Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Elite Visa holders being subjected to heightened scrutiny from Thai Immigration. I have to be honest, I really wonder where this scrutiny is coming from, especially in light of the fact that many of the folks that got into the Elite Visa System paid a significant amount of money to be in that status. So I want to preface it with sort of that statement because from where I sit, I'm very concerned. I don't understand where Immigration Policy is exactly going. Frankly, I think maybe the system doesn't understand either, because it's like there are all these disparate parts that are doing all these different things. Much of it is either not in line with the provisions of the Immigration Act of '79 or just ignores the Immigration Act of '79; I've discussed this in other contexts. But I have got to be honest, as time has moved forward, going back into the summer, the late great Barry Kenyon brought up the fact that he thought in this upcoming Parliament, one way or the other, we would see some major reforms to Immigration. At that time I disagreed with him; in the interim I think he's probably right. I think we are probably likely to see something and frankly, I think it would probably be a good thing. Not because I want to see any of these visas go away, or I think some are better or worse than the others, but the whole thing just needs to be streamlined. They have created a bunch of new categories and different internal entities within Thailand have sort of their own Visa categories and they all contravene each other. And then on top of it, folks that went and paid good money to be in something like Thailand Elite - now sometimes referred to as Thailand Privilege - it seems like they are getting scrutinized for things that the sole purpose of having Elite was to not be scrutinized for. So what am I talking about here? 

I initially thought of making this video after I read a recent email; somebody sent this to me by email. Quoting directly: "Mr. Hart, been in Thailand for just over 2 years now. Life is good. Thanks for your counsel ahead of my move. I will follow your channel on YouTube and always appreciate your insights. You may be in the Facebook group that I have seen this, but if not I thought you would find it interesting. First, I've heard of this particular scenario, though the author leaves out some important facts, if you're unable to access this group link. Anyway, hope all is well. See you for buffalo wings next time I'm in Bangkok." 

Yeah, those who are unaware, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. Pancake Palace. As the name implies, it is breakfast anytime including American and English breakfast, although as the name may not suggest, we also have American Diner style food, it is not only breakfast food. We have American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, we've got tacos now. We have got chilli bowls, buffalo wings - as the person who sent me an email noted. So if you're interested in that, link in the description below, if you want to come see us. 

That said, he then linked me over to this Facebook group, Thailand Privilege Members Group (formerly Elite Visa). This person posted, quote: "Just had an Elite Visa transfer refused at entry at Suvarnabhumi, as immigration don't believe I'm not working, possibly because we don't leave Thailand much. I've been given 30 days to prove to Division 1, BKK that I'm not working." Well proving a negative? How do you go about, I mean there's nothing worse than trying to prove a negative. How do you prove someone is not working? That said, quoting further: "Anyone got any tips? All I can think of is old bank statements showing I used to earn enough to save enough savings to live here. New bank statements showing no salary, and obviously the savings that are funding our stay. Any other ideas?"

Okay a couple of things going on here. First, for those folks out there who have been flaming me in comments and whatever over my position on, "hey don't draw any foregone conclusions for example on the way they are going to assess tax with regards to the LTR". This is an example of the way that these things can pop up. This person was coming back in. They were refused Elite Visa transfer. So that means this person had gone through the first five years and was having their new sticker put into their passport. Now bear in mind, they are members of the Elite program, and they paid for whatever the next status is. It's not a one off. There are a different programs. You can get 5, 10, 15, 20 years in Elite status and the detrimental reliance by the people that bought into this system was based on the notion that at the five-year mark they get their next sticker. It wasn't, "hey you're going to be scrutinized and told that you have to go prove a negative that you are not working within a month of arrival." I have got to be honest, coming and going on this stuff. And this is another one, the DTV. I have discussed this before too. We don't exactly know what this thing is going to look like. If they are doing this to Elite, you don't think it's possible that they might start messing around with the DTV? I have talked about this on other podcasts and also on this channel frequently. Yeah, I think they are going to tweak it. I think they're going to do all kinds of things with DTV. I don't think it's going to be a foregone conclusion that it's going to look exactly like it was said it was going to be. And quite frankly, as we discussed in other videos, when DTV was coming online, they basically made it as rosy as possible to spike the numbers to make Paetongtarn Shinawatra look good coming into the Premiership at that time. 

It was bad policy, which is leading to bad outcomes, and then on top of it, the people that are using this stuff are getting it coming and going. And again, if you don't think that the LTR Visa or the DTV could be subject to this kind of scrutiny, again they bring it up that it's based on work authorization, which as I have discussed in other videos, Elite is expressly not work authorized. But to all those folks out there who have lamented me saying that where is the legal authority for the LTR to grant work authorization, don't seem to notice that this stuff will or could eventually matter. At the end of the day, I am really kind of, I don't usually like to like to espouse my opinions on Immigration because they have a job and they do what they do, but honestly I'm really deeply concerned that they would be; okay they're scrutinizing people, work authorization could be considered an issue. 

But for these people that have detrimentally relied on being in the Elite System, they haven't overstayed their visas, they have paid their money, what are we doing to those folks? And then at the same time, to my mind it undermines if you will, the confidence of these new Visa categories that have been created. My hope is that in this upcoming Parliament we see an actual Immigration Act that streamlines all this stuff so that we will actually start to see a more coherent Immigration System here in the Kingdom of Thailand in the forthcoming future.