An estimated 2 million migrants from Myanmar working across Thailand remain anxious about an irrational deadline imposed on permission to work here. The two countries agreed in 2003 that these workers could remain in Thailand only for four years before returning home for at least three years prior to any possible return. This limit on migrant’s stay in Thailand was imposed on ‘legal’ workers who, since 2009, completed a Nationality Verification regularisation process (NV). Wound up in late 2013, NV resulted in issuance by Myanmar of 2 million ‘temporary’ passports but was dogged by lack of transparency, corrupt officials, unregulated agents and high costs. Employers and workers could not navigate the process themselves without influential agents opening doors to those who paid and firmly blocking those who didn’t...