Hiv....

[hotshot]

The admin from Nong Khai Immigration just posted this reply:

To understand this you must first of all understand one thing, and that’s the big difference between Thai and western (farang) legislation. In the western world you have laws and paragraphs for everything, down to the smallest detail, while in Thailand (Asian culture) our laws are more overall and open for individual interpretation. (We do know many foreigners find this extremely frustrating, and they do very often complain about it in a bad language, also on this web board, but that’s is our way of making our laws, and if foreigners can’t live with it, this isn’t the place for them).

With HIV this is exactly the case. The Law on Immigration Section 12 #4 isn’t mentioning HIV/AIDS directly, and neither is the Ministerial Regulation referred to (Ministerial Regulation Number 14 (B.E. 2535)) ( http://www.thaicongenvancouver.org/reg.htm (link kindly submitted by wimpy)).

But there is a notice to the upper mentioned Regulation saying following:

“Note: The reason for issuing this Ministerial Regulation is that at present, the situation concerning AIDS has changed immensely. Prevention of infected aliens or those who are HIV positive into or to reside in the Kingdom has no effect on the spread of this disease within the nation. Thus, AIDS should not be set as a disease for prohibiting aliens infected with such disease to travel into or to reside in the Kingdom as in accordance with the articles 12 (4) and 44 (2) of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522.”

According to this your friend should have no problems coming to Thailand. But then again the upper mentioned notice is only saying “AIDS should not be set as a disease….”; it isn’t saying “AIDS is not set as a disease………”.

We have talked with different Immigration Officers and some say foreigners with HIV/AIDS aint allowed to enter, others say it doesn't matter, and others again say it depends on judgement in each case. As you can understand from this they do interpret the rules differently. And “yes”, they can do that.

We have also talked with doctors at several hospitals who are issuing the needed Health Certificates in case of application for Work Permit, Retirement stay etc. They are saying the same. It’s not on the list of diseases they have to look for, but some are doing it, some aren’t.

So, according to this our conclusion must, very frustrating, be that your friend should be able to come to Thailand as a tourist without problems. But when it comes to applying for a longer stay, e.g. Retirement, he might get refused. It would probably depend on the impression he’s leaving with the doctor/Immigration Officer handling the application. (Is he the “fooling around” type, or is he a nice, quiet, responsible guy taking care of not spreading the disease).

Also according to this Immigration could never confiscate your friend’s belongings or deport him for being HIV positive; that’s not true. But he is on thin ice. Imagine that a HIV positive Thai girl claims that she got it from your friend. If he is the “fooling around” type, just the slightest, this is Thailand, and the authorities would probably believe the girl. Then your friend would be in deep troubles. From our point of view it’s like playing with fire.

What we would do in your friend’s case would be to approach the Thai Embassy in Copenhagen (if he’s in Denmark), tell them honestly that he is HIV positive, and then apply for a visa. If they grant him the visa (which is a “permit-to-enter”), then he can safely go here without having fears for Immigration interfering with his stay.

A long answer, which also have taken us a lot of research. We hope it answer your questions and doubts, even with all the “maybes”.

This post has been edited by Admin1 on May 31 2004, 03:14 AM

Great, isn't it?

[Digger]

Sounds to me like some rapid backtracking whilst saving face. As many have stated before there is no requirement to inorm of HIV status under current regs for either visa or work permit. These are the Thai Laws, clear and simple with no room for individual visa officer discretion and the guys that tried to say otherwise on that forum have been proved wrong.