Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing this new so-called Destination Thailand Visa. With regard to this, understand we are in early days here. You are seeing a lot of folks on the internet, yet again, talking about things that quite honestly, I often wonder if they have a very deep understanding of. Now there are some other folks that I think have a very deep and nuanced understanding Thai Immigration and how it works as we will get into the source material here in a moment. That source in my opinion is quite good but then you will see other things on the internet, like with tax, that "if you bring any Baht in, they are going to tax you 34%!" There is nonsensical stuff out there as well. 

What you need to take away from this video right now regarding this DTV Visa, we don't know how this works yet. We're right on the cusp here in June at the time of making this video. We have not seen this thing rolled out; we have not seen the practical implications when it comes to the regulations that Immigration is going to impose with regard to this; we don't know what the adjudication is going to look like coming from Thai Immigration regarding these type of visas, as well as the adjudication protocols associated with the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, i.e. Thai Consulates and Embassies abroad who might be issuing these types of visas. In any case let's get into this. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's new visa rules from June 1 break fresh ground. Quoting directly: "In other moves, the number of Non-immigrant Visas will be reduced by creating a new DTV (Destination Thailand Visa) which will now cover remote workers, sportsmen, musicians and medical tourists among others." Okay. First off, again I am going to be interested to see the way this plays out because again as we have discussed in another contexts, work authorization is not the same thing as Immigration authorization. I have read the Immigration Act of '79; there is no inherent work authorization conferred under that either, so when they talk about "oh these visas are going to allow things like sportsman and remote workers and musicians", we have heard this before and it's, I don't want to say it's disingenuous, but I worry that it is kind of a misnomer because as a practical matter, I am not sure that that is how this is going to play. Again it's like the context of a Business Visa. People think because they have a Business Visa, they can work in Thailand. Well they can't or at least historically that has always been the case. The Business Visa is your Visa. Work Authorization, your Work Permit is another thing entirely and as we have discussed before, Labour Department is a different Ministry; it's a different department of the Thai Government if you will than the Immigration Department. They are two different things, so that's something to bear in mind when reviewing policies regarding Immigration and when especially in the foreign community here when they say, "well I can work on this Visa." Well, have you checked that out? That's a really good question. Again it is going to depend on your circumstances and again even Government folks come out and say things that are not in line with what the actual laws are. Again we haven't seen an actual amendment to the Immigration Act of '79, so anything that comes along would be regulatory and the regulations are subordinate at the end of the day to the Act itself. You have got to bear that in mind. In any event, quoting further: "The DTV will allow a stay up to 180 days plus an extension on payment of a further fee for a period of five years." Now again, we discussed this in another video. Apparently this is going to be similar to the old multi-entry one year visas wherein the sticker validity if you will, was a year, but when you came into Thailand you got 90 days of status at each entry. From what I have read in other sources this will have a 5-year sticker validity if you will with the ability to come in and be granted lawful status for 180 days, and you can get a second 180 days, but also from what I have read that, will end your status. You can't continue to do that throughout the whole 5 years. Total amount of time you actually get in-country and how you choose to use that is up to you, but the total amount as I understand is a year over the course of that five years; that is how I am understanding it as of the time of this video. Again, understand we haven't seen this rolled out; we haven't seen the practicalities associated with this type of Visa. It's why I have kind of drug my feet on talking about it because I don't like to speculate about these things. I prefer to talk about them as they are rolling out and then go ahead and talk about them as we are seeing them practically applied, as we are seeing the rules practically applied. But for now, what my understanding is, is that you get two 180 day sets of status or intervals of lawful status if you will, over the course of a five-year period. Quoting further: "The Government spokesman did not provide all the details, but there is a provision for families to join the Visa holder. The cost of the Visa appears to be 10,000 Baht per 180 days with a 500,000 Baht Bond lodged in a Thai Bank." I've also heard various things: proving up that you have 500,000 Baht.

Again this notion of lodging it as a bond, that seems on point to me and it is interesting because I think those who are trying to promulgate these new rules may be keeping an eye on various tax implications because for example, well maybe they are trying to keep it lower than a huge amount of money because they don't want to put any onus on people trying to transfer money in and then having to possibly deal with assessability or liability. Bear in mind, the FBAR reporting requirements out if the United States are $10,000 in an offshore bank account so the 500,000 Baht, currently that's about 15,000 US, that in and of itself would trigger the need to go ahead and file an FBAR. 

So again, there is a lot going on with these new types of visas; it could have certain tax implications. Again we don't know exactly how this is going to look. In other things that I have read, they have talked about this and said it's not necessarily a Bond, it's more like proving up that you have credit type of thing, but long story short, it does seem that there is a financial component to this new so-called DTV Visa.