Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this suggests, we are discussing Key Red Flags that immigration officials at a given border checkpoint are going to be looking for when they're looking at entrants coming into Thailand. I'm just going to jump into this.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is, thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Phuket Immigration spells out 'visa-free' crackdown. Quoting directly, under the subheading PHUKET LEADS REFUSALS. "Nationwide, the Immigration Bureau has already refused entry to 2,900 people this year for suspicious patterns of travel." Again, these are not denials on "oh hey you were deported before”, or it's not the total denial of entry numbers; that's just for "suspicious travel", okay? I did a video I made contemporaneously with this one where there has been a real paradigm shift here in Thailand regarding Border Running and things. I have discussed the fact that 150 days in-country is now sort of triggering a mechanism whereby at the very least, heightened scrutiny gets applied, and maybe even denial of entry. So again, things are really shifting here with regard to this, and they are taking a much firmer stance regarding enforcement of Thai Immigration Law." Quoting further: "At Phuket International Airport alone, Immigration Officers have deported approximately 2,000 travelers who failed to meet entry criteria, said Pol. Col. Rasarin Thiraphatthanakun, Chief of Phuket Airport Immigration. Quote: "The threshold for initiating intensive screening is a total stay exceeding 150 days." - Now I have discussed that in another video. Yeah 150 days is now kind of the key sort of timing point at which they start looking at folks that aren't utilizing Non-immigrant visas to live here and start looking at visas like the Visa Exemption, the Tourist Visa, I would say even the Destination Thailand Visa because it is not a Non-immigrant Visa. Non-immigrant Visas are dictated and spelled out under the Immigration Act; this isn't one. This was purely a creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which was basically created as a gimmick and a political device for Paetongtarn Shinawatra in the last administration of this present Government. It sort of fits in this nebulous area.

I know people are upset about me sort of commenting on this, but I think long term get ready. DTV in a lot of ways is kind of, it's a better of both worlds insofar as it's not an exemption, it is actually a status, but it's a status that I think is going to be increasingly scrutinized. On top of that, the presumption is you are not supposed to be living in Thailand on that Visa; it's sort of like for these nomadic traveller types, hence the reason you can't get banking facilities on it. But long story short, what I'm trying to say here is this 150 days pertains to those that aren't in the Non-immigrant categories. I think what's happening here is you are starting to see a new division if you will being created in the minds of Immigration Authorities where once purely under the Immigration Act of '79, there was a bifurcation and analysis between those who had Permanent Residence under the Act versus those who had Non-immigrant visas - there's a differentiation between them - and then folks that are sort of over here in the Tourist category which that sort of third rail if you will is the one we are talking about here with regard to the analysis on whether or not you have exceeded 150 days utilizing Border Runs and extensions etc. So there's sort of a spectrum now of analysis with regard to what type of visa category you have and how much scrutiny is going to be applied to that visa category at an immigration checkpoint. 

That being said, quoting further: "She emphasised that once the 150-day marker is reached - either through repeat entries or a combination of stays and extensions - travellers will be interviewed." So again, in any of those categories, I think it's possible you could see interviews. Tourist Visa, Visa Exempt and I would put DTV in there. I know other people, they all will "Why?" Well because it's nebulous; it wasn't created by consensus properly. Internal Immigration, specifically the Interior Ministry which is responsible for the Immigration Officers at the checkpoints at the borders here in Thailand, no consensus was garnered from those folks. Long-term, these visas last five years ostensibly, okay. And again, it was real nebulous as to how many entries you get, and how much total time you could use. I remember when they first came out with it they said like basically the way it was presented was like only about a year and a half within a 5-year period might be utilized; it was not designed to live in Thailand. That being said, quoting further: "Whether they are then refused entry depends on their answers." Quoting further: "If suspicious behaviour is detected, deportation is possible," he added." Quoting further: "The airport has listed its key red flags as: "Signs the traveller is actually working in Thailand;" Yeah, that's a big one. Quoting further: "Inability to answer basic questions about travel plans; 

No clear itinerary; Lack of funds required by law;" - Yeah, if you recall going back, this is probably going back down now to about 2015, I think even before I started doing videos, back when I was doing a written blog, there was actually this moment where there was a massive clamp down on those who were using proper Tourist Visas; there used to be a way of getting like 3 Tourist Visas to get 270 days, and then people would kind of knock around outside the country for a couple weeks and try to get another exemption, get back in and then restart the process again. There was a time that worked, up until about '14, '15 - no it was before 2014, I remember that. It was like late 2013, going into early 2014, before the events of May and the change in Government, Immigration was starting to clamp down at that time on Tourist Visas and again money was an issue in that circumstance. You needed to show I think it was 20 or 25 thousand Baht. Oftentimes people had to travel with it on them in cash going through checkpoints in order to get on through. So it looks like that's still kind of hanging around in the ether as a requirement. Quoting further: "No valid return ticket;" Yeah that's another one. Again if you can otherwise meet the criteria, Non-immigrant Visas are way better, because you don't a lot of the return ticket requirements. Quoting further: "Suspicious demeanour; frequent border crossings." Again, Border Running is becoming increasingly scrutinized here in Thailand for a variety of different reasons. I don't expect that's going to change any anytime soon.

Now that being said where does this sort of leave us? - Well at the end of the day, immigration is heightening both their scrutiny and enforcement protocols associated with Immigration. Again if you're in Non-immigrant Visa categories folks in a standard Retirement Visa, Business Visa, O Marriage Visa - with or without a Work Permit - again, you folks I wouldn't worry too greatly. Folks that are in some of the more nebulous categories, DTV down also into the Tourist Visas, the Exemption status etc., a little more nebulous. I think DTV is on a little safer ground compared to for example trying to live here on exemptions, but again there's like a spectrum of analysis now because we've got all these new visas, they have just seemed to have popped up like mushrooms it seems like, but here we are and you have got to look at each one differently and each one kind of falls in a different place on the analysis spectrum. How this all sort of plays out remains to be seen, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.