Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Visa Conversions. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 100 cops to be charged over illegal visas. Quoting directly: "The 110 IB Officers, (that is Immigration Bureau), The 110 IB Officers were reported to have committed criminal conspiracy by setting up firms that process Visa applications for foreigners, especially for Chinese nationals who travel to Thailand with a Tourist Visa but go on to getting on Immigrant Visas without meeting the necessary business or volunteer criteria, he said." 

I urge those who are watching this video to go check out that article in detail. I am quoting an excerpt here and as I noted in a prior video, when I originally read this article I sort of pumped my brakes because there is a lot going on in here. I don't want to unduly freak anybody out for lack of a better term, I don't really want to scare anyone. At the same time, this stuff is pretty noteworthy. I think this is major sort of dynamic changes within the Immigration apparatus. Again do I think the sky is falling? No, I am not Chicken Little, I am not saying that. What I am saying is be prepared to start seeing a little bit, not a little bit, but changes in the Immigration apparatus.

Again as I have discussed with other folks, in person and friends and things, the first kind of knee jerk response I see from people when they read articles, well this past article, was "well they are targeting the Chinese. I don't particularly have to worry about that, I am not Chinese." Well that isn't how things tend to operate. Even if maybe one group in an Immigration context is deemed to be somewhat problematic, policies tend to have a broad impact and as a result, I don't think it is outside the realm of possibility that we are going to see increased scrutiny of applications for conversion of status from for example a Tourist Visa into another type of Non-Immigrant Visa here at Thai Immigration. And bear in mind as we discussed before the Emergency Decree, the prevailing paradigm of Thai Immigration is not to convert people from Tourist to Non-Immigrant status in the country. The prevailing paradigm is that those folks need to leave the country, go on a Visa Run, get a Visa from an Embassy or Consulate abroad, return to Thailand and then take up their new status as a Non-Immigrant that way. So I think what this is, is kind of a reversion back to what we were dealing with status quo ante Covid going back into 2020. More importantly, as discussed in other videos, I think heightened scrutiny, I think heightened enforcement measures are probably going to be associated with this, so bear it in mind when we are going forward into 2023.