Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai E-Visas. I did a number of videos on this a while back but I don't think I put a fine enough point on it. Yeah in a very real sense Thailand has really substantially altered the way in which they deal with Visa processing and they moved to kind of an E-Visa system for those who are looking to come in from abroad on a Visa be it a Business Visa, an O Visa, even a Tourist Visa; there is this whole E-Visa process.

I recently saw a comment on our channel regarding this and I thought it was worth making a video on. Video Idea: “I just applied for my O-A Visa", so that is a Retirement Visa but this has some general implications. Quoting further: "I watched a hundred videos on the process and none of it was of value because they switched to the E-Visa where everything must be sent in electronically. One frustration I had was not knowing which forms to put where. Also it requires 3 downloads of insurance documents but the titles they ask for don't actually match the titles of the docs from my insurance company. Lastly after you click submit, the system issues you a case number but it doesn't take you automatically to a payment page." Yeah in my opinion the entire system is a bit buggy.

The other thing is I don't know why and quite frankly I don't really like the trend but we have seen this, anybody who has watched my videos regarding the National Visa Center, this trend toward doing everything via uploads and online processing, it is not particularly helpful to the general public. I suspect it is very organized from the standpoint of the Bureaucracy that deals with this and I have to be honest, either in a US or a Thai context I am just not all that sympathetic. I do understand, I have talked to folks who are Foreign Service Officers in the United States Government, I have even talked to people that work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Thailand and yes it is frustrating to deal with paperwork; it is frustrating to deal with the public who are not quite sure how to deal with all the paperwork but that is what the Bureaucracy is for. Let's be clear, the Bureaucracy's purpose is in the case of the Consular sections of various Embassies and Consulates be they Thai or American, whatever or anybody that is their purpose is to process Visa documentation. Not all of it is going to be perfect. Creating this system where it is very cumbersome to deal with and it is all done E-Visa, online whatever you want to call it, yeah I get that it may be helping streamline things internally for the Bureaucracy but that is not really the purpose of the Bureaucracy. It is very circular reasoning if you think about it that the system should be designed to make the Bureaucracy more efficient. The Bureaucracy is the system. The public are the people who are dealing with trying to get a visa and getting into this feedback loop it is a real problem. The reason I bring it up in a Thai context, Thailand is heavily dependent on tourism and I think by requiring folks to jump through all these hoops and deal with a lot of stuff that is quite frankly cumbersome at best to say the least, let's call it that, it is not doing anything any favours for the Thai Tourism sectors. So something to think about. 

This video became actually kind of more generalized than I thought it would be. I started talking a little bit more about US Immigration than I thought I initially would but the analogies are there. The National Visa Center is in my opinion a quagmire nightmare for these kind of issues and it is looking like the Thai Immigration system especially in terms of the Visa processing abroad, seems to be going this way and I think we really should rethink it because if we want to encourage tourists, dealing with a digitized seemingly Soviet type system is not the way to attract folks who just want to come to Thailand to relax.