Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the need to plan ahead if you are looking to do business and work here in Thailand. Now let me be clear, there are a lot of folks out here that are going to tell you - especially on YouTube unfortunately - tell you a lot of things, "oh you can do this, you can do that." In a lot of instances that is people getting away with things that are otherwise illegal, so that is the first thing to take away from this video. Secondly though, the point of the video is understanding that unfortunately the Immigration System has been unnecessarily complicated in my opinion, by some of the actions of this most recent government which we have kind of hit a turning point with. I think we are moving away from that although we are in kind of a state of flux at least as at the time of this video.

We have just seen the Prime Minister suspended from office; I expect we will see some kind of government restructuring in the days and weeks ahead. How exactly that plays out remains to be seen, but long story short, they created a lot of visas that said one thing but operated in a completely different way for example the so-called LTR, Long-Term Residence Visa, which as I have discussed in other videos, is not a Residence Visa at all, it's just sort of a long-term Visa. They say that has work authorization. Well I have never seen any legal authority where it has granted work authorization and when the folks that issued that are pressed on the issue, their answers become very odd, let me just say that. Meanwhile something like the Destination Thailand Visa, for people that are outside of Thailand don't understand the ins and outs of Thai Immigration, that sounds like, "oh you can work from Thailand", and in a sense you can but as a practical matter you can't. As we have discussed in other videos, the Ministry of Interior has specifically stated anything that “impinges upon the Thai economy” is deemed to be work and therefore you need a Work Permit to do it. Most activities that folks are coming here to engage in on the DTV, ultimately “impinge” on the Thai economy and for that reason, they are deemed to be needing work authorization. I have started seeing folks that are getting picked up on DTVs by relevant Immigration Authorities and having problems including detention, for actually working here on a DTV. On top of that, banking is incredibly difficult and that means it because effectively the banks won't let folks have a bank account on that type of Visa. 

The reason for the video though is to talk to folks. Look, if you are serious about coming to Thailand and doing business and effectively working here, and you want to be here for the long haul, you need to get away from just reading about something on the Internet and thinking what's exactly going on here I am not saying that out of a place of arrogance, I'm saying that out of a place of concern because I am seeing these folks come in thinking they know what the system is and it is really not operating the way that they think it should. I understand why they think it should work that way but the fact of it is the law works the actual way it does. So the point of this video is look if you are looking to come here to do business, it is not the greatest idea to just basically read about something on the Internet and think that a given Visa may be the right thing for you. In certain instances it might be depending on what you are doing, but in a lot of cases that I am now seeing, people have made really bad assumptions quite honestly based on information they thought they could rely on and I kind of understand why they thought that, but again it doesn't help them in the situation they are in where they are detained for a Work Permit violation or they can't get banking facilities to do what they want to do. And as I discussed in other videos, they may put themselves into a Visa cul-de-sac if you will because they are in a Visa or they are in a “status” that they effectively can't get out of, for lack of a better term, and they need to transition to a different type of visa to do what they want to do. 

The point of this video, if you are looking to come here to do business here in Thailand, it is probably a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance before you get here so that you can have your ducks in a row to do things right, and not be hassled here in the Kingdom of Thailand.