Caldera

A downloadable statement is fine, as long as it has the required details. What they don't accept are screenshots of an app or banking website, it does have to be a statement.

They mostly seem to post garbage.

Maybe I just misunderstand what you mean, but it sounds like you have that upside down. More difficult requirements means that MORE people use agents to circumvent those requirements.

Cambodia and Thailand, united they stand, at least when it comes to being at the receiving end of King Donald's fury.

I don't say this very often, but I'm with the Thai police on this one.

I can see how this will become a concern for people from repressive countries who know their country is keeping a watchful eye on them. I don't think Thailand will share this information with other countries voluntarily, but a data leak is a very real possibility considering the sad state of cyber security. Using the data obtained from such a breach to deduct a few social credit points (or worse) isn't exactly unthinkable.

In fairness, this is the "Thai Visas" forum and there's another one for other countries. What @BrandonJT wrote is certainly true for all Thai visas nowadays. You're right about other countries, obviously. Schengen visas routinely are issued to start on the exact date that the applicant wants to enter. Closer to Thailand, the Vietnamese eVisa comes to mind; you can choose when it will be "valid from". I remember that some (honorary) Thai consuls used to be "flexible" when they still issued handwritten visas. That's why I wasn't sure if you were referring to Thai visas years ago.

Thai visas? When was that?

The FOREX market disagrees. End of.

I want to believe this, I really do. But when you see how those scam compounds can operate with impunity for a long time and not exactly well-hidden from view, you cannot help but doubt that they aren't being protected by high-ranking government figures as alleged.

You're not wrong, in many cases it's over the top, they seem to want to catch all scenarios with a single extensive list of requirements. Still, that paper-shuffling exercise is nonsensical but manageable, not really a big deal. What I would really have a problem with are home visits (I've never had one myself), especially if they insist on repeating the same brain-dead exercise year after year (more likely to happen for marriage extensions than for retirement extensions).

That's just incredibly naive. If they were serious about corruption, they'd have to dismiss the entire police farce (including immigration) and start over. Even their internal processes are hopelessly corrupt, starting from passing the entrance exam. All that is well-documented, of course, so you're either having a laugh or being delusional. So who gets caught and is punished for "being corrupt"? Officials who fail to pass the appropriate share of the loot up the chain. Officials who cross their superiors in other ways. Officials who have the wrong political affiliation. In all those cases, having some "corrupt officials" as fall guys to make an example of is perfect both with regards to the effect on the gullible public and as a deterrent for other officials. Nothing more, nothing less.

That is just wrong. If a citizen's wrongdoing against the state amounts to a crime (such as treason), the criminal justice system can deal with that. If it doesn't, it's just harmless dissent that those in power need to tolerate. But I think we can all make an educated guess who they are targeting with this: (self-) exiled Cambodian opposition figures.

The Shinawatra clan really has lost the plot. Nowadays they can't even get their populist policies right, which used to be the foundation of their success. The silly wallet flip-flopping, now this botched program, what's next?

Indeed, using that kind of picture for such an article is so incredibly dumb, as it perpetuates the wrong and dangerous belief in too many people that you can see if someone is not healthy and just need to avoid them "to be safe". I'd daresay most people who catch HIV here in Thailand catch it from someone who looks perfectly healthy.