Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called "digital nomad" visas. This has been kind of a weird thing to watch just to somebody who well heavily researches Thai Immigration and just sort of general Immigration around the world. This whole attempting to attract digital nomads, there's definitely a lot of vagueness on both sides as to what constitutes a digital nomad and I don't think anybody on either side, the digital nomad looking for the Visa nor the Government, in this case the Thai Government, concerned really has sort of sussed out exactly what the parties are looking for. I will get into this here in a minute. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya Grapevine: Retirement Visa stampede. The subheading is: Digital Nomads Plight. Quoting directly: "Although Thailand is a popular hub for remote workers, there is still no specific Visa regulation to cover most of them because of the stipulation they must earn US$ 80,000 in a 2-year period. (80,000 US dollars) Quoting further: "Most digital nomads don't want to be bothered with detailed regulations and mostly survive on Tourist Visas whilst keeping their heads down. There's a nod and a wink from the authorities." I don't know if there's a nod and a wink from the authorities, they just don't really notice it I think; that is more the issue as kind of brought up in the terms of that or in the actual article itself.

Yeah it is kind of a weird situation because on the one hand I kind of find a little bit strange that in this case the Thai Government is kind of looking for people to come and be here and even work but not really gain any tax benefit out of it. I guess and while I do think it's laudable, yeah those folks are going to spend money here. One or two digital nomads versus say 10 retirees, the 10 retirees by volume are going to probably spend more money. I would even argue four retirees versus two digital nomads notwithstanding the fact, these two digital nomads under the LTR scheme might have a great deal of money; they might meet that $80,000 threshold. Just because they have money doesn't mean they are spending tons of money all the time. I mean retirees may have a more modest retirement plan, savings plan, Social Security, pension whatever, but it is still volume and they are still spending it, l they are not necessarily saving it whereas a young digital nomad so to speak, might be looking to save their money. On the other side of it like that article noted, it is this kind of gray area and these digital nomads, if you want to call them that, they're not really looking to live anywhere. By definition they are nomads, they are kind of wandering around so, I made other videos on this, it is kind of an odd Visa category. I give Thai Immigration Officials credit for trying to find a way to fit these folks into the Immigration system but we may have to satisfy ourselves with the notion that maybe there never is going to be a perfect fit in the Thai Immigration system for so-called digital nomads.