The Royal Thai Embassy website describes this type of visa as:
- To work as a film-producer, journalist or reporter: (Category “M”) (http://dc.thaiembdc.org/consular/Visa/Non-Img.aspx#4)
I 'own' my own film company; I don't have an official business license or anything like that, but I have a website and hundreds of videos.
The reason the Category "M" visa appeals to me is it's only requirements are listed as:
· Approval from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand (http://www.mfa.go.th/)
That's it. Can I work on a Type M visa? If working is part of my film producing, I sort of have to.
How much is the visa? I clicked on the link, but it's not co-operating with me. I don't see any reason against going for this visa, rather than going with a tourist visa, waiting for a teaching job, runing around to get a work permit, blah blah blah.
Quote Originally Posted by natalie8
View Post (http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/paperwork/71930-non-immigrant-type-m-visa.html#post1779977)
How much is the visa? I clicked on the link, but it's not co-operating with me. I don't see any reason against going for this visa, rather than going with a tourist visa, waiting for a teaching job, runing around to get a work permit, blah blah blah.
Actually, it doesn't seem to be any better than a tourist visa when it comes to not having to do the visa run. It's still only good for 90 days. In fact, now that I really look at it, other than less paperwork, I'm not sure how it's better than a type "B", still $200 for a year.... (Yet, even with a 1 year validity, you can't stay in the country for any more than 90 days at a time? Is that right? How does that make sense?)
If I'm a filmmaker making an ethnographic film about a tribe in Thailand, I need to stay there more than 90 days at a time....
Quote Originally Posted by Joko
View Post (http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/paperwork/71930-non-immigrant-type-m-visa.html#post1779979)
If I'm a filmmaker making an ethnographic film about a tribe in Thailand, I need to stay there more than 90 days at a time....
It wouldn't be like making a documentary about pandas mating though, would it? A few days out for a visa run and I doubt you'd miss much, apart from the festival that celebrates the absence of nosy western ethnographers.
No, I don't think I'd be able to sell a panda-mating video outside of Thai reality Zoo television as an ethnographic film. Three obstacles: Pandas aren't people, they don't have a culture and lastly, they don't exist in the wild in Thailand.
I was thinking more along the lines of studies I've done in other parts of SE Asia. Namely, the cultural and sociological impacts on what was recently (historically speaking) a traditional culture that has come to rely upon Western tourism as it's primary industry. What are the effects of millions of western tourists on the culture of Thailand? How does that sub-culture that exists in both worlds reconcile the inherent contradictions that occur? How is western modernity invading the LOS via the shorts-clad tourist? Seems to me the possibilities for sociological and ethnographical inquiries are limitless.
Quote Originally Posted by Joko
View Post (http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/paperwork/71930-non-immigrant-type-m-visa.html#post1779989)
a traditional culture that has come to rely upon Western tourism as it's primary industry.
Untrue
Quote Originally Posted by Zevon
View Post (http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/paperwork/71930-non-immigrant-type-m-visa.html#post1780002)
Untrue
Sub-cultures within the broader culture; not the society as a whole.
Quote Originally Posted by Joko
View Post (http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/paperwork/71930-non-immigrant-type-m-visa.html#post1779989)
How is western modernity invading the LOS via the shorts-clad tourist? Seems to me the possibilities for sociological and ethnographical inquiries are limitless.
If a little old-fashioned.
These days, Asian tourists outnumber the western, so it may be "Asian modernity" you'll have to go after.