Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing indirect in my opinion, for lack of a better term "screening" methods for foreign nationals looking to come into Thailand or foreign nationals who may be looking specifically it looks like retiring in Thailand. What are we talking about here?

Well, I was recently reading the print edition of the Bangkok Post and this was Thursday October 21, 2021. I have made another video contemporaneously which, this whole article and the article is titled: Health Cover Perks for Foreigners. This whole article I found very surreal to read; it is almost like it was written in a kind of Newspeak, something akin to George Orwell's “Nineteen Eighty Four’s” Newspeak. Again Health Cover Perks for Foreigners. The theme of the article was about what we have discussed is these new requirements associated was insurance for O-A Retirement Visas but it is kind of presented as a perk, as a sort of a benefit for foreign nationals here on an O-A Visa. I thought that was a little bit odd to frame it that way. Leaving that aside, more to the point for this video, was this excerpt from the very end of the article. Quoting directly: "Taking out health insurance from foreign countries will also help reduce the issue of Visa extensions which also helps to screen foreigners traveling to Thailand." So again, and I don't know if the article itself is intentionally vague because we are still kind of working this out, because we are. This hasn't been fully implemented, as we have talked about in other videos these rules are coming online but as a practical matter you are really not going to see them really start to hit people until about a year from now, presumably. Again I just want to read this again: "Taking out health insurance from foreign countries will also help reduce the issue of Visa extensions which also helps to screen foreigners traveling to Thailand."

We have discussed this in other videos. There is a new Immigration Chief here in Thailand and he seems to have made it almost a keynote, a keystone to him coming in, the issue of collecting data on foreigners. I made other videos contemporaneously with this one where we discussed that at more length but this whole notion of screening foreigners and collecting data, it seems to be of an increasing concern to certain folks within the Immigration apparatus. I don't know exactly what this means in the sense that I can't put myself completely put myself in the shoes or the mindset of the folks that are making these decisions and that are implementing policy but I will say it seems a little odd. This notion of screening, well that's the point of the Visa process. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is there to screen applicants for Visas; that is what they have always done. To add these new layers of requirements to enhance screening or “indirect screening” seems a little odd to me to say the least and I am wondering what the end goal is with respect to that. 

Now as we have discussed in other videos, the overall policy paradigm within Immigration has become much more one of law enforcement and less of a paradigm of just administration; letting people in the country, processing them in etc. I am kind of hoping we get back to a more administrative mindset especially as I think less emphasis on data collection and screening is probably going to be more conducive to attracting tourists back to the Kingdom of Thailand.