It's quite obvious from being in this group. It's also obvious when you know anything about Thailand and the types of foreigners who live here, most have some sort of prior connection with the country.
Oh really? Well, it certainly brightened up my day when I was the only person in the room at 440pm and didn't have to wait. Unlike the previous day, when I waited 90 minutes along with around 20 others, only to be told I needed to supply more banking documentation. Now that was frustrating.
The whole back and forth thing also made my travels within Taiwan difficult; I had to rush back from the zoo to make it to the consulate before they closed at 5pm. I was aiming to make it by 4, but didn't reach there until 440pm.
Why would this visa be canceled? What rationale is there for making such an assumption? Because one or two people such as Benjamin Hart and his buddy Barry Kenyon don't like it? So far at least, I have not seen a shred of evidence that even one of the few thousand individuals who've been issued with one have done anything against the law or acted in such a way that this visa would need to be reviewed.
Consulates are gradually tightening up on the application criteria and the very nature of the visa seems to exclude a large number of people anyway.
Last I heard, only 2500-3500 of these visas have been approved since their launch on July 15? That's nothing really. Nothing to get upset over. Nothing to hold a grudge over.
Yes, true. Consulates are moving to the e-visa system, one by one. Only a small handful are left, that have yet to move over.
Laos will be among the last, but even they will move to e-visas (I've asked them and they said it will happen, but they don't have a specific date yet).