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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawVisa NewsThai Immigration Officials Try to Speed Up Visa Application Process

Thai Immigration Officials Try to Speed Up Visa Application Process

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai visa applications and here recently, it has come to my attention through various aspects of the media, Thai Immigration seems serious about improving their service at the Immigration apparatus and improving their processing times.  

In a recent article from Khaosod English, that is khaosodenglish.com, the article is titled:  Police Spokesman: Incompetent Immigration Cops Will be Punished. Quoting directly:  "A representative for the National Police force said on Friday, Immigration Officers who fail to process cases swiftly are liable for punishment. Royal Thai Police Spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen said the Immigration Bureau is required to follow policies of efficient work as instructed by Police Commissioner Chakthip Chaijinda. He spoke amid growing uproar from foreign residents over tougher enforcement of Immigration laws in spite of the snail's pace of Immigration bureaucracy that makes following regulations difficult." I urge those watching this video to check out this this article in Khaosod English again Police Spokesman: Incompetent Immigration Cops Will be Punished. There is quite a bit more content associated therewith. 

The thing I wanted to speak to on this is we see this rather frequently. Anytime we see the regulatory change or substantive change with respect to the Immigration apparatus's processing, we see the entire system grind down almost to a halt before sort of taking it in, dealing with it, evolving if you will and being able to start processing a little more quickly again. Unfortunately, in certain circumstances where people are waiting for, for example a Visa extension you might sort of out on a limb for lack of better term, where you have gotten a stamp for 30 days and you are waiting around till either the very last minute or sometimes I have seen them go a couple of days out, before they actually finish off the processing of the case file out, before they will issue the stamp. They issue stamps to provide sort of a placeholder there but it is a very difficult process for foreigners to undergo because you left in a sort of a state of anxiety as to whether or not your visa is ultimately going to be issued and for this reason and many others, farang, foreigners here in general here in the Kingdom, have become increasingly exasperated with the changes to the Immigration apparatus; we have discussed that at length in other videos. As a result of this exasperation, they have more and more let their feelings be known to the Immigration Authorities and it seems the Immigration authorities are listening. Hopefully we will start to see more efficient processing and things like for example business visa extensions here in the Kingdom or O visa extensions here in the Kingdom, things of that nature. In the future things like TM30 may be more efficient and more transparent when dealing with the processing of TM30 forms and just the whole system hopefully soon will be more efficient and in a way, more service oriented for those who are going through the process of having their Visa or their lawful status maintained here in the Kingdom.