CNI News
26 February 2024
In the change of visa application to the online system for Myanmar people who are applying for Thai visa, brokers would be involved, overseas employment agencies and those who are carrying out for the affairs of migrant workers told CNI News.
The Thai Embassy in Myanmar abolished the system of queuing up in front of the embassy in person to get an appointment and would accept only applying through online starting from 22nd February, 2024, it stated.
Because most Myanmar youths know how to use the online system skilfully, Although they can find it easy to apply for visa, brokers will be unavoidably required to participate, U Min Oo, In Charge of Labor Affairs from the Foundation for Education and Development (FED), told CNI News.
"Brokers can work with an embassy staff member to get you on the list quickly. In the past, an agency got twenty visas as a quota. Agencies and the embassy have been in contact since before. They can get visas quickly. So, they can get service charges. Moreover, those who can't get to the agencies have to apply through a broker, they have to pay more or they might be cheated." he said.
The system of queuing up in front of the embassy in person to get an appointment has been abolished to facilitate the applicants, to reduce the number of so many people applying at the same time and to ensure the security of office processes, said in the statement by the Thai Embassy.
Thai Embassy in Yangon
Although the Embassy has already worked at the rate of 200 tokens per day for 30 days starting from 22nd February, it would accept until 400 tokens for applying in advance.
Although The change to online system was good, it would be necessary to wait a little, U Myat Thu, general secretary of the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation (MOEAF), told CNI News.
"There were so many people in line on that day. Those in line reached from the Thai Embassy to the Malaysian Embassy. Changing to an online system is more convenient compared to having to line up disfigured. You have to wait a bit. If you can't apply online, you might need a broker. But some people want to rely on brokers. So, they have to pay the brokers. Although you pay money, it's still not so bad if the broker does it right." he said.
Myanmar people who will leave for Thailand have obviously increased since early February and because so many people had to wait in line to apply for visas in front of the Thai Embassy in Myanmar, visa application changed to the token system on 14th February and 400 people were given tokens each day.
After that, visa application was changed again to the system of giving token appointment through online and when applying for visa, name, phone number, email address, passport number and type of visa must be filled up.
