under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior here in the Kingdom of Thailand, they are two different things. Foreign Ministry may set policy and certain rules one way and may issue visas for example one way. Then you will get to Thailand here and be dealing with Immigration and they will say: "yeah that's great, that is Foreign Ministry's policy, but we do things differently here." We could see this play out; we could see this phenomenon have ramifications as we are seeing these Immigration Policies evolve. For example, just because Foreign Ministry may say it's a good idea to, and I am talking hypothetically here, but to expand for example the Visa Exemption Program, that may not be in the cards as far as Thai Immigration is concerned, and how exactly that plays out sometimes remains to be seen. That said, we'll certainly keep people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.