khunjeff

"The police chief explained that under current arrangements one of the first things police check is to see if the foreigner has a Thai wife or girlfriend in their efforts to track a suspect down or locate his current address." Wives who are connected with a marriage extension, ok. But immigration keeps a database of people's girlfriends? I don't think so. That's right. But the key point is that the list is checked against the destination country's blacklist; if a passenger has criminal intent but is not already known to Thailand, nothing will happen. Immigration has repeatedly claimed in the press that APIS would somehow check passenger info against criminal records from the traveler's country, but that just isn't true - that data is typically protected and would not be shared with other countries except under special arrangements (such as those which exist between the US and Canada).

Please, enough with the bubble fantasies - they've been yakking about bubbles for over a year now, and exactly zero of them have come to fruition.

"Passengers have to pay a Bt20 fee for calling cabs. The fare starts at Bt40-150 depending on the type of vehicle, up from the current minimum Bt35 for public taxis." How did the legalization of ride-hailing services somehow turn into a price increase?

Actually, they enforce immigration laws. But thanks for your input.

"Such charges" are not standard practice in other countries. You are confusing tourist fees/taxes (which are charged to foreigners and go to the government) with Passenger Service Charges (which are charged to all air travelers and are used for the upkeep and operation of the airport). Different things. The departure tax on Thai travelers was a real tax; the 500 baht (now 700) is an airport fee. Again, you are conflating two totally different types of levies.

Ok, so why is Immigration investigating narcotics crimes, when there are actual drug police in Thailand?

It's been possible to hail a taxi using an app for years now. Perhaps he would also like to grant his permission to the sun to rise in the east and set in the west? I suppose it's nice that this will all be "legal" now, but being "illegal" never seemed to make one bit of difference to Grab or Uber or Bolt or any of the other companies that openly provided the service with no repercussions.

Yes, I always look for Thai labeling as my guarantee of quality.

Correct, and the requirement for immigrants goes into effect on October 1. "[E]ffective Oct. 1, 2021, applicants subject to the immigration medical examination must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before the civil surgeon can complete an immigration medical examination" https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/covid-19-vaccination-required-for-immigration-medical-examinations Regarding the OP's specific question: "If a COVID-19 vaccine listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO) or licensed or authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is available to the applicant in the country where the medical examination is conducted, the eligible applicant must complete the COVID-19 vaccine series in addition to all other necessary vaccines" All of the vaccines currently administered in Thailand are listed for emergency use by the WHO, so there shouldn't be any issue for the OP's wife if she's been double vaccinated. Mixed vaccines aren't specifically addressed, and I don't know whether there's any policy about them. https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/panel-physicians/covid-19-technical-instructions.html

That website also has this notice on each page: "Dear all valued customers, We are hibernate our service since May 1st"

They're talking specifically about the much-discussed and much-delayed "Pattaya Move On" sandbox scheme, not general entry of travelers. Different rules, assuming it ever comes to fruition.

The same thing has happened in a number of countries experiencing outbreaks (I thought even the UK, though I could be mistaken). You get a lower efficacy, but you get it right now, and it's still much better protection than what you're getting from the single dose you already received. Waiting an extra month to get better efficacy from the second dose leaves you more vulnerable in the meantime, which may be undesirable if the virus is running rampant in your area. It's just a trade-off.

"One item currently being discussed is to advise people travelling to the 14 provinces in Southern Thailand to avoid Hua Hin by using the Cha-Am to Pranburi bypass road, in order reduce the risk of potential infections in the town." Does Covid now seep in and out of moving vehicles?

I'm sure all the rideshare companies will be overjoyed to receive instructions from these very wise men on how to set their fares ????

What "talks" are required when a gift is offered with no strings attached, and how could the "results" of those talks ever be in doubt? I would think a simple "thank you" would do the the job very nicely.

Let's see. Tammy Duckworth has absolutely no incentive to lie, since this issue is of zero importance to her constituents. Anutin, on the other hand... And just for laughs, let's pretend that the information from this expert in protocol and diplomacy is accurate. Why didn't the Thai ambassador just tell Duckworth "hey, for our internal purposes we kind of need a paper from your Embassy in Bangkok, would you mind providing that"? It would have been sent the next day. But more to the point, someone is publicly offering you a gift worth $30 million that your people desperately need. Why would you sit back and wait silently for the document you want, rather than immediately getting on the phone to the Embassy and asking "we really appreciate the offer, how can we get this done as quickly as possible?"

Remind me again of which country was boasting that it would be Astra Zeneca's vaccine hub for Southeast Asia?

Are you thinking of the Royal Plaza collapse in Korat? It was illegally modified, but from three stories to six, so not a high rise per se. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Royal_Plaza_Hotel

Then I guess it depends which circles you move in, since all of my Thai friends are either fully vaccinated or eagerly waiting for a second dose (mostly of AZ). I do agree that most Thais have developed a fair amount of skepticism for Sinovac, feeling that it was being foisted on them by the government for reasons unconnected with health, but that distrust for government officials has also piqued their interest in Pfizer and Moderna, which are seen as the good vaccines that the ministers are trying to prevent them from getting. Ironically, the Thai medical establishment itself seems to be a barrier of sorts to widespread vaccine adoption. They continue to play up very rare side effects in the media, and raise distrust through their experiments with mixing vaccines and changing doses, strategies which Thais can see are not being used in other countries. They are also telling people that their Covid shot has to be separated by 2-4 weeks from other vaccinations (the US CDC says you can even get other vaccinations on the same day); that you can't get vaccinated if your blood pressure is elevated when you arrive for your appointment (hypertensives are actually at a greater risk from Covid than others); and telling older people with chronic conditions that they shouldn't be vaccinated (when in fact those are precisely the group most in need).

Absolutely. If large numbers of people start coming in from abroad, there will realistically be no choice other than to accept foreign certificates, even if those can't really be verified. This is already the way things work in many other countries, where the folks checking at the door pretty much let in anyone with a plausible looking certificate from any nation. I'm not aware of any country that issues a certificate for vaccinations performed in a different locality.

Yet more nonsense about this system. First of all, AOT doesn't use the system for anything - they're an airport management company. The system is used by Immigration and Customs. Second, the system has never been used "to detect air passengers with criminal records to help contain transnational crime". Contrary to claims they've made since APPS was introduced, it does not somehow give them access to criminal records from other countries that would otherwise be unavailable to them; all it does is send passenger information ahead of the flight so that authorities can (theoretically) screen the data before arrival and know which people are of particular interest. In theory that could speed up arrival processing, but in practice that hasn't happened at all, since immigration delays rarely have anything to do with blacklisting or other obvious red flags. Finally, the system cannot be used "to check the health certificates of air passengers" (another report claims that it will actually verify the authenticity of those documents). All it will potentially do is allow the uploading of information provided by the passenger so that it can be sent ahead of the flight. This could again theoretically allow for faster processing on arrival, but I think it's a virtual certainty that there will still be multiple manual reviews of the same paper documents that were already transmitted. I'm hoping to be proved wrong.

That form has been required for the last few years - you may have just forgotten that you signed it last year. Criteria (5) on the form covers the combination method - it's just phrased in a somewhat confusing way.

Since CDC will accept all WHO-authorized vaccines for immigrants entering the US, it seems virtually certain that the same will apply to nonimmigrants once the requirement goes into effect, but of course we won't know for certain until it's officially announced. "The COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in these Technical Instructions, hereinafter referred to as “approved COVID-19 vaccines,” are those vaccines authorized for emergency use (EUA) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or listed for emergency use (EUL) by the World Health Organization (WHO) (see “Status of COVID-19 Vaccines within WHO EUL/PQ evaluation process”)." https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/panel-physicians/covid-19-technical-instructions.html

You don't need biometrics to check passport stamps, you just look into the arrival-departure system and see whether the stamps correspond with computer records.

...and the incredible detective work involved in foiling this crime of the century consisted of sitting in a chair at the airport and noticing his overstay when he presented himself voluntarily for inspection. Medals and bonuses for all involved, please. Yes, important to bring biometrics into it - an imposter might have taken his passport to try to cash in on his overstay ????