Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Permanent Residence. For those who are unaware Permanent Residence as opposed to what sometimes is referred to as like Long-Term Residence or Residence in Thailand or even Tax Residence, it's a different thing. This is an Immigration status very much akin to the so-called Green Card in the United States or Lawful Permanent Residence in the United States. This is the status wherein a foreign national is granted Immigrant status; they are granted status as a permanent resident here in Thailand; they can live presumably in perpetuity in Thailand presuming they don't commit any major crimes and are subject to deportation but they can live virtually in perpetuity in Thailand as Permanent Residents, they are basically done dealing with visas. As we have discussed in other videos under the terms of the Immigration Act of 1979, they also are not subject to deal with 90-day reporting, they don't have to do things like TM30, the old TM28 as well. They also get certain types of benefits oftentimes, they get priority clearance through the airport, they use different lines from standard non-immigrant or tourist visas. It may also be the stepping stone as well to Thai Nationality. It may be possible to go ahead and apply for Thai nationality sort of after obtaining Lawful Permanent Residence here in Thailand. 

But the announcement specifically pertains to the opening of the Permanent Residence application "window" so-called. Bear in mind, there is only a set amount of time in any given year that Immigration accepts and begins adjudicating and processing Permanent Resident applications and it changes every year. It sort of depends on their case load and when they decide to open the window. I thought of making this video after reading a recent announcement on the Thai Immigration website, that's immigration.go.th and to be clear the notification says: Notification of Immigration Bureau Admission of application for residential permit in the year B.E. 2566 (2023). The relevant parts in there for the purposes of our viewers here in English, PR window will open from 16 October to 29th December, 2023. So during that time period, it will be possible to get a petition for Permanent Residence on file with the Thai Immigration Department and get that process going. 

Now this is not the end of the road. You are looking at multi-months, possibly years before a Permanent Residence application is fully adjudicated. That said, here recently, a little over a year we have been seeing, one to two years kind of standard cases have been kind of processing in that flow. That said, the other thing to bear in mind, you should not wait to prepare the application. We have done videos throughout the year and we have done them throughout many years up to this point talking about the fact that you want to go ahead and prepare your application for Permanent Residence long before the window opens. Now we are sitting here in September, sort of the end of September, this is going to open up mid-October, I mean yeah contact us if you want to go ahead and make an application, get one on file and we can discuss it with you, provide some insight on that. We may be able to get you on file this year depending on your situation but there is a lot of documentation associated with Permanent Residence application, so getting it started earlier is always better. That said, it may still be possible here in the 4th quarter of 2023 to go ahead and start and file possibly a Permanent Residence application but again always remember, it's better to get this started earlier rather than later. So if you haven't started this already and you think you may be eligible or you think you are going to be eligible perhaps next year, it's good to get on this at the earliest, the earliest as possible. Another thing to think about, I have had some folks here recently say "well I think I am eligible" and actually we have done the adjudication, well we have done the analysis I should say, and we found that they have been eligible to apply for PR and they have said "well, I am going to wait till next year, I am going to put it on the back burner." Look, if you really want it and this is true, this is good advice for anything having to do with Immigration to any country, if you are eligible to file for an Immigration benefit and you ultimately do want it in the long run, it is a much, much, much better idea to get it on file rather than wait around and presume you will be able to get it on file later. Immigration Rules change, Immigration Regulations change, eligibility criteria change. If you are already on file, you will be adjudicated generally speaking, on the rules under which you file, so the time of the filing unless they make massive overhauls to an Immigration System which is pretty rare. We even saw that under Trump back in the United States where he was making grand declarations regarding, I can't remember what he called them like 'chain migration' and these kinds of things where it was you had an anchor family that would then being utilized to get other people in, a lot of talk in the time about changing things, nothing really came to fruition and even if it had, folks who had already filed and gotten in the system there is some ex post facto issues that go into, basically they can't change it after the fact that you file it, they can't change the rules sort of retroactively. Again that is generally the case with Immigration systems throughout the world. Once you get on file, you are sort of in the system. I think the same can be said for Thailand especially regarding Permanent Residence. Again if you are eligible, it is generally speaking a better idea to get on file sooner rather than later.