Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing discretionary waivers of Thai Visa requirements. We often discuss on this channel the fact that Thai Immigration Officers often have discretion to basically deny. We often talk about this in the context of denial. If they don't like something or they feel that evidence is insufficient, they will go ahead and deny or tell someone to come back later etc.

It is not very often that we discuss discretionary waivers of requirements. I am not talking about huge waivers of requirements. For example someone who is under 50 is not going to be able to get a waiver for a Retirement Visa; that is a major segment of the regulations associated with age. For example, let's take Retirement Visas again, things associated with pensions. If there is documentation there may be a little bit of a discrepancy, you may get an officer that may sort of just waive that and say "okay, everything is pretty much in order. It is slightly off but I am going to go ahead and exercise favourable discretion to just allow that to be extended." Now it is not a good idea to presume this or to in any way rely or think you can rely on them using discretion in your favour. Never ever do that. That is always a bad idea. The point of this video is to note that it can happen. 

For those who are somewhat familiar with the US Immigration system, there are what called I-601 waivers are and a favourable exercise of discretion may result in somebody who is otherwise unable to travel to the United States to be able to ultimately get a Visa. The same may be true here although it is not nearly as formalistic a process as the process in the US. I have seen it here recently with matters to pertaining to finances, especially for those who initially came to Thailand not necessarily thinking they were going to live here, who ended up staying, oftentimes in cases where they got stuck and there was documentation associated with their pensions or financial evidence didn't quite meet the threshold that they really needed to meet but it was rather minor issues and yeah you may be able to see an Immigration Officer go ahead and exercise discretion in your favor. So again don't count on it but it is possible and depending on the circumstances, you might see a situation where an Immigration Officer rules in your favour.