Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing US Visa Waivers. Now what are we talking about here? First off, there's sort of a disambiguation that needs to be done here. People oftentimes conflate the waiver with what is called an I-601 Waiver. I-601 Waivers deal with folks who have some sort of ground of inadmissibility in their case so they have applied, for example for a K-1 Visa, they have applied for an Immigrant Spouse Visa, like a CR-1 or an IR-1 Visa and they have been denied due to possible prior criminal activity, maybe a possible prior overstay. There is a remedy if you have been denied under certain circumstances for a US Visa and that's called a Waiver, specifically it is an I-601 Waiver. 

That said, that is not what we are talking about in this video; we are not talking about I-601 waivers, we are talking about the US Visa waiver program. What this is, it's the program that allows certain nationalities to enter the United States without the need to obtain a Visa before travelling to the United States. So if you for example have a British passport and you want to do a two week vacation to the United States, generally speaking you don't need to go ahead and get a Tourist Visa, you can just travel to the USA. Now since the Bush Administration system, we have had to deal with what some refer to as the back-door Visa which is ESTA (the Electronic System for Travel Authorization) which is an online portal that one has to fill out even in the Visa Waiver Program in order to enter the United States even without a Visa. So in a way it is kind of like a pre-vetting process not unlike what we called Certificates of Entry here in Thailand during COVID; it's very similar to that system in my opinion, the ESTA system. As we discussed in other videos, Europe now is going to bring online find a system very similar to ESTA for the European Union which should be coming online my understanding sometime between now and 2025. But long story short the question raised is should Thailand be included in the Visa Waiver program. Honestly as somebody who is a big believer in the Thai-American Alliance and someone who is an American by birth, who has travelled to Thailand, became a Thai citizen, I think it would overall be a good thing. Now I do know there are folks out there that worry about so-called ‘Robin Hoods’ that would utilize the Visa Waiver Program to travel to the USA in order to live there; I certainly understand the concern there. But long story short, it has not been my experience that that is a very frequent thing that occurs within the Thai Community especially the Thai Community that would be looking to travel to the United States. 

Now that said, changing bureaucratic protocols can be something of a daunting task so I am not overly optimistic that we will see major changes with respect to Thailand being part of the Visa Waiver Program but I am hopeful, and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as that situation evolves.