Transcript of the above video:

So we are talking about Thai E-Visas. For those who are unaware, yeah most of the visas that you are seeing issued, or we are seeing issued these days do not go through the old channels where they are sort of mailed in applications or people visiting a Thai Embassy or Consulate or even Honorary Consulate on their own in order to get a Visa processed out. So one thing to bear in mind with regard to this, I've discussed this in prior videos in the past, but something that really has been brought up recently, Honorary Consulates really are a thing of the past. There was a time where I got a number of especially Business Visas, multi-entry Business Visas issued from Thai Consulates abroad, frequently. And these visas were quite useful back at the time, but they were primarily issued by Honorary Consulates. That all ended even before COVID that was ending and then with COVID, it just finally came to a total end.

But the point of this video, and the thing to take away from this video is we are utilizing an E-Visa portal now but as evidenced by a recent comment on our channel regarding Immigration, quoting directly: "When Thailand put Visa applications online, it made the process 10 times less efficient and more cumbersome." That was actually in response to a video - we were discussing this National Digital ID that they want to use for banking for some reason even though we already have an actual ID so why does it need to be digitized; it doesn't make any sense to me. That said, the comment was valid, and I think something to point out. 

Yeah look, we've been assisting a number of folks in getting visas to Thailand, for example things like Retirement Visas. We've assisted folks with the LTR, the Long-term Residences Visa which should be noted is not actually a Residence Visa - it is not Permanent Residence in a legal sense of the term - as well as things like the Destination Thailand Visa and other types of visas: Business Visas, Marriage Visas for Thailand; we have assisted with all of them. But yeah, the E-Visa portal I do have to say, it is like in the US Immigration context. The addition of this digitization and this so-called efficiency from everything being online, it's just not there, and I don't know what else to say frankly; it's just not there and it's harder. If anything, the digital platform and the digital, how do I put it, the filter if you will or the bottleneck, by which they put people through this digital platform allows for total unaccountability on the part of the people actually processing the visas. It also calls into question what the point is of having all these people in all of these different Embassies and Consulates? I have started viewing that myself.  I understand sometimes interviews are done for US Visas, but where everything's digitized now in terms of the National Visa Center and things, it really calls into question some of the actual functional people in some of these institutions. The same can be said I think in the Thai context. These Embassy, these Consulates, what are these people who are assigned to them then doing, especially the Consular sections if all this is being done online? 

That said, I don't know the ultimate answer to that with regard to the sort of balance in terms of efficiency and cost-benefit analysis with regard to less people or more online processing, if there even are less people. That's the big question is presumably in automation in the private sector, there are going to be less people because business operates on the profit motive and they want to go ahead and drop their costs in order to make more money. Government is a little bit different. They'll automate this stuff and keep the personnel. So it's like well what did that gain, anything? 

Again, this E-Visa system we are dealing with it, we're having success with it but it's not like the process has been in the past. Quite frankly, I don't see where a great deal of benefit has been added to anyone other than the people who no longer have to really communicate with people and deal with case processing. But that being said, we will be keeping people updated on this channel as that situation evolves.