Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Destination Thailand Visa and we are specifically discussing it in the context of banking here in the Kingdom of Thailand. For those who are unaware, one, banking can be a bit of a tricky thing. We assist a number of clients in setting up bank accounts here in Thailand - both in conjunction with Immigration as well as just as a free-standing service - and it is one of those things that again when you are coming in from the West it's like "well I can just walk into an office and set up a bank account". Not so easy here in Thailand which brings us to the question of the Destination Thailand Visa.

We have been in contact with Thai Immigration regarding the ins and outs of this and as with most things, they are telling us "give us a minute, we need to see how it's actually going to play out practically in terms of processing and things." One thing we also went ahead and did some research on is banking. And one thing that is very opaque right now and in fact I am not getting much of a straight answer at all is if it will even be possible to get a bank account on a Destination Thailand Visa. My gut tells me it might not be. I am not saying that to cause anybody any consternation but where I am sitting at this time, this whole visa was sort of designed around if you will Tax Laws; and I get into that in another video made contemporaneously with this one. But long story short, this notion of staying anywhere, again we have talked about it in other videos, people say it's 180 days in-country and then you are Tax Resident. Well strictly speaking I believe it's 183 days but fine go with 180 days. The DTV has inherently as part of it, you are not going to do a full 180 days ever in Thailand because every time you come in, you are going to be stamped in for 6 months and you are going to have to leave the last day of that six months, so it will keep you under the Tax Resident threshold from a legal standpoint. But that being said, that comes with strings and one of them being, it is presumed you are not earning any income here in Thailand so in that sense very similar to the Retirement Visa. It's also presumed you're not going to be doing any kind of business; you're just here. It is kind of similar to these “nomads” when they came up with it, well that was how they came up with this was this “nomad” thing. They started with the LTR; they are kind of working through the kinks on it I think and now we have come to this Destination Thailand Visa. It’s specifically designed for people who are just long staying tourists; that's how it looks to me. 

For that reason I think it is pretty safe to presume at least in the immediately foreseeable future, banking may not be the easiest thing to deal with, with regard to the Destination Thailand Visa. That said, we will be keeping an eye on this whole issue and we will certainly keep people updated on this channel as that situation evolves.