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Future Long Stay Tourists May Have Trouble Entering Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Tourist Visas and tourists coming to Thailand and some recent information that was kind of buried in a few different sources of information that I came across that I think is rather relevant and that people should be aware of moving forward especially for those who are coming to Thailand to get a 30 day stamp on arrival; the so-called Visa Exemption Stamp, or coming into Thailand on a Tourist Visa.  

So what are we talking about here? Well in a recent article from the Thaiger, that's the thaiger.com. The title of the article is: “Easier Faster and More Watertight”: Surachate's Vision for Immigration. Quoting directly and this was what I found important. There is a great deal more in this article. I urge those that are watching this video to check this article out directly but just to quote directly a tiny piece here. "Better screening of visitors to Thailand is part of new proposals including the Advanced Passenger Processing System that is being rolled out over the next year.” I had read in another article and take this with a grain of salt because I don't have the actual article.  I tried to go back and find it but I can't seem to find it. I have been digging around for it.  If I do find it so I can confirm it, I'll make another video. But I had also seen specifically where the APPS System, the Advanced Passenger Processing System, was previously mentioned in something online that I saw and they basically said “those without an onward ticket to another country outside of Thailand that would comport with their tourism schedule or their tourism itinerary in Thailand, would not be permitted to board a carrier to come into Thailand.” Let me be clear. The APPS System, which we have done another video specifically on that; you can go to the search function in our channel and go ahead and just click APPS, all capitalization, the APPS system precludes folks from getting on a plane to come to Thailand, if an individual is deemed inadmissible to Thailand. This can be checked via the passenger manifest abroad and digitally and this is done over the internet, it is done online, if that's deemed to be the case then that individual will not even be permitted to get on the airplane to come into Thailand. It is a very similar scenario to those who were part of the travel ban imposed by the Administration in the United States who may have been admissible depending on your interpretation of the law, but they were just sort of summarily rejected for being allowed onto an air carrier because the air carrier that is informed by the receiving country that that receiving country is not going to accept that individual that air carrier could incur penalties not least of which being, they have got to go ahead and transfer that individual elsewhere if nothing else. 

So APPS is a new system and for those who are tourists coming in, in the past it was mostly used against, and I've seen this be the case, against individuals who had a prior criminal records either abroad or in Thailand, but now it appears that, and in my opinion I think is fairly likely, we are going to see a tightening of regulations pertaining to tourists coming into the Kingdom, especially those who cannot show an intention to go ahead and move along and leave Thailand at some point after arriving for tourism purposes.