Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Bank Statements associated with Thai O Marriage Visas. For those who are unaware, the O Marriage Visa, it is possible if you are legally married to a Thai national to maintain long-term status in Thailand under the O Visa category based on that marriage, so long as you meet certain Financial requirements notably it is 400,000 Baht maintained in a Thai Bank Account or 40,000 Baht per month in income. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Driving out the gangs. The thrust of that article goes a very different way than what we are going to talk about in this video. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail. First of all note, it's Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn who is being quoted in this article. That's the former Head of Immigration, now Deputy National Police Chief and he's making a lot of comments regarding Immigration. For those who have been around going back to 2017 and '18 you will know, this is big stuff. When Big Joke talks about Immigration, you probably want to listen. Quoting directly: "A lack of inspection of bank statements by Immigration Bureau Officers also leaves room for some foreigners to window-dress their bank accounts." So again, what he is talking about here is folks that may not necessarily have the money in their accounts at all times, these kinds of things. What we saw when Big Joke was the Head of Immigration here in Thailand was strict scrutiny of financial documentation associated with Retirement Visas, associated with Marriage Visas where they were like looking back a couple of months and then looking forward when the renewal happened; it was a lot of scrutiny. 

Now again, I want to be clear, I am not making this video to panic anyone; none of the rules have changed; none of the present protocols have changed but here we are, we have the former Head of Immigration, now Deputy National Police Chief in that same article, talking about he wants to amend the laws on Immigration in Thailand; talking about how the Immigration apparatus, the current state of play and why he is dissatisfied with that. When he is talking about these things, it is something to take note of. So bear in mind, if you are maintaining an O Marriage Visa utilizing bank balance for example as a reason for maintaining that status, be aware that we may see heightened scrutiny sometime in the relatively foreseeable future.