@Jingthing I think from my own personal experience it’s a mixed bag. When I first came to work in Thailand opening a bank account was a drawn out procedure requiring piles of paperwork, signatures and approvals. That has changed for the better. Likewise obtaining a driver’s license, I needed to produce a letter from the Ministry of Industry to support my application and produce the letter again when buying and registering a car for family use. Again that’s changed for the better. I personally feel the attitudes of Thai people towards foreigners has ‘matured’, they are rightfully more critical of foreigners than in the past. The blanket respect, bordering on deference, that was the norm has been replaced by a much more balanced, I would say healthier, attitude. That’s not to say there are not emerging issues. I’ve recently had to jump through hoops to remove a block on a bank account I’ve had and used constantly for over twenty years, despite having complied with bank verification only a few months earlier. I’ve also had to produce newly attested copies of documents to support my visa extension, the same attested documents that were used in my original visa application and that have not been questioned for years. There’s always been an amount of ‘fuzziness’ around how rules and the law are applied, but I feel there is more directed scrutiny these past 12 months. A pleasantness I half miss from those early days is, as a foreigner driving a car back then I was always directed to the VIP parking at the airport. Those days are gone ;-)
