Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the TM87 visa application form. I want to be clear. This is a Thai Immigration Form. This is not a form you are going to be using at a Thai Embassy or Thai Consulate abroad, outside of Thailand. It is not a Ministry of Foreign Affairs form. It is a Thai Immigration Form. Again specifically TM87 application for Visa.

Now in 2020 we saw this form used here in country with a bit more frequency than frankly I had ever seen it used before. Presumptively folks who come into Thailand without a Visa, and that is possible you can come into Thailand for example Americans can come into Thailand and get a 30-day stamp or they could up until this COVID response, they could get a 30-day stamp just at Immigration without having to apply for a Visa or anything. Now exemption stamps are back but you have to deal with what is called a Certificate of Entry so in many ways it is much more like a visa application process. However, that stated you can actually get a Visa Exemption to come into Thailand. 

Folks who got trapped here when the Emergency Decree came down and we saw this response to COVID-19, all these flights shut down. People just got trapped back in March and April especially of 2020. We saw in the aftermath of that, that Immigration was empowered to use a great deal of discretion to try and find solutions for folks to give them some certainty with respect to remaining in Thailand. Now that dependent on factual circumstances but long story short, I did see this form used, and we will go ahead and put that up on screen, but I did see that form used quite a bit more than I had ever seen it used before because Immigration had this discretion to work these people into the system, get them into another category; essentially apply for a Visa here in country so they can maintain status with more certainty on a longer-term basis. 

Now in 2021 do I think we are going to see as wide a usage of this? Probably not, especially because you don't have this large group of people that just got trapped here. That said, I think that there are more circumstances, especially as the Emergency Decree is still in force, I think that there are more circumstances than in the past wherein one could see the discretion of Thai Immigration being utilized to allow someone to use this form. So long story short, I think it will be used less than in 2020 but probably still more that we usually see it used under routine circumstances in 2021.