Transcript of the above video: 

Yet another fantastic story on Immigration and bureaucracy here in Thailand; the inexorable march toward what I can only describe as really a kind of Byzantine type system, for what? I don't really understand why all these moves are being made. 

I did a video some time ago where I was debunking the notion that there was a conspiracy against foreigners here in Thailand but I'm having more and more of a problem maintaining the notion that that is fully debunked as time is going on. Now let me be clear, I stand by a lot of the analysis in that most notably that there was an Immigration person that was secretly feeding information and they were part of a resistance crew that they thought that person was; that all seemed like nonsense. Also, the whole notion, I don't know, what is it they say, "never attribute to malevolence what can be ascribed to incompetence." 

When it comes to bureaucracy, different sort of tentacles of a bureaucracy are going to do things at different times and have their own way of doing things and they sort of culminate in a bad situation, but it's getting harder and harder to debunk the notion that there is not at least some underlying policy against foreigners here in Thailand. I don't think there is genuinely, I think it's just kind of coming out that way, partly because we haven't had a lot of real coherent government policy for a while now, and especially since we saw Bhumjaithai leave the Coalition and we have now seen, and to my mind there was pretty sound cause for their concerns in leaving the Coalition, most notably the phone call from our now suspended Prime Minister over to the President of the Senate or whatever Hun Sen is calling himself over there in Cambodia. I have gotten into that in prior videos, what is going on there. We are also now kind of in this limbo where we have this acting Prime Minister - who nobody really asked for - and all of these really nonsensical policies just seem to be kind of now sputtering out of various agencies here in Thailand, and it's concerning. I'm hoping that in the upcoming weeks we see in the evolution of the Thai political sphere, hopefully this kind of tightens up and we end up with a Government that can put out some more coherent policies, especially as we are looking down the barrel of a high season and all of this stuff makes people uneasy about wanting to travel here generally. 

I get into a lot of this stuff in our paid news service. If those who are watching this want to get into that, we going to longer form videos about all of that stuff and how it interacts; the political news, economic news and how that interacts for expats and folks that want to live out here in Southeast Asia. If you're interested in that you can email us, [email protected]. While I'm talking my book, it is worth pointing out that my better half and I have also set up a restaurant here in Bangkok, Pancake Palace. As the name implies, pancakes, breakfast anytime; we even have a big English breakfast, a full English if you will, if you're interested in that. But breakfast anytime as well as American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, Polish sausage. We've also got world famous in my opinion, best in Bangkok buffalo wings, chilli bowls, pork chops and even glass bottled Coke like your classic diner in America. If you're interested in that, the link is in the description below for the location of Pancake Palace. Come on down and see us.

That said, the title of this video, I thought of making it after somebody sent me an email that said you really ought to do a video about the fact they require you to do TDAC - so that is the Thailand Digital Arrival Card System - 3 days prior to coming into Thailand. I'd always viewed it as you need to do it within three days because everything I had read said that, and then I was conversing with this person, they said, no, check the link on immigration and let's put that up. This is TDAC, tdac.immigration.go.th.

1. All passengers must complete the Thailand Digital Arrival Card.

2. If the alien stays in the Kingdom longer than 90 days, he/she must notify in writing the nearest Immigration Officer, concerning place of stay, as soon as possible upon expiration of 90 days. And required to do so every 90 days. 

3. Aliens are not allowed to work unless they are granted a Work Permit.

4. Foreigners are required to submit their arrival card information 3 days in advance of their arrival date in Thailand. 

I mean, I just want to know, why are we making it so difficult for people to travel here. This reminds me of COVID where at least there was an underlying ostensible reason for doing it, in my opinion was a complete over exaggeration at best or a total hoodwinking of the populations of the world at worst, but leaving that aside, at least there was a reason for it. What's the policy reason by wanting people to do this TDAC thing three days in advance? We always did the paper arrival/departure card upon arrival; it's only really there - we admit people, they come in. Now we've got biometrics; we know everything about these people. I mean why does this need to be done? Why the extra step? Why the extra hassle? Now it's my understanding, I checked with my folks here in the office, colleagues here in the office, especially people that deal with immigration daily, and they said as a practical matter, they mean within three days. But I said, "look, it says right there, in advance." And they said, "yeah we get it, what do you want us to tell you?" So, I thought I'd go ahead and make this video. If you want to be super prudent go ahead and deal with TDAC 3 days in advance before you get here. I don't think anybody is going to bust your chops over it if you don't. I think you are still going to be able to get on a plane or at the very least before you get on the plane to come here they'll say 'hey fill this out'.

But that being said, yeah it's just another thing sort of stacking up in the Byzantine bureaucratic hassle that seems to becoming part and parcel at least week with current Government Policy here in the Kingdom of Thailand.