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As the title of this video suggests we're asking the question are Thais who have US Visas a burden on the American taxpayer? What are we talking about here? I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Khao Sod English, that is khaosodenglish.com, the article is titled: US Pauses Immigrant Visas for Thais, 74 other Countries. Quoting directly: "Bangkok - 27 (I think they meant March not Mach - I don't think we are traveling at hypersonic speeds into April) 27 March 2026" and I have talked about this in other videos this whole visa pause but I think it's interesting because Khao Sod English is talking about this again here at the end of March. We're sitting here at the beginning of April, so I think revisiting this is probably worthwhile. Quoting directly: "The US Embassy in Bangkok has announced that the U.S Department of State has paused all Immigrant Visa issuances to nationals of 75 countries, including Thailand, effective 21 January, 2026." Quoting further: "According to the U.S. Department of State, the pause effects countries "whose immigrants have a high rate of collecting public assistance at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers." Quoting further: "Applicants can still submit applications and attend interviews, but no visas will be issued during the pause. Exceptions apply for dual nationals with valid passports from countries not on the list and children being adopted by American families. Some cases may also receive National Interest Exceptions under Presidential Proclamation 10998. The policy is part of a broader review to ensure immigrants from high-risk countries do not unlawfully rely on U.S. welfare programs or become a public charge. The move aligns with guidance from President Donald Trump, who emphasized that immigrants should be financially self-sufficient and not be a burden on American taxpayers."

I did videos on this going back into January. We were trying to set interviews for certain cases that were in our US Immigration unit; they were clients dealing with US Immigration back in December, and they weren't issuing any interview dates until April. Now I've been in China for the last week so starting this week I'll be back in the office and dealing with case load again. I haven't been able to be in much of any communication due to the great Chinese Firewall and a bunch of other issues associated with the trip up to China. But long story short, yeah, I'm back on this week; we will be dealing with all this fun stuff. I'm curious to see the outcomes of a couple of cases that have been set for interview while I was gone, and are set for April, and I'll be updating folks on this channel as I have further information that pertains to those cases, so stay tuned if you're interested. 

But long story short, it's this notion that as discussed going back in January when we first saw this information, I knew something was sort of on the horizon when I couldn't get anything scheduled for like 3 months, 4 months back in December, so it looked to me like something was happening. Then the Trump Visa “ban”, it was initially called a "ban", then it became a "pause" but Thailand was added to the list of countries that this pause pertained to. I have got to be honest with you, as a person who has lived in Thailand for 18 years, as an American-born person who became a Thai, I have got to ask the question, exactly what burden, I mean can anybody show me statistics where Thais have disproportionately gone to the United States and become a direct burden on the American taxpayer? Is there some disproportionate amount of Thais who have become a public charge in the United States? I'd be curious to know because I have processed hundreds of cases over the near 20 years I've been practicing law - well it is actually it will be 20 years this year I've been practicing - but I have been out in Southeast Asia for 18, I mean and I have processed K-1 Visa cases, US Immigrant cases like the IR-1 or the CR-1 Visa, I have processed through a few K-3 Visas over my years, quite a few actually, and I have never noticed that the Thais are particularly interested in becoming a Public Charge in the United States. A lot of this I think stems from a paradigm within maybe it's State Department, maybe it's just American policy making in general, which thinks that everybody on Earth is trying to come over to America and get on welfare. I don't think, again there are places where that could be said to be true; I don't think Thailand is one of those places. In fact if you look at the statistics and the amount of Thais that are even trying to immigrate to the US, it's actually pretty low compared to other nationalities. Thais don't really like to leave Thailand; they like to live in Thailand. I mean the name is on the door; Thailand, it's their land, it is where they like to live. But I have also assisted in processing things like E-2 cases, and L-1 Visas - employment-based immigration for the United States over the years - and same deal. I haven't seen a lot of people that are trying to like run over to America solely for the purpose of scamming the US taxpayer. It's just not in the M.O. out here. On top of it, Thailand is America's oldest ally in East Asia, Asia in general, oldest continuous ally. Our Treaty goes back almost 200 years; we're coming up on a 192 years of Treaty relationship and over 200 years of friendly relations between the two countries culminating in its most recent iteration being the US-Thai Treaty of Amity. And the Thais grant Americans fairly exceptional benefits under that Treaty compared to other nationalities, most notably Americans can gain national treatment in doing business in Thailand. They can own their companies outright if their company is certified under the US-Thai Treaty of Amity. 

So I question whether or not this is the best policy overall, based on the overall relationship between our two countries, and I find the notion that Thais specifically are running to America to jump on public charge or to jump on welfare and become a public charge a bit spurious, because just in my experience, I've never seen that as being a major Modus Operandi among these people. That is not really what they're trying to do. They are trying to get into the United States legally, legitimately, in order to live there for legal legitimate purposes and a lot of times, especially where I've seen a lot of cases where it's a fiancé(e) that moves to the United States to be with their American counterpart, or even a spouse, once that American retires, a lot of times they like to leave America and return to Thailand and retire here. So if anything from my experience, it's quite the opposite. They go over there, they are not a public charge, and they actually end up leaving eventually. 

That said this policy is what it is and we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.