Transcript of the above video: 

I made a video contemporaneously with this one in which we were talking about major changes within the Thailand Elite or Thailand Privilege if you will, Visa system. Now that is a membership club if you will, it's sort of a Privilege Card that one of the benefits thereof is prolonged visa status in 5-year increments up to 20 years.

I have discussed Thailand Elite in many other videos; the different packages associated with Thailand Elite. I urge those who are watching this video, go to the search function of our channel and look that up or go to the resources section of our website, legal.co.th and you can look up Thailand Elite or Thailand Privilege in the search function. You'll find many videos and a lot of information about the Thailand Elite program, or it's now called the Thailand Privilege Visa, whatever you want to call it, program, at length information about how to get into the program and things. Again the video I made contemporaneously with this one was discussing what I will discuss here, but this discussion will be tangential to that. In that discussion, we were talking about the fact that they are cancelling appointments for Thailand Elite Visa holders, requiring new background checks be done before new visas are issued. So effectively, they are putting like a hold on people's visas until they come in and do a new appointment, to do a new background check to continue their status; that's what it looks like to me. 

Now I found this out from a viewer who brought up another good point which is what caused me to make this video. This viewer sent me an email, quote: "I watch your YouTube channel for your great information that you provide," - thank you very much - quoting further: "I was in the process of getting my Elite Visa transferred over to a new passport, when I received an email stating that the appointment at Chaengwattana was cancelled but not only my appointment, all appointments were cancelled. I did a Google search to investigate, and I found a thread on ASEAN now by the Thaiger ...titled... ELITE VISA APPOINTMENT SUDDENLY CANCELLED... I didn't want to post a link because I don't open links from strangers." Quoting further: "After talking to Elite I found out that" and I think you said "I could find out that a new policy was put in place on 29 August, 2025 for new background checks on all Elite/Thai Privilege holders. I hope I translated correctly; from the rep all visas have basically expired until new background checks were/are completed." 

Now here is the point he brings up that I think is relevant for everybody; it might be something to happen at the back of your mind. "If this happened to the Elite/Privilege holders this could or may turn into a waterfall effect on all visas and yet a new ripple in the forever changing world of Thai Immigration and the visa process." Yeah, not outside the realm of possibility. I mean look, the fact of the matter is police background checks on standard Visa Extensions especially background checks for any kind of criminal record outside of Thailand, it's not an overly how do I put it, deeply scrutinizing process, let's put it that way. They do on a certain level, as I have discussed in other videos, Thai Immigration is already hooked into things like NCIC as well as databases associated with possible, basically sex offenders in other jurisdictions so from that standpoint, things like the Advanced Passenger Processing System, or the PIBICS system that Immigration already has in place, those things are there that are already doing certain things background checks. But in terms of really in-depth background checks on people here internally in Thailand, they may or may not happen, again depending on the underlying facts in a given case. 

Could this situation with Thailand Elite where they are basically effectively putting a hold on people's visas until they come in for a new appointment and do an even more thorough background check, be a harbinger for all visas here in Thailand? It could be. Frankly I don't think it is outside the realm of possibility. In fact when I first read that, it's one of those things, there's a great series The Company, it talks about sort of the CIA and the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and it talks about the Cold War era, there's a guy named Harvey - his code name was the Sorcerer - and he said, "my nose didn't twitch. When my nose twitches I know there's something up." And this one my nose kind of twitched, to use his terminology. When I thought, you know, if they are doing heavy background checks on Thailand Elite Visa holders - and these are people that are paying a significant amount of money to be involved in the membership program, that then confers this Visa - I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that we could be seeing more thorough and extensive background checks associated with all types of visas here in Thailand.

That said, it remains to be seen; it should not be viewed as a foregone conclusion but merely information and data points for you to use. Personally, this is just me pointing it out; I am not drawing any conclusions nor am I saying that this is in fact going to happen. That being said, we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.