Thread: Richard Barrow is dusting off his luggage in case he cannot renew visa

Yesterday, Richard Barrow, a popular British blogger who has been living and working in Thailand for decades, says he had a surprise visit from the immigration bureau in regards to the renewal of his visa. Kapook reported the incident on their page saying that many Thai people admire the work he does for Thailand as a tourism and expat influencer.


Richard bemoaned on his Facebook page that “things didn’t look good” for an extension of his visa to stay in Thailand.


“Bangkok Immigration came to inspect my workplace. They were here for 3 hours. Looks like they will not extend my “visa”. They said I will probably have to leave the country. They will give me a final verdict next week.”


Social media has been full of speculation about Richard’s possible departure and assuming that it has something to do with his occasional swipes at Thai officialdom on his blogs. But Richard says none of that is true.


“I know a lot of people are speculating about the reasons with some crazy conspiracy theories. The Immigration officials gave me no indication that they were targeting me. I only passed last year because some influential people in government called the chief of Immigration.”




“In normal years, I would leave the country and come back with a tourist visa and start again. With the borders closed, my only option is to fly back to the UK. As I won’t have a Non-B visa, I cannot come back for months. Unfortunately, the family home in the UK is being sold.”


In the past few years Richard has had an annual wait to see if his application to stay would be approved. In the end he’s been able to pull in a few favours and make contact with leading officials to “sort things out”.


Richard has contacts at many levels of Thai society and is generally recognised as a ardent enthusiast about Thai life and is loyally followed by over 100,000 people on his Facebook page.


Apart from the fact Richard only promotes Bangkok Post articles, The Thaiger genuinely hopes that Richard is again able to sort out the paperwork and continue his many journeys and blogging around the Kingdom.


The Kapook article noted that Richard has been in Thailand for a long time without any problems. Some Thai social media speculation said the problems arose after he translated news of the student protests onto Twitter. But the general tone was that everyone is encouraging Richard and hoping he gets to stay in Thailand to continue doing what he loves, and does very well.

Richard Barrow is dusting off his luggage in case he can't renew visa | The Thaiger

Why does he need influential people to pull strings for him? Why can't he qualify for a visa or extension of stay without such help?

Maybe because his blogs are seen as work for which his teaching work permit does not cover.

Originally Posted by Neverna

Why does he need influential people to pull strings for him? Why can't he qualify for a visa or extension of stay without such help?

Because Thailand isn't a democracy and if you piss off the wrong person you are out.

I like his blogs, he does a yeoman's job at promoting Thailand and off the tourist track places. This however does not change the fact that he not Thai, something I feel he needs to grasp. Essentially there are certain cases where he needs to wind his neck in.

I haven't been following him for long, but would be inclined to take his word for any event over that of most Thais, esp glorious ones. Maybe that's why he's being booted, for failing to comply with expected standards.

That said, it's their country, always will be, and they've made it abundantly clear that Thai democracy protects farangs by prohibiting them from holding political views other than the official line, which might become a criminal offence at some later time.

On his Paknam Web Network website he states that his "day job" is designing e-learning lessons at a local school in Paknam, Samut Prakan. I surmise that this has been a convenient 'hook" upon which to hang a succession of WP applications but in reality it is scarcely credible it is a full-time, meaningful post and not a contrivance - it is a piddling local government school after all. One wonders how he supplements his income which at face value must be quite modest indeed.

He is in fact running an ad hoc but full blown news network. Whether or not it is for gain is irrelevant, it is an activity for which he requires a work permit if he is to remain in the Kingdom and he has none for this purpose.

Japanese proverb?

"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down"

The fact that his visa application is "public" knowledge doesn't help.

That said, it's their country, always will be,

indeed.

a foreigners right to remain in thailand is always at the whim of the often corrupt immigration officials who in many cases are barely conversant with the ever changing regulations and who interpret those regulations according to their own twisted prejudices and financial needs.

pity the poor foreigner with a family and life here who gets caught up in some ill conceived one size fits all immigration crackdown and is suddenly told he cannot stay. ..... especially if they have severed ties and rights in their homeland.

He is bonkers if he believes Thailand is his home, he will never be Thai and always lives here at the whim of the government.

Fake country, fake news. Burmashave!