Transcript of the above video: 

Let me preface this video by saying, I've had a few people ask me the question here recently, "what's going on with your hair?" And yeah, I have just kind of let It grow, but I have kind of been coming by it honestly. I lost my barber; frankly this person moved back up-country. I've been looking for somebody new and just kind of letting it go. So yeah, it's probably not the best looking at the moment, but I need to find somebody, but I just haven't gotten around to it. So that's the reason for the hair thing. 

That being said, we are talking about proof of funds at immigration checkpoints. What are we talking about here? Well okay, so there are a number of reports coming in of foreigners being denied entry to Thailand because they cannot show funds to maintain themselves upon re-entry. And I'm hearing this from folks that are in not only Visa Exemption status, but I'm also hearing it from people who are utilizing the Destination Thailand Visa. I've also heard from people that are actually utilizing things like a standard Tourist Visa. So what are we talking about here? 

Well this has always been a requirement actually in Thailand. The Immigration apparatus is empowered, they have the discretion, to deny entry to people if they determine that they do not have the financial ability to take care of themselves in Thailand. What this generally means practically is they want to see 20,000 baht, that has always kind of been the rule of thumb; carry 20,000 baht with you in cash, otherwise you may find yourself denied entry. But yeah, we are hearing reports of people being refused entry because of an inability to show that they have funds in order to support themselves while in Thailand. And understand, at the end of the day, Immigration does have wide discretion, and their discretion is absolute when it comes to matters of not admitting foreigners to Thailand. So again, the issue of proof of funds can be something that is rather serious. It can have a tremendous impact on somebody's ability to actually come into the country, and it looks like Immigration is being serious about cracking down on this. 

I think the timing sounds about right. This is usually, there is a kind of cadence if you will to Immigration toward the end of high season - and that's what we are looking at right now here in February - we tend to see sort of a spike in these kind of stories that a lot of foreigners who aren't being able to either get back into Thailand or they can't get in at all because of various reasons and one of the reasons could be because they think people are trying to live in Thailand on the wrong type of Visa. They are utilizing a visa to live in Thailand that is only really intended for tourism purposes, for example Visa Exemption status, Tourist Visa status etc. Also again, notwithstanding the fact one might have a Destination Thailand Visa, doesn't mean you automatically are going to be allowed to re-enter. In fact, I expect there's going to be more scrutiny on DTV holders moving forward. I expect that proof of funds will probably be part of that scrutiny and don't be surprised if there end up being more Refusals of Entry as time goes on and as we leave high season going to low season here in 2026 in the Kingdom of Thailand.