Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Non-immigrant Visas, and we are discussing the E-Visa portal. I thought of doing this as two different videos, but honestly I don't think it's really worth it to do it like that, so let's just jump in. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thai Cabinet endorses Visa revamp. Quoting directly: "In the medium term, the Ministry intends to streamline Non-immigrant Visas, with the target of reducing the number of categories from 17 to seven by August 31 this year." 

That is going to be interesting to watch. If they really do go in and start messing with the Non-immigrant categories. Now I have to imagine the standard stuff, the O, the B, probably isn't going to get messed with too much. But people forget there are a number of Non-immigrant visas that like nobody hardly uses like religious and certain of the media visas and certain of the education visas - even volunteer visas - that as a matter of course are just not used very often so I can see where streamlining would help. That said quoting further: "E-Visa Services have also been expanded to all 94 Thai Embassies and Consulates since Jan 1 last year. The Thailand Digital Arrival Card has also been fully implemented." So again, I thought about cutting this up into multiple videos, but the subject matter is rather precise, it's also rather dry, so I am putting them all together. 

The point is we are seeing a new Parliament coming into Thailand. This new Government has a mandate to really make some changes I think, and I think we're going to see that mandate play out throughout, shall I say throughout Immigration Policy making in the coming year or so; maybe I should say policy making throughout the coming year. The long story short, again reducing the number of Non-immigrant Visas, that would be a major change. Also, the fact that we are now in a digital format for basically all visas being sought outside the country is also a major change. 

So these are significant developments and it remains to be seen exactly what the practical implications of this are, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.