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For many years living in Thailand was pretty straight-forward and easy: Don't break any laws and you can stay pretty much as long as you want to. There were ways of making each individual visa longer in duration but no one who wasn't wanted by the FBI or Interpol was denied visas. It all seemed to be working wonderfully for everyone: Thailand enjoyed the influx of foreigner money and investment and the foreigners enjoyed being able to live in a country where it is never cold and is generally cheaper than Western countries. Those days are far behind us.
These days it is exceptionally difficult to acquire a visa for any sort of long-term stay without a work-permit... and getting one of those is an entirely different and incredibly difficult journey.
People who have lived here for many years are getting fed up and leaving, and taking all of their assets with them. I truly believe that the Thai government will eventually regret this decision as their actions are already seeing negative results such as a "reverse housing crisis" that is already beginning in Chiang Mai (Chiang Mai is about 10% expats and there is a mass exodus going on at the moment, resulting in thousands of rental properties becoming vacant at once.)
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Whatever, i've already talked about that in great length. Let's talk about the new workaround that people who want to stay are pursuing for the time being and this too will almost certainly be a door that will quickly get closed.
The Volunteer Visa
Sounds innocent enough right? Who wouldn't love to do some volunteer work for a good cause right? I know that I would certainly be down with doing that and of course do so for free - which is what they expect of you - it's actually criminal for payment of any sort to be offered to people doing this.
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The idea is that you will work for poor schools teaching English or perhaps even donate your time to things like Habitat for Humanity type projects. Fantastic ideas abound until you take a look at the massive amount of paperwork that needs to be completed and then you have to pay for the visa as well and all of this is fine.
However, the "not-so-fine" aspects of this visa exist as well: Not only do they want you to work for free, they expect you to pay them for the privilege. The amount can vary, but as more and more people pursue this visa, the "rates" keep increasing. My friend just went through the process that was so complicated he hired an agency to do the process for him, then they wanted money "under the table" or what they call "tea money" for officials in order to approve his documents.
All in all, his volunteer visa is going to cost him more than $1000. Then he will finally be allowed to travel (on his own dime) to rural schools to go and teach English for 6 hours a week. I suppose that isn't that bad but by making the process so difficult they are discouraging people out of actually doing this.
There are also reports in the past of volunteers turning up at these "poor schools" only to discover that the children are all being dropped off by parents in brand new cars, some of which are luxury brands like Mercedes. The schools were never poor to begin with, but the corruption exists on both ends of this situation.
Dont want to pay the "tea money?" Well, a lot of people have had that attitude and a vast majority of them end up getting their visas denied.
More and more people are ending up with the same opinion as I now have: I've had enough and although it makes me sad to have to leave the country I have called home for 15 years in the rear-view mirror, I don't really want to play anymore.