Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing travel logistical arrangements that need to be dealt with and can be requested, or at least the evidence of such can be requested by Thai Immigration upon arrival here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Immigration Bureau refutes Indonesian woman's entry denial claims. 

As discussed in another video on this channel, I am starting to wonder if there is some kind of for lack of a better term, conspiracy theory out there or some kind of emerging sort of ‘Cold War’ if you will in terms of the various jurisdictions here in Southeast Asia as they are competing for tourism dollars. They are basically, in a sense it seems like there are certain social media operators who are trying to make various places look bad compared to other places perhaps from a tourism standpoint. I would urge those who are watching this video, read the article I am going to cite here in detail because the thrust of it goes in a different direction than what we are going to talk about in this particular video. But as we discussed in other videos, notwithstanding the discretion we are going to talk about here that Immigration does have to request certain documentation and if there is failure to produce said documentation, Immigration can utilize their authority to deport a given individual. That did not appear to be the case here. In fact, quoting directly from the article: "Immigration Authorities suspected that the woman fabricated the story for social media content." So apparently this person, it seems, said that her husband could not get in the country because he was denied entry because he didn't have enough cash and Immigration said: "we want to see that you can produce cash or not produce cash but that you have enough finances in order to basically maintain yourself as a tourist in Thailand". 

To be clear, this has been something that has existed as a discretionary requirement by Thai Immigration for years now. I was talking about this with other people, they brought it to my attention the overall issue. I sort of shrugged it off at first glance and said "I talked about that on my channel". Well I got to remember that in my mind I have talked about it on the channel, not everybody has watched everything one of my videos and I can't blame them because it's almost 5,500 videos at this point and my Lord if you are watching 5,500 videos on Immigration matters you probably have less of a life than I do making all of those videos. So the long story short is I will try to go ahead and put the link up to that initial video I did on the topic of requiring cash in order to come into Thailand or cash as a discretionary requirement by Thai Immigration but I made that video 6 years ago so again I can kind of see why people perhaps have forgotten about it. 

Leaving that aside, again and leaving aside the fact that apparently in this situation this actually didn't happen. It would appear that this story that this person's husband was turned away for failure to produce and show cash didn't actually occur at least based on Immigration's investigation. I thought it was worth noting the following, quoting directly: "He said," (and he being Pol Maj Gen Choengron who is quoted also in this article but let me just give you his full title here: Choengron Rimphadee, Commander of the Immigration Division 2, and also apparently a spokesperson.) Quoting directly: "He said that Immigration Officials prioritize entry requirements to prevent tourists from entering the country to work illegally." So again illegally working in Thailand is one of the major concerns of Thai Immigration. It's one of the reasons they want to see people's financial documentation or information or evidence of finances; in this case they could even ask for cash because they basically want to make sure you are not coming to Thailand to work, that you have your own financial resources you are going to use to maintain yourself in Thailand. Quoting further: "While a cash requirement exists, it is secondary given the prevalent use of credit cards and e-payments." And that's a good point; we are seeing more and more, people don't carry cash like they used to. However, quoting further, and this is the thrust of this video: "The IB Spokesman refuted the claim that the denial of entry was due to a lack of substantial cash, stating that most denials were linked to a failure in presenting travel plans and room bookings. Some individuals even used fake room booking documents. He highlighted concerns about Indonesian nationals being deceived into entering Thailand to work for Call Centre scam gangs." Again illegal work, a concern of the Thais. Also the issue of: "where you staying?" Are you a true tourist and wanting to see documentation to that effect.

So again it's worth noting that these requirements, these sort of discretionary requirements if you will, exist, notwithstanding the fact that apparently in this case they weren't actually even imposed.