george

@johng You have of course right to believe that. I have the right to disagree and don't believe that. But who knows really?

Google Ads in search results is by design "pushed" above the regular search results. They are marked with "Sponsored" or "Sponsored Ads". If a site is well SEO optimized they appear unlabeled on the first search result page below the sponsored ads. Could be a logic reason that they are good at SEO or have high traffic which their algo also pushes them higher in the SERPs (Search Result Pages). Or do you believe, or have evidence, that Google are prioritizing the search algorithm for their "partners" or others?

I have a near friend in Thailand who got a stroke only 5 days after his 5th Covid shot at the time. Last shot before stroke hit was a Pfizer. He has to learn to walk again on crutches, ands has been in a wheelchair for a while. Not sure if you can count this as similar to long Covid, but it's scary.

They only snail mail the physical card to Thailand at your request, but require an address in your home country, on file (TIN tax reasons).

The visa/service revenue for Thai Embassies differs from the Thai Consulates. The Thai Embassies remit the visa/service funds to Bangkok (to MFA/Govt.) while the Thai Consulates keep all visa fees to cover their costs for keeping office and pay staff etc, like a business. Some consular posts are huge businesses (one perfect example is Thai Consulate-General in Penang, who can laugh all the way to the bank. Thailand has one of the largest network of Embassies and Consulates around the world servicing Thais abroad and issuing visas to foreigners. Not sure how the "revenue split" is with the new e-visas. Could be a potential disaster for many of them, and a few had to close already, which impacts Thailand's service levels abroad. Could worsen with the e-visas. I have no idea how much revenue RTE Wellington has though.

Thanks, it looks like Google is supporting several different organizations with free ads. Are you thinking WHO and other organizations they are supporting isn't worth it? From https://google.org: Quote: OUR MISSION We bring the best of Google to help solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges — combining funding, innovation, and technical expertise to support underserved communities and provide opportunity for everyone. End quote

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Interesting claim, could you please provide link/s so I can read more about this? Thanks!

Increase: 600%

This topic continues here:

https://www.mfa.go.th/en/publicservice/5d5bcc2615e39c306000a316

This topic is regarding visas obtained from Embassy or Consulate outside of Thailand.

UPDATE: We have now checked most of the Royal Thai Embassies and Consulates in Scandinavia, Europe, US, Canada and Japan and none have replied to us or published notices on their websites yet. Waiting for answers from Penang, Kota Bharu, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Singapore and a confirmation from MFA. MFA has so far been very quite and don't want to talk so much "for now".

UPDATE: Answer from Royal Thai Consulate, Sydney, Australia: "Good Afternoon! Please wait for our official announcement regarding the visa fee."

UPDATE: We are now waiting for price hike info from Royal Thai Consulate Penang and Royal Thai Consulate in Kota Bharu. Also waiting for official response from MFA Consular section regarding possible worldwide fee increase details.

We now got confirmation from Royal Thai Embassy in Doha, increase as of March 1 but not near so steep increase. Single tourist visa 1700. See attachment:Doha-Announcement_Consular_Fee-3.pdf

I can now confirm that the visa fee increase at Royal Thai Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand is correct. See email attachment below. Now I'm waiting for more info from MFA if this is a worldwide visa fee increase or not.

I didn't say MFA will do an announcement by today, but I expect an answer from MFA press office by today, so we hopefully get some clarity. Highly doubt NZ Thai Embassy is the only consular post which announces this huge increase in visa fees. Makes no sense at all.

Ouch, that will hurt a bit 🙂

MFA is the head of embassies and consulates. Immigration Bureau has no power over Thai embassies and consulates.

This has now gone off topic. This topic is about increase of visa fees at Thai Embassies and Consulates abroad, and NOT about any changes in requirements regarding extension of stay or monetary requirements for visa extensions.

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ASEANNOW has a media contact at MFA, I will get a confirmation from them tomorrow when she's back at work. I guess we unfortunately can expect some breaking news by tomorrow. Let's see.