I'm going to do a quick bumper for a lot of these immigration videos that we are 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 is 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.

Transcript of the above video: 

I am not really trying to call out YouTube on this one but a lot of YouTubers have basically been talking completely out of their ear with regard to Thai Immigration matters here in the past few weeks. Quite honestly, they have been talking about things with an unearned confidence in their own knowledge frankly, and also they are glossing over issues that when the rubber hits the road later, could cause people some real problems. 

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: "The Deputy Director General emphasized the number of repeatable visa exempts will depend on individual Immigration Officers who have absolute discretion." Yeah I have talked about this since the get go.

They first started coming out with this PR blitz and it was Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was saying things. And as I brought up, well they are not going to be the ones making determinations as to Immigration cases in any practical manner. Yes they issue visas at Embassies and Consulates abroad very similar to the way the Department of State personnel deals with visas issued outside of the United States, at Embassies and Consulates outside the USA. The same goes for Ministry of Foreign Affairs issuing visas at Embassies and Consulates outside of Thailand. But much like the United States, where Department of State does not deal with internal Immigration matters, the Department Homeland security does. In Thailand the same can be said or a similar analogy can be made where Ministry of Foreign Affairs deals with visas abroad but Immigration under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior here in Thailand, will be the ones that will be dealing with Immigration here in the country, and as noted, their discretion is absolute. Quoting further: "Accordingly, it appears that tourists could still be challenged to the cry "you come to Thailand too often without a visa".  Yeah, fair point actually. I thought of not reading that at first and I said well, it's a little snarky but it's on point. Immigration Officers do cry that out from time to time when they say "hey you are coming into Thailand too much, you're not using a proper Visa." They remain with their discretion.

We may have some new visas created. How exactly these visas sort of will play out practically remains to be seen. We will certainly keep you updated on this channel as this situation evolves.