Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Cambodian Immigration. A lot of people have been talking. They have been kind of comparing Cambodia to Thailand. I don't think it is an apples to apples comparison. A lot of people have said, “yeah it is easier to get into Cambodia. It is this and that to deal with. It is easy to deal with.” From what I have heard from people yeah there are certain things that are easier; there are less requirements in certain ways. I know a lot of people get frustrated by the Thailand Pass, I have said many times, it is probably time to put down the Thailand Pass as a policy tool. Let’s probably put that aside so we can get some tourists back in here.

That being said, long story short, I don't think it is an apples to apples comparison and I also think people sometimes especially expats here in Thailand or they have come to Thailand, they can get kind of grouchy about Thailand. It is kind of odd. "Oh, this place does it better, that place does it better." Well maybe they do maybe they don't but all in all sometimes it is just not an apples to apples comparison. Meanwhile there is also this feeling that, "oh well Thailand really cracked down and other places are a little more liberal." Well not as you can tell I don't think.  

I was thinking of this and I thought of making this video when I read a recent article from ASEAN NOW, that's aseannow.com, the article is titled: Seems you need a Master's degree to handle Thai Immigration rules. Quoting directly: "Many neighboring countries have already canceled this discretion e.g., Cambodia is already telling overseas tourists, expats, or foreign workers that anyone without a valid Visa is in an overstay position and will be subjected to overstay fines or worse." So it sounds like they had kind of a similar, "COVID Visa" extension that is ending, and look they are getting serious again. Immigration across the board in this region, in my opinion has always been pretty serious but they are getting serious again and they are getting back to sort of the status quo ante policies. What we are looking at is Cambodia is going back there; overstay was a problem. If you overstay in Cambodia you can get into some pretty serious issues; you might not be able to get back in for a while and it looks like they are going back to that. So Thailand is not the only country in this region that has Immigration rules and they enforce them. Cambodia does too and it looks like we are starting to see them do similar things over there that they are doing here in Thailand.