Dear Mailbag,
The forthcoming I believe is worthy of publication and perhaps to give an opportunity for other tourists with legate complaints to record their experiences.
I have been coming to Thailand for seven consecutive years. Within the past three years I have remained in Thailand for six month stays. Four years ago I attended language school having held an education visa. Formerly I held an A-O one year visa with a multi reentry attachment which visa expired November 6, 2020. To secure that type of visa required the preparation as well as additional cost for certain of the document to be notarized. All was completed perfectly and the visa issued. Prior to the expiry of this visa I wrote the Thai consulate to the Thai Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, where my A-O visa was issued (I live in Montreal), and that is when the nightmare started. I was told they do not renew and I was required to go through the lengthy and costly exercise of redrafting and securing of all of the document first issued to the Thai Consulate.
I wrote a letter to the Thai Consultant after receiving their response and informed them of the following. I told them I am more than just a tourist of a short duration. I am a long term tourist with the interest to come to live permanently in Thailand. For the six months I stay in Thailand I rent a very expensive condo, minimum paying 25,000-30,000 baht a month plus cost of water and electricity. I spend money eating out, shopping and always visiting parts of Thailand. I go into Bangkok monthly for a few days stay at a 5 star hotel and I intend to hire a private teacher to improve my language skills. In short, I spend approximately 500,000 baht on my 6 month annual trips and furthermore, here in Canada, I take a covid-19 test each two weeks to ensure I am healthy. I even submitted several copies of the reply from the Quebec Government attesting to the repeated negative results. I am in perfect physical health and do not need or take any medication normally taken and required by seniors. I am a young healthy professional gentleman of 83 years old.
In spite of all of the above submitted in my letter to the Thai Consulate, the answer I got was a referral to the website telling me what I needed to put together to comply. Then I looked into the 60 visa but the requirements were no less burdensome.
I decided not to go to Thailand this year. I just finished taking my 11th covid-19 test all from the past 3 1/2 months and all reported as negative. Now am I not a candidate for permission entry into Thailand. Now that that together with having to quarantine in a hotel at great expenses even though I have a condo waiting me is totally nonsense. And now with the further requirement of requiring medical coverage and only from a Thai company and not from an insurance company I deal with in Canada is enough grounds to never want to return to Thailand.
David Gordon
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
