Transcript of the above video: 

So this is a hot button issue right now in expat land; there's a lot of talk on it. I just did a video on this that went up as of the time of this video this morning here in Bangkok regarding this issue of wait a minute, are extensions of status not going to be allowed anymore?’’ That is not the case, let's be clear on that. It is still possible to extend status here in Thailand of various types; I'll get into the details on that here in a moment. But yeah, there have been a lot of an announcements in the past week, and you have to understand this in the broader context of things. One, the past summer we have had this continuing sort of if you will simmering conflict with Cambodia. That has had an impact on Border Policy. As I have discussed in other videos, there has been a major paradigm shift in Thailand with regard to issues associated with immigration; they're taking it increasingly seriously. Coupling that with the fact that there is increasing interest in deterring international scammers to Thailand as best they can, and on top of it, the fact that generally speaking, the overall policy being maintained by this current administration here in Thailand is one of deterring foreigners from engaging in various illegal businesses in Thailand, not to mention businesses which are restricted to Thais, we are in a situation where immigration is in something of a state of flux. 

Now unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation out there. Some of it is pushed out there if you will pushed unintentionally; it's done with good intentions or as I would say in good faith, while other stuff out there I wonder what its intention is and also I often wonder about whether or not folks are out there trying to sensationalize to get clicks and things of that nature. Which by the way for those who wonder why I run the channel the way I run it, without being monetized and things, I don't want to run around sensationalizing in order to beef up view counts or whatever in order to make some more money, because I've learned over the years that the algorithm will, whether you intend it to or not, it will lead you to that sort of conclusion at some point because yeah, at the end of the day if you monetize your channel you're going to chase views because you get more money. That's not my purpose in making these videos. I'm trying to make these videos to provide as much clarification and information to folks as I can, especially in the expat community, and especially regarding matters that are in the public discourse but it's just not fully if you will fleshed out with regard to the analysis. So let me jump in here. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Immigration Bureau tightens rules for foreign tourist visas as the country feels the heat on scammers. So, the point of the title, Truncation of Thai Visa Exemption Extension, everybody needs to understand what we're talking about here first. We are talking about, it looks to me like we are talking about Visa Exemption status. These are people that have a passport that allows them to enter Thailand and gain either a 30, a 60, or in some cases a 90-day duration of status stamp into Thailand; a stamp exempting them from visa status, but granting them lawful status for a certain amount of time as exempt from needing a visa. So we're talking about Visa Exemptions. These are different than actual visas, a proper Tourist Visa issued from a Thai Embassy or Consulate abroad, different thing from a Visa Exemption; it's also different from Visa-on-arrival. So, you cannot do a one-size-fits-all analysis regarding extensions because there are multiple different types of visas tourists may be coming into Thailand on. I understand that this may be confusing for some: exemption versus actual Tourist Visa, versus Visa-on-arrival etc., but it's important to parse these things out to understand what the Government is talking about when they make these sort of proclamations regarding future ongoing policy. Quoting directly, again Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com. “Thailand tightens foreign tourist visa rules as authorities crackdown on scams and illegal stays. Visa extensions are now limited, border runs targeted, repeat offenders face entry bans, while genuine tourists on short visits remain largely unaffected." That's a big thing to take away from this video as well. Hey folks, if you are coming into Thailand's high season and you're staying here for 27 days or 10 days or 14 days or whatever, and you have never been here, don't even worry about any of this stuff. If you're on one of the passports that's visa exempt, you're just going to fly through Immigration, I'm here to tell you. With some exceptions, I'm sure that's always the case. But the vast majority of people that are tourists coming in a Thailand don't even worry about this. 

Now who is this for? Well it's the sort of nomad folks, the sort of folks that come and go from Thailand or like to stay here long term and just sort of use whatever visa they can use that's available to them in the moment. You folks need to be aware of what's going on with this especially if you are using, again exemption status. Quoting further: "Thailand has slammed the brakes on foreign tourist visas as of last Thursday amid rising concerns over border security and illicit scam compounds in neighbouring countries, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos." Well, that's probably true as the Thai Embassies in those countries probably have tightened up Tourist Visa issuance to nationals of those countries and even Tourist Visas issued through the Thai Embassies in those Consular jurisdictions. 

Now that being said, understand, Tourist Visa is again a different thing than Exemption and I think these two things are being conflated, and I think in the case of Thai Examiner, as usual they do a pretty good job of trying to suss this out, but I think they may have conflated a few things at once here in their coverage of this, which I'll get to in a moment. And let me be clear, I'm not doing this from the standpoint of critiquing or trying to get a “gotcha” on the Thai Examiner, that's not my purpose here. I just want to clarify this stuff so people understand what's going on here. Quoting further: "Under the new rules, foreigners can get only a 7-day extension on their second visa application at an Immigration Bureau Office." Now let's be clear. To use the term "visa application", "7-day extension on their second visa applications at an immigrant Bureau Office"; again a seven-day extension, it would depend on the Visa we're talking about but I think what they mean is, so if you arrive in Thailand on a US passport, you get stamped for 60 days. Under the current rules as they sit, you could then toward the end of that 60 days, go to immigration and request a 30-day extension on that initial 60 days. Now the way things have run heretofore, and I'll get to the analysis on this may have changed, if you were to do a Border Run and come back in, which under a Decree that I think was promulgated back in 2018, in any given calendar year, Immigration is directed to presume that they should allow entry to anyone coming in on a Visa Exempt passport at least twice per year. So that's sort of the baseline minimum, that if you have a Visa Exempt passport - a US passport, you get 60 days; if you come in on a Russian passport, I think you get 90 days, which I'll get to the conflation of the analysis on all this in a moment because different nationalities get different exempt status upon arrival and that changes the analysis in terms of how much truncation is going on, how many total days you can remain in Thailand, which I'll get to in a moment. The point I'm trying to make with this video however is what we are talking about here is the extension of exemption status from immigration. Now you can call that a visa because any stamp in a passport, the way envelopes when you're mailing something are stamped, a passport is actually visaed, that's actually a word, v-i-s-a-e-d, you actually visa a passport the way you stamp an envelope for mailing, yes you could say that's a visa, but what is the underlying status. It is an exemption status with an extension of that exemption status. So the way I'm reading this, if you had used 160-day exemption, or in the case of like for example Russians they get 90 days, you will get an initial 30-day extension if you request extension in Thailand but getting to this further. "Under the new rules, foreigners can get only a 7-day extension on their second visa application at an Immigration Bureau Office." So what I think they mean is, then if you do a Border Run, come back in, and whatever status you get coming back in, 90 days, 60 days you will only get 7 days allowed to add to that on the second time you request extension here in-country. That's the thing to understand with that. Quoting further: “And authorities are cracking down on so-called ‘border runs’ with anyone trying this more than twice risking out right denial of entry.” Well as I get into in another video made contemporaneously with this one, you're always risking denial of entry at any border checkpoint. It's not mandatory than immigration let people in twice a year. That needs to be understood. It's a presumption that is imposed upon them by Immigration Policy which emanates from again an Emergency Decree that I think came out in 2018 if I recall, which stated that the presumption is Visa Exempt passport holders get two entries per year via any Border Checkpoint without a lot of hassle. Past that, discretion is in order, further scrutiny is in order. It doesn't mean it's presumed that you don’t get in past 2 stamps a year. I know many people that work in the region and things and come and go all the time, no problem, depending on circumstances. But if you're trying to live in Thailand utilizing Visa Exemption status or stay here, like cobble together 6 months or cobble together 240 days if you get 90 days exemption on arrival, that's going to be difficult. What they are saying is immigration is scrutinizing that behaviour for a variety of different reasons. 

And I want to get into Thai Examiner's analysis of this real quick. Again not to be hypercritical, but hopefully to provide clarification. Quoting directly: "Under the updated rules, foreign tourist visas may only be extended twice." - and again, that is a bit of a misnomer. A Tourist Visa is something that is actually issued by an Embassy abroad, and what I think that these announcements primarily pertain to is Visa Exemption status just issued at the border checkpoint to people that hold a passport that Thai Policy says we will grant a Visa Exemption to. Quoting further: "First, extensions will last 30 days. Second, they will last seven days." - that's the important thing to take away. All the rest of Thai Examiner's analysis I think they are conflating folks that may have 90 days on arrival, versus folks that have 60 days on arrival, versus folks that have 30 days on arrival. The point is, the distillate to take away from this video if you're using the two exemption entries per year, the new policy appears to be on the first time you seek extension in-country, you'll get your 30 days. On the second time, you're only getting seven. Regardless of what the total exemption status is your passport accords you, so for example Americans get 60 days upon entry, British as well; I think most of Europe gets that. For whatever reason, I think Russia and Kazakhstan back as we were ending COVID, they made a policy that said they are going to get 90 days exemption status on arrival. Again, which plays into this analysis further. "Therefore, visitors from 93 countries previously allowed 120 days now face a maximum of 97 days." Well that's on the second, first of all you would have to be granted 90 days exemption on arrival in order to get 30 days extension to get you to the 120. Not everybody gets that. As I said, US passport holders currently get 60, so they get 30 on top of their 60. A Russian passport holder would get 30 on top of 90 out to 120. Again, so the distillate to take away from this is first extensions will last 30 days, second, they will last 7; that's the thing to take away. And again, I'm presuming based on everything I have read, this pertains to Visa Exemption not proper visas themselves. It's possible to get a Tourist Visa still, again depending on the Embassy or Consulate you are using and none of this applies to Non-immigrant visas. That's the other thing to take away from this video. If you are on a B Visa, O Visa, Retirement Visa, Marriage Visa even Education Visas for example, this analysis doesn't apply; those are in the non-immigrant category. We're talking purely about Visa Exemptions, Visas-on-Arrival and Tourist Visas and even then, Tourist Visas themselves are not the same things as Visa Exemptions. 

Finally again just to round back, the thing to understand, if you are using Exemption status, you just come in, using your passport and getting whatever they give you at the airport, the first time you try to extend that in-country you will only get 30-days, well you will get 30 days. The second time you try to extend that - for whatever your exemption status is - you'll only get 7, so hence the reason for the title to this video -Truncation of Extension of Immigration Exemption Status - that's what we are talking about here.