Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing new Thai Visas going to bring in foreign criminals and ruin Thailand? What are we talking about here?

Well I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's new Visa regulations still have ambiguous elements. Quoting directly: "Mr Naruchai," now this person is to my understanding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and they are talking a lot about Immigration. Well, Ministry of Foreign Affairs has limited involvement dealing with Immigration matters. They do issue visas at Consulates and Embassies abroad but they are not the final authority when it comes to Immigration internally here in Thailand. That is the Immigration Bureau, that operates under the authority of the Ministry of Interior, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Quoting directly: “Mr Naruchai denied that any of the changes introduced last month are helping foreign criminals to ruin Thailand, saying that the same database of blacklisted persons is now checked on entry rather than at the visa application stage." Which is it any harm that is checked both? That would be my first question is why issue a visa to somebody who could be on The Blacklist? If they are not doing that, I would wonder why because I know they have the ability to hook into The Blacklist system. But then at the same time, yes of course Immigration is ultimately going to be the one that decides whether or not somebody can enter the Kingdom but then the question also becomes do we want to have visas issued to people who come into Thailand and then get turned away? That to my mind isn't the greatest policy in the world. That kind of makes Thailand look not so great and causes unnecessary consternation at airports as well as the possibility of wasted time and resources and money of people travelling around only to be turned around. 

Again, there has been a lot of talk surrounding these new visas, new plans by Thai Immigration. They do this stuff all the time quite honestly. They do it for PR and some of it sticks as a practical matter and some of it doesn't. Do I think we will be dealing with Destination Thailand Visa in the future? Yes. Do I think it is widely useful as it is being touted? Not really, candidly. I think most people aren't actually going to be able to meet the requirements; we've discussed the requirements in other videos. I'll continue talking about that as time goes on. But long story short, yeah at the end of the day, it is going to be Immigration who makes the determination whether somebody can enter. So one, why aren't we doing The Blacklist check on folks at the Visa issuance stage rather than throwing that back on Immigration and then also meanwhile, is this really bringing it a bunch of criminals? I kind of doubt it. Our biometric system at Immigration can also check against criminal databases and things. So at the end of the day do I think it's throwing in a bunch of foreign criminals? Probably not. But do I think it's particularly wise to have a spokesperson out there talking about Immigration matters who doesn't have a direct first-hand knowledge of how Immigration works, because this person doesn't work in Immigration, they work in Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If you want to talk about the new visas fine, but as far as internal Immigration protocols, that is going to at the end of the day be dictated by Thai Immigration officers at their own discretion.