Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing a Digital Nomad conducting a Visa Run recently and the result being a 5-year ban. I thought of making this video after reading a recent posting on X, it's @BangkokBoy17, Bangkok-Boy, we'll go ahead and throw this up on screen. The post is titled, The Girlfriend's Revenge: A Digital Nomad's Visa Run Ends in a 5-year Ban. Quoting directly: "This video tells the cautionary tale of Aiden, a Digital Nomad and UX developer who had been living and working remotely in Chiang Mai, Thailand by relying on frequent Visa Runs to Laos." 

Now let's go ahead and do a little background here. When we're talking about this nomadism, understand, this is shifting into a whole new world. As we have discussed, a lot of different developments, most notably the tensions along the Thai-Cambodian Border are driving a paradigm shift within not only the Immigration apparatus, but also the security state here in Thailand, in the sense that in the armed services, as well as other bodies like the Immigration Bureau which has kind of a hybrid role between sort of Law Enforcement and National Security concerns, as they have a role along the border, there's a paradigm shift within these institutions and the era of the frequent Border Run is I think at an end. 

Now let's be clear here. There has been a lot of talk. I have discussed articles that I have cited in videos that I have made here recently on things I have read recently where they are talking about Border Runs are coming to an end, or effectively it said; no it's not impossible to do a Border Run. In fact, under certain circumstances it's the most optimal way to deal with whatever the issue is dealing with your Visa. And when I say that it's just sometimes more conducive to getting the thing worked out going over a land border; it just is. Now again, under current circumstances, this may not be optimal depending on where a person might be located, but it's not impossible to do a Border Run but the era of being able to effectively live in Thailand utilizing only Border Runs, that really is kind of at an end. When I say that I mean not having a Visa, just utilizing exemption status or maybe occasionally getting a Tourist Visa. A big element of this change also has to do with the fact that people are no longer doing visas at physical Embassies and Consulates anymore, which is a big change; it's not gone. There are a certain cases where you do have to deal with somebody in person. For example, here at the US Embassy in Bangkok, we deal with a lot of interviews involving Fiancé and Marriage Visas and those still have a physical component, even US Tourist Visas still have that. Again depending on the country you are dealing with, if you are dealing with a Thai Embassy, again you may be able to do things in person, you may not. Honorary Consulates as well at one time played a big role in Immigration; much more now they play no role in Immigration. What I'm trying to say is things are changing and the lack of usage of physical Embassies and Consulates may be something that's also driving some of these trends. But long story short, the thing to understand before going further is that the era of being able to live here via Border Runs, especially land Border Runs, it's just not as practical as it once was. 

I get into deep dive analysis into a lot of these topics on our paid news service. If you're interested in getting on the email list for the long form content with our paid new service, please feel free to email us [email protected]. Also if you're interested, while I'm talking my book, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. It's called Pancake Palace, as the name implies breakfast anytime, but it should not be viewed as being limited to just breakfast. We have American Diner style food: we've got hamburgers, cheeseburgers, Sloppy Joe's; we've also got buffalo wings, grilled cheese sandwiches. We've got Coke in glass bottles, so we've got all kinds of American Diner style food as well as again breakfast anytime. If you're interested in coming to join us, links are in the description below. 

That said, getting back to this post, quoting further: "Aiden leaves for an early visa run to Vientiane, Laos, following a major argument with his Thai girlfriend Nat, believing the drama would cool off." Pulled aside by an Immigration Officer, the officer uses Google to find Aiden's LinkedIn profile." Okay this is a big change now. Look, Immigration Officers at checkpoints have tools that years back when I first got out here, they had no usage of. That was in their wildest dreams. Now they have the ability to look at not only this type of thing - online, LinkedIn, things of that nature - but in the past your sort of digital file that they now have, your whole immigration history didn't pop up when Immigration Officers at checkpoints would be interacting with somebody trying to pass through that checkpoint. Now they absolutely do; they pop up. They're going to have your whole file now, right in front of them and it might even be flagged if you've been trying to live in the country for a prolonged period of time utilizing only exemption or Tourist Visa status. And as we're discussing here, it is looking like that's kind of the thinking. Quoting further: "Aiden's LinkedIn profile, which openly lists him as a "UX Designer, remote based in Chiang Mai," directly contradicting his claim of being a tourist living on savings." That is a big deal now guys. I can't state this enough.

I am going to do other videos contemporaneously with this one where I'm talking about work authorization and living in Thailand and things. 

Look, what I can only describe as the Rump Coalition of the last government did no one in the expat community nor the foreign community in Thailand much of any favours with all this nebulous opaque talk regarding being able to live in Thailand and legally be able to have work authorization. They just frankly made something opaque and kind of - how would you put it - sort of fudged it up a little bit to kind of make it, I don't even like that term because that  implies a lack of intent behind it. In this situation, there was the direct intent to make the issue of work authorization opaque in order to sell people on the notion of being a nomad in Thailand, and it did no one any favours here, exactly for this reason. People think they can put on their LinkedIn profile, "hey I'm working in Thailand remotely", and the reality is that's a problem. These visas are not work authorized. As I get into it another video, specifically the Destination Thailand Visa which was basically created to boost numbers as Paetongtarn Shinawatra was coming into power here in Thailand. They made all kinds of wild promises associated with it that it's not authorized to do. As we have discussed in many other videos, anything that "impinges upon the Thai economy", as we discussed, Interior has already made a sort of ruling on this, anything that impinges upon the Thai economy can be deemed to be work in Thailand and that's a problem if you don't have work authorization. Destination Thailand Visa doesn't have direct work authorization which I'll get into in another video, but it's pertinent to this one because they get into it in this post. But more to the point just generally speaking, it's this nebulousness that was created in that Rump Coalition Government around this issue of foreigners coming in, when in reality no legal change had really occurred that has created this situation where people are under the mis-impression if you will, they're misinformed that they are in fact affirmatively work authorized in Thailand. They're not and it's leading to these kind of problems; that's why I brought this up. All you people out there that hate on me over my position on the DTV, I've had younger people especially I've talked to recently, they'll sort of mention the DTV and I think they've seen me online or something, and they are sort of waiting for me to have a negative reaction. As I have said in other videos, if I was under 50 and I was looking to spend some serious time in Thailand, the DTV would be something I would seriously be considering, if this was my first time out here and things. But that being said, it was not well presented when it was created, and they didn't really make clear what the limitations and things are. It's not really designed to live here. The name is nomad, and again on top of that even, there are a lot of discrepancies as to how many times you can come in on it, can it be you used to live here? I don't think it can based on how it was rolled out, what they said at the time that was not the intention. Again I could go into the history and things but long story short this lack of clarity on work authorization has created a situation where foreigners are showing up here and they are having problems. That's not only a problem for them, I mean why put somebody into that position, it's not a good thing. It's also bad for Brand Thailand because then we get posts like this on X and elsewhere, things on YouTube and videos etc., where it makes Thailand look like "oh they are arbitrary and capricious or something" If we would have just been clear at the outset, "hey this isn't work authorized, if it impedes upon the Thai economy, you can't do it here. Now people say, "well what does that mean? I thought I could work remote." What it really means is they're turning a blind eye to people who are on a phone or on a laptop working on something that the nexus of that commerce is occurring outside of Thailand; that's what's happening with all of this. They don't care about that. They can't come out exactly and articulate it that way, but that's basically what has occurred, and we can define that in the negative if you will, because we've seen what isn't authorized and again if it "impinges upon the Thai economy". Well what does that mean? Could be anything. It's like the “definition” of work in Thailand as I've discussed in other videos. Could be anything. Breathing could be considered work; it's exerting effort with or without compensation. “Impinges upon the Thai economy.” What does that mean? It is like minimum contacts in the International Shoe case pertaining to jurisdiction in an American context. It can mean a lot and it's a very broad notion and why I'm making this video is so that foreigners coming in in the future, don't get jammed up by this thinking that they are just, "oh, I'm completely authorized to work in Thailand." You're really not; on a lot of these visas you're not. Unless you have an affirmative work permit or an affirmative work authorization from a relevant authority with competent jurisdiction to issue that in Thailand, you're not work authorized per se.

That being said, quoting further: "Aiden leaves for his early Visa Run to Vientiane, Laos, following a major argument with his Thai girlfriend Nat, believing the drama would cool off." Pull aside by an Immigration Officer, the officer uses Google to find Aiden's LinkedIn profile which openly lists him as a "UX designer remote based in Chiang Mai", directly contradicting his claim of being a tourist living on savings." So that's the key to this. I'm not going to quote further from this regarding what goes on with him and his girlfriend. I have another video I am making contemporaneously with this one on that. That said, quoting further: "The story serves as a stark warning to other digital nomads: the video argues that the days of endless Visa Runs and working under the radar in Thailand are over," Yeah, they have been over. There was never a time that was allowed. There was a time where people were just getting away with it more. As a friend of mine once said, a lot of folks out here have detrimentally relied on Thai non-enforcement for so long, they presume that that is the standard, that that is the norm, and it is not. Quoting further: "and anyone serious about staying must legalize their status, such as obtaining a Digital Nomad Visa." - That's not going to do it; they're not work authorized. As I've discussed in other videos, if it impinges upon the Thai economy then you're in a situation where you don't have work authorization to do that in Thailand. 

I go into a deep, deep drill down in another video I made contemporaneously with this one, but the thing to take away from this video is, again if he was in DTV or not it would be the same analysis. The fact that it said on his LinkedIn, “UX Designer remote based in Chiang Mai”, that impinges upon the Thai economy; that's enough. That's what ultimately was the reason this person had a problem maintaining their status and maintaining lawful status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.