Travelers around the world have reported very long processing times for their visitor visa to Thailand and in many cases it hasn’t been issued in time for the traveler to actually fly as intended, causing no-shows.
This is especially bad in cases where there is no underlying visa waiver privilege for shorter stays and now both airlines as well as the Ministry of Tourism are suggesting to expand the Visa Waiver Program.
Previously Thai diplomatic posts worldwide implemented the use of the eVisa portal in a bid to increase efficiency and speed but apparently this didn’t help at all as now there is a backlog to the point of where travelers complain that their visa applications haven’t been touched for more than a month.
While in the past it almost always worked out and the visa was eventually approved a few days before the stated departure date this is no longer a given and people have in fact missed their flights due to their visas not being processed in time.
According to The Nation, this has now caused quite a bit of trouble with travelers, hotels and airlines.
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports is preparing to propose a 15-day visa exemption for travellers from Colombia, Mexico, and Uzbekistan, aiming to resolve severe processing delays and boost long-haul arrivals, officials announced on Monday (October 27).
The initiative comes in response to mounting logistical hurdles faced by international carriers. Emirates airline recently lodged an official complaint with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) after experiencing 20 to 30 passenger no-shows per flight from Mexico because travellers failed to receive their Thai visas in time for departure.
Surasak Phancharoenworakul, Minister of Tourism and Sports, confirmed that the ministry is aware of the chronic visa delays affecting Mexico and other Latin American markets.
“The ministry has prepared a long-term solution by submitting a proposal to the Visa Policy Committee meeting on November 9 to approve a 15-day visa-free entry for potential Latin American and other target countries, including Colombia, Mexico, and Uzbekistan,” Surapong stated.
While the committee must evaluate security and economic implications thoroughly, the Tourism Ministry intends to push for maximum exemptions for nations presenting low security risks, allowing a standard 15-day stay. …
I think the data point from Emirates is a very telling sign about the state of affairs when it comes to the processing of these visitor visas.
Keep in mind that a simple visitor visa for Thailand isn’t some massive hurdle that is difficult to overcome, as long as you submit the basic things there is almost no reason why it wouldn’t be granted.
I can’t think of any valid reason why the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs isn’t able to process these applications in time for travelers to commence their journey especially as most of them apply well in advance (6-8 weeks).
These embassies are expensive to maintain, the government has a massive number of employees and keep in mind that applicants pay good money in processing fees for the visa. Why isn’t this being done properly?
I have previously applied for Thai tourist visas myself and back then (2023) it was always dealt with quickly and efficiently (typically within 10 days) for Germany as the application point:
One thing that was remarkable is that I often gt the approval emails on Sundays or in the middle of the night in German time so I concluded that it’s highly unlikely that these applications are actually processed by someone sitting at the Embassy/Consulate in Germany.
It seems more likely that these visas where the applications that are lodged through the evisa system (which is the exclusive channel now) are processed en masse by someone in Thailand.
So I ask again, why is this happening? Is the MFA that short-staffed? This needs to be resolved as soon as possible because it’s an untenable situation.
Conclusion
Thailand currently has some kind of problem within the inner workings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that prevents them from attending to visa applications properly and issuing the visa on time, even if weeks have passed in between the application and the departure date.
Maybe the Thai government should put a bit more emphasis on servicing people who already paid for the processing of tourist visas rather than working on ever new measures to fleece tourists once they get to the Kingdom.
For the record, this doesn’t just affect the three countries mentioned here. I’m a member of a few different Thai Travel groups on social media and applicants in the German speaking community (Germay/Austria/Switzerland) also face these delays. No idea what’s going right now but they have to fix it asap!