Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing 45-day visa exemption stamps. So as we discussed right when high season was getting going and we finally were basking in the light at the end of the tunnel with the Emergency Decree from the COVID situation going back to March of 2020, the Immigration Authorities, various policymakers here in Thailand decided to go ahead and extend the exemption stamp time period for status here in Thailand. So what are we talking about? 

Certain nationalities, folks that hold certain types of passports for example Americans, British and there are folks mostly from the EU, I think Russia gets this too, the folks that hold this passport, if they come into Thailand they get an automatic Visa Exemption. It is not a Visa, a lot of people think it's a visa-on-arrival. It isn't, it's a Visa exemption stamp; they are exempt from Visa status for a certain period of time. Now going back decades, pretty much into the mist of time, anybody I know can remember you are looking at a situation where they were issuing 30-day exemption stamps but I think in an effort to kind of goose tourism a little bit and basically just provide further time for people coming into the country, in October they, I think it was October if I remember correctly, or the end of October, they temporarily extended the exemption stamp time period. So they basically said okay it's no longer 30 days, it is 45 days when you arrive. We are going to give you that at the airport in Visa Exempt status. 

Now I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment from our channel or on our channel I should say. Quoting directly: "Have you heard on whether or not they are going to extend the automatic 15-day extension on top of the 30-day visa-on-arrival for a total of 45-day stay for US tourists or is this going to end on March 31st and go back to the just the normal 30-day visa-on-arrival?" Again, it is not a visa-on-arrival, to be clear. That is actually a different thing; that is a term of art, it means something different. However, it is a Visa exemption and I understand and I don't mean to be sort of unnecessarily semantic but yeah we don't know yet. The short answer to that question is, I don't know the answer to that. We haven't quite gotten there. It doesn't appear the policy makers have really been looking at that. If you are asking my opinion I think it would be a good idea. I think I actually the 45-day Visa exemption is probably pretty much all benefit with not a lot of drawback that I can really see to Thailand in any meaningful sense by giving people an extra couple of weeks just on arrival in exemption status. I think it will definitely help tourism; I think it will continue to help tourism and frankly anything we can do going into low season, which for those who are unaware yeah, sort of the back end of the year basically. Oftentimes we will see sort of a spike in tourism over the Songkran holiday, the Thai New Year holiday, then kind of after that it is what I sometimes call the doldrums going into summers here because that is just not sort of the peak travel time for coming to Thailand. So do I think it would be a good idea? Yes. Has it been announced that it is going to be extended? No. Will we keep you updated on this channel as that situation evolves? Yes of course.