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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing online extension of Thai Business Visas. Major news the past few weeks has been the online extensions; Visa extensions are going to be possible online. People can process those on the internet shortly or at least according to Thai Immigration they announced that they are doing a pilot program here in Bangkok where they are going to allow extensions of visas through an online portal. 

Now that being said, it's our understanding at least from now, this is primarily pertaining to Tourist and Visa exemption status and does not pertain to Thai Business Visas especially standard Thai Business Visas at the present time. What are we talking about here? Well your standard Thai Business Visa application, I mean the paperwork looks like darn near a phone book. It's quite a bit of paperwork associated with processing those types of extensions and presently that online portal does not have the ability to do that. Now it's not outside the realm of possibility to think one of these days soon it might but at least for now it does not and I don't suspect it's going to be possible to do this kind of thing online anytime in a relatively near future. And honestly, especially in a Business Visa context, online visa extension processing kind of scares me a little bit and it spooks me because I have dealt with an online system in the United States at least in as limited a capacity as I possibly can because it's terrible. When these bureaucracies go online and digitize it becomes in my opinion, far less accountable than it ever was which that it was pretty low level accountability in many ways, I am not saying they are not accountable but anybody that has ever dealt with an Immigration office, when you are a foreign national in a foreign country knows that you don't have a lot of standing at the end of the day. You don't have any right to be in that country so however they process you is however they process you.

People are people and when they are dealing with someone in person, they are going to be if only a matter of degree less dismissive than they are going to be when dealing with something online. I just think that those who are a sort of rejoicing at the notion of online Visa extensions here in Thailand, take a minute to think about it. I can tell you horror stories about the National Visa Center in the United States and you might want to rethink that at the end of the day. That being said, overall if it improves efficiency and helps people do business easier here in Thailand I think those are all good things. Again to reiterate, I don't expect this is going to happen tomorrow but we will keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.