Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Honorary Consulates as well as well as Consulates-General. I am making this video, I have actually made another video you are very similar to this one some years ago but this is coming up in the context we were discussing there was information posted on the Thai Consulate in Los Angeles' website regarding the possible increase of financial requirements associated with Retirement Visas.

The reason for this video is I got a lot of feedback, some of it negative and some of it was negative but it came from a genuine place and I actually got a couple of different messages of people that once it was explained to them and what I am going to explain here they said, "oh hey, I didn't think of that. Sorry for kind of coming off a little strong." When I put this stuff up I saw some correspondence that said, "Hey, Consulates are not the same as Embassies. They are run by oftentimes old folks that are, they are a person that was appointed and they are a local and they may not even have a major operation. They are just kind of an Ad Hoc representative of the sending nation. It is not a real organized operation." Yeah, that is true for Honorary Consulates, especially Thai Honorary Consulates and I have done videos on this before. Some of the folks that have been and we have dealt with their Honorary Consuls in the United States, they can be quite characters. Unfortunately, some of my favorite folks that we dealt with passed away over the years in different states but long story short this trend was occurring before we saw this situation with this pandemic but yeah the Thai Immigration apparatus was phasing out the Visa functions of Honorary Consulates, and they are no longer as a practical matter, at least in the United States, issuing visas. 

Now there may be some Honorary Consulates in certain jurisdictions that are still doing things probably because there is no alternative but for the most part presume Honorary Consulates, although they may still exist, may not be a viable option with respect to visa application. Again this will probably differ by country; I am primarily talking about the US here. 

Now back to the point at hand where we were talking about this. I think somebody thought that they had erroneously posted something on a website; it wasn't true but it was somebody that was in a sense kind of amateur Consul, not a professional, not a full-time Consul. Well Consulates-General as is the case for the Thai Consulate in Los Angeles are not Honorary Consulates. These are staffed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Personnel from Thailand and they have rank under the Vienna Convention. They have Consular rank oftentimes although they may depending on their circumstances have diplomatic rank as well, not to go too far into that side of things.

Long story short for example the Thai Consul in Los Angeles that is a Consulate-General and that is a Consulate that is operating directly under the direction of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So to sort of think of them as "well maybe you don't need to listen to that because they are not as up to speed on things", that is not really the way to look at it. Consulates-General are much like Embassies. They are, I hesitate to say direct because I guess they are all direct in one sense, but they are the professional cadre of Consular Officers and diplomatic staff stationed in the United States in this case I am talking about the US, but stationed abroad and sent directly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand.