Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question "is there a “one destination” Visa scheme being created for ASEAN?" Now ASEAN in my mind, I should say ASEAN Visas in my mind, I think of the so-called "travel bubble" scheme when I think of this. What was the "travel bubble"? All during the pandemic, all during the Emergency Decree, they kept talking about: oh we are going to set up "travel bubbles" where certain countries will have a corridor into Thailand, where they don't have to go through all the Draconian, and now we know, completely unnecessary "Public Health" protocols that were necessary at that time to enter Thailand. The reason I liken it to that was these "travel bubbles" never came to fruition. I talked about it a lot because the Press talked about it a lot and they just never happened. An ASEAN Visa has been similar to that. It's just been like that over the course of at least a decade that I can recall and I think it has been more like a dozen years I have been hearing about a possible unified ASEAN Visa. I still think it is relatively unlikely for a variety of different reasons most notably, it would require the harmonization of a number of different Immigration apparatuses and unlike other things like business or tax, harmonizing Immigration policy I think is virtually impossible without creating something akin to the EU where it is almost one country, in all but name, and I don't think ASEAN is ever going to get to that point. 

That said, I could see them creating some kind of Visa not unlike the so-called APEC card where yes each country could issue one and then the other countries would recognize it; maybe that could be a possible viable option. Again, there are multiple ways it could be done but up to now, and again they are talking about it, again I will get into that here in a minute, but up to now we haven't actually seen this come to fruition so that is worth pointing out. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 200 more Immigration Officers to help over Chinese New Year. The thrust of that article goes a very different direction. I urge those watching this video, go check out that article in detail. I am going to quote this one excerpt for the purposes of this video. Quoting directly: "A new "one destination" scheme - a collaborative policy proposed by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin during a recent ASEAN meeting - would allow tourists to travel to any country in the region adding more economic value and spurring tourism." Yeah, I don't think anybody argues with that. A sort of Pan-ASEAN  or at least Pan-mainland Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand even Malaysia, Visa, sort of one unified Visa for all those places or at least a Visa again akin to the APEC card where all of the jurisdictions will recognize it, if only maybe for a short period of time like a 90-day Visa that allows you entry into any one of those or all of those countries during a 90-day period; I can see where that could be beneficial. Again, as I brought up earlier in this video, this has been something they have talked about for a long time so what I would say is don't hold your breath on seeing this actually come to fruition quickly but I do think it is very possible it could happen. It may take some time but ultimately we may see an actual sort of Pan-ASEAN Visa promulgated here in Southeast Asia.