Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Destination Thailand Visa or the DTV Visa. The question posed by this video is how long is it going to take before the ambiguities associated with this Visa are going to "clear up"?

As I have discussed in other videos, there's been a lot of discussion especially from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding how great the Destination Thailand Visa is. It's sort of the "end all, be all", it’s our great saviour in terms of Immigration. And then people started talking about it in these absolutes like "oh you can just use it for this, that or the other thing and this is how it's going to work". Well as I said, first off Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not going to make the decisions regarding the practical adjudications that are going to go into determining whether or not one can remain in Thailand long term. That's going to be made under the auspices of the Immigration Bureau which is under the authority of the Ministry of Interior, so it's two different things. 

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. Quoting directly: "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 generally speaking, if you're already in a solid Visa setup, stick with it. Just because there has been some change, you don't want to go running around, jumping on the latest band wagon fad associated with having a Visa; if you are in Visa status it's generally the best advice to maintain it. Meanwhile again, it is really worth pointing out, it is not a foregone conclusion exactly how these Destination Thailand Visas are going to work, and we also don't know exactly how Immigration is going to treat them on a case by case basis as things roll along. It's going to take probably the better part of the forthcoming year to get a handle on what adjudication for example at border checkpoints, is going to look like with the DTV as well as what the overall process for getting the Visa and maintaining one's status here in the Kingdom are going to look like. So we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel regarding those developments as they evolve.

I'm going to do a quick bumper for a lot of these Immigration videos that we're 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.