“Easier, faster and more watertight” – Surachate’s vision for Immigration

Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, Thailand’s Immigration chief, has outlined a few new directions for visitor and expat visas in Thailand.

Speaking to TNA MCOT, the chief acknowledged the 1979 Act was “out of date” and “not in line with modern countries” and travel procedures.

Surachate said that Thailand was the third most visited country in the world and was a place which attracted criminals under the guise of being tourists. He insisted that one of the best ways to solve this problem was to ensure that hotel and condo owners report the whereabouts of foreigners.

He made special mention of “people of color and South Africans” as a specific target for Immigration police. He also said that better screening of visitors to Thailand is part of new proposals including the Advanced Passenger Processing System that is bring rolled out over the next year.

“Artificial Intelligence that includes fingerprinting and iris recognition technology will also speed up applications and make them harder to circumvent.”

Surachate says he wants to make things “easier, faster and more watertight”.

The Immigration Chief is also foreshadowing changes to business visas and extensions based on people who have children or who are married to Thais. He also mentioned specifically the problem of agents handling visa extensions and the issue of having 800,000 baht in the bank, according to the report on Channel 7.

SOURCE: Channel 7