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Home Inspections and New Requirements in Thai O Visa Applications?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing O Marriage Visas, Thai O Marriage Visas. We are specifically discussing this in the context of inspections. The possibility of inspections and documentation pertaining to one's homestead.

In a recent email I got from a viewer of our channel, and we appreciate emails, this person provided some background. Basically they have been married to a Thai National for a number of years and they have been dealing with the Thai O Marriage Visa Extension for some time now but things kind of changed in their latest visit to Thai Immigration. So quoting directly: "On arriving in Laksi Immigration Office this morning, I produced all relevant documents to perfect my Thai O Visa for one year. The Immigration Officer told us that all documents were in order. However in addition to these documents, we had to also provide pictures of the inside and outside of our residence." I will get to that in a minute. "Moreover the Immigration Officer told us we had to provide those photos before the end of the day. As we live a few minutes from Laksi that was not a problem for us. We provided 8 pictures of our residence in a few hours. Once we provided the pictures however the Immigration Officer further added we had to return in 30 days to receive their final determination regarding my visa application. Is this a new requirement? From the sounds of it, we were not being singled out as we could overhear other applicants discussing the subject of the residential pictures. Some applicants were returning this morning to find out the determination of their visa application. Is it possible that home inspections will accompany this picture requirement possibly as a way to check the validity of the TM30?"

Long story short I have definitely seen that. Not necessarily in Laksi per se but I have seen cases, most notably more recently in Chiang Mai where someone we were dealing with, they had been inspected on an O Marriage Visa and they had to deal with an inspection. They were following up regarding the TM30 as well. So yes a very on point question there. Yes we have seen home inspections. We saw one in Phuket last year that was really odd. It was in the context of a B Visa they did a home inspection, so it can happen. They do show up to say "Are you really living here?" especially in the context of an O Marriage Visa and again TM30; they do some verification on that. It can be a problem if your practical situation is not in line with what you filed. For the most part though I hesitate to call this stuff a formality but yes they are tasked with doing inspections and so from time to time, they have to actually do them. Another thing to keep in mind is look there aren't as many foreigners in Thailand as there usually are. Frankly, Immigration resources are not stretched at all. They have a number of personnel and frankly they don't have the numbers of foreigners coming into Thailand that usually takes up their time. So I am really not surprised to see them expending their resources in ways to be productive or what they view as productive during this hiatus on tourism.

We will keep you updated on this channel as the situation progresses.