About Chiang Mai Jao
Chiang Mai Jao is for people moving to, living in or visiting Chiang Mai: visas, money, health, family, places. Legal and fee facts link to the official Thai text; facts about sights and places are checked against operators and listings, each dated. The editor, Vincent Nguyen, is responsible for every guide. Write to hello@chiangmaijao.com.
The problem. Readers who look for help with a visa or a move to Thailand commonly run into three things. First, guides that never cite the official text, so there is no way to see where a rule comes from. Second, guides written mainly to rank in search or to sell a service, which nobody checks afterwards. Third, guides that sit unchanged for years, even though Thai rules and fees change quickly.
What {site} does instead
Every legal rule, fee and deadline links back to the original Thai law or official page, with the exact wording kept on file. Facts about sights and places are checked against the operator and the map listing, and dated. Where offices answer differently, or a fact cannot be confirmed, the guide says so instead of filling the gap with a guess.
How every guide is checked
- Every fee, deadline, form and rule in a guide is traced to a source, with the exact wording kept on file.
- Legal facts rest on the legal text or a Thai government portal; agency and forum pages are never the basis for a rule.
- Each guide shows when it was last verified and when it is due for review; what could not be confirmed is listed openly.
After that, five more checks: (1) an automated gate confirms that every number and condition appears in its quoted source, and stops the guide if a legal claim rests only on press or agency pages or a cited law is out of date; (2) a separate scope review checks that each rule is applied to the right people; (3) a second review reads the guide sentence by sentence against the quotes and cuts what the source does not say; (4) the live site is read from a reader’s point of view, and what trips readers up is fixed; (5) each guide carries a review month and is checked again on that schedule, with the new “Verified” date shown. AI models do the research, drafting and much of the review, and the editor reviews and approves every guide before it goes live. The full process, including where AI is used, is on how guides are checked.
What {site} does not do
No figure without a quote from its source: if no source says it in so many words, the sentence is cut rather than softened. No payment changes a fact, a ranking or the source behind a fact (see affiliate links and paid listings). And no legal advice: the guides are general information, not advice for your situation. Rules and office practice in Thailand change, sometimes faster than official pages are updated. Before you act on something with real consequences, confirm it with the office concerned or a licensed adviser.
Who is responsible, corrections, contact
- Responsible editor: Vincent Nguyen, an overseas Vietnamese who has lived in Chiang Mai.
- Mistakes are fixed and dated on the corrections page.
- To report an error or get in touch: contact. Privacy: privacy.