Re: Visas for IETF 103 in Thailand

[Mikael Abrahamsson <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2018, Pete Resnick wrote:

> Me: I am coming to Thailand for an Internet conference. What sort of visa do 
> I need? I am a US citizen.
> Consulate: Oh, for that, they are only giving Tourist visas.
> Me: A tourist visa?
> Consulate: Are you going to be making any money?
> Me: No, I am not making money.
> Consulate: Yes, then a tourist visa is fine. When you arrive, just tell them 
> you are there for pleasure.
> Me: Is that written down anywhere official?
> Consulate: No.
> Me: OK, thank you.

This is exactly what I meant with "make it easier for everybody". This is 
what Randy meant by "south east asia bureaucracy".

I'll give another example. Thailand just recently announced a new rule 
that if you have some kind of temporary permit to stay in the country, 
then you must always report if you're staying somewhere that is not a 
hotel. Hotels take copies of your passport and entry stamp and reports 
this to the authorities, so now the same thing must happen whereever 
you're staying. So now the house/apartment owner and you need to go to the 
local immigration office and report (or the owner can create an online 
account and report there). So since I was staying at a regular house half 
the time, I went there with the house owner to report. This is in a non 
touristy area. So I go to the local immigration office (15km drive away 
near the Myanmar border), with already filled in forms according to what I 
thought was necessary. When we show up, first they basically have no idea 
what we're after, it takes 5 minutes before they realise what needs to be 
done, I see "*sigh*" and almost "*rolling eyes*" on the officer, gets more 
forms, we have to fill in them, documents are copied, signed, stamped, 
signed by a higher ranking officer and off I go. Took 20-30 minutes of 
their (and my) time, to follow rules that clearly wasn't designed to find 
people like me (westerner on holiday for a month staying with family in 
the country).

So my advice is to follow what the people said at the consulate. Make it 
easier for everybody and just say you're there to eat nice thai food and 
look at the views. This is not untruthful, right?

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: [e-mail]