Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing discretion particularly as it pertains to employment and Employment Law here in Thailand regarding the Destination Thailand Visa.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Not many exceptions in Thailand for working without a permit. Yeah, I have done another video contemporaneously with this one. Unless you are basically working for an Embassy, the United Nations or basically the Police in a voluntary capacity, there aren't exceptions to Work Permit requirements for foreigners here in Thailand. Thais take their labour pool seriously. You can call the country protectionist, call it whatever and the way I look at it they view their national sovereignty, they jealously guard it. They view it as something to be treasured, and they don't want it to be undermined or eroded. On top of that, they don't want to see themselves put out of work in their own country. I don't think that those are sentiments that frankly many people would disagree with if they sit down and really think about it and frankly, I think a lot of the problems we are seeing in the West is that they don't have that kind of mentality as it pertains to their own home jurisdictions. 

Now that said, quoting directly from this article: again Not many exceptions in Thailand for working without a permit, Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, quoting directly: "Discretion was also introduced with the introduction of the Destination Thailand Visa in July 2024." No it was not; it's just blatantly not true, okay. What was introduced with the Destination Thailand Visa was a Visa that was entirely the brainchild of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; it was primarily brought out in 2024 as Ms. Paetongtarn Shinawatra was coming in and it was touted frankly, in many ways erroneously, as something that it was not and it was touted in such a way so as to basically spike the numbers of "tourists" coming in because it was technically classified as a Tourist Visa although it had like longer implications and it was all very vague etc. But basically, the point of it was to create the impression that with her coming into office, all of this tourism was just booming as a result of the initiative of her and her Party; that's what it looked like to me. And quite frankly, I think if you go back and look at it, it was borne out. I said at the time to much unpopularity, that the Destination Thailand Visa was bad policy thinking, it was a bad idea, and it was a bad idea from the standpoint of they didn't take into account internal Thai Immigration on the matter. And we are now seeing the fallout from this as the Destination Thailand Visa is not turning out to be what it was sold as and this whole idea that there is some sort of nebulous nature to work authorization associated with it is another one of these misnomers. Most notably folks that have come in on the DTV, they are finding that their bank accounts are being closed, or they are not allowed to have a bank account; well it's specifically because it is not work authorized and having banking facilities would denote being work authorized in Thailand. That is where that comes from. And again the five-year nature of it was not very clear. It's my understanding it doesn't mean you can just live here for five years. It was supposed to be like a come and go kind of thing. We give it to you for 5 years; you can come in; you are given six months at entry but presumably you are not supposed to use it for the full period of time. I think it was kind of modelled on the way that the American B1/B2 Tourist Visa is utilized as a practical matter and this is a misnomer as well. People don't really understand that the US Tourist Visa, it's not automatically granting you 6 months at entry. It's just Immigration or I should say US Customs and Border Protection changes their stamp, the date on their stamp every day when midnight rolls around, they change the date on their stamp. They don't want to change the date on every B1/B2 Visa holders' stamp. They just give everybody 6 months because it's expedient. The thinking behind the DTV I think was similar where yeah, we are going to give you this thing; it's 5 years, and you can come and go on it. You don't have to worry about counting your days and exemptions and how many Visa exemptions you get at a time, but the way it was bandied or the way it was sort of I guess presented was, "oh it's 5 years and you get six months at each entry." Well as discussed in videos regarding the analysis of US Tourist Visas, eventually Immigration is going to say, "hey you're living here on this thing, that is not what it's designed for." And I think we are going to see further problems with it as people find themselves not being able to use it the way they thought they were going to be able to use it. Again, it all stemmed from being bad policy designed for political points to be garnered in the very, very short term. It was just a bad policy move across the board. 

Meanwhile, this so-called nebulousness or discretion associated with the DTV as it pertains to work authorization simply isn't there as well. Quoting further: "With or without such a Visa, remote workers or digital nomads were excused from possible arrest provided that their activities did not impinge on the Thai economy in any way." One, that is a complete misnomer, and the quote he is taking, that actually came from Interior Ministry making comments on this in the aftermath of having the DTV foisted upon them. They didn't have any say in making it, so then all these people came in and everybody was like, "Well are they work authorized?" Well we are not going to bother them if what they do “doesn't impinge on the Thai economy”. Again, that's the reasoning for why they can't get bank accounts, but again that doesn't mean they are work authorized. And on top of that, did anybody check with the Labour Ministry when this came about? Because I have never seen the Labour Ministry chime in on this whatsoever. Interior is talking about or, (I should say the Labour Department - excuse me), but Interior is talking about it doesn't impinge on the Thai economy. Well I have got to be honest with you, that would not give me a lot of consolation if I was on this Visa. And I actually have a lot of sympathy for people who went for this Visa because it was sold a certain way. The problem was it just doesn't add up to what it was sold as; that is just a fact of it. Virtually anything would impinge upon the Thai Company. If you take the money from the ATM that you have garnered from whatever it is you are doing online, that impinges upon the Thai economy. It's kind of like the analysis and any lawyer will immediately know what I am talking about, regarding Interstate Commerce and how that allows Federal involvement in virtually anything even though the enumerated powers of the US Constitution say that the FED shouldn't be involved with much of anything, they use "Interstate Commerce" as the sort of camel's nose under the tent to get them into anything. Well impinging on the Thai economy is virtually anything, I am here to tell you.

And again no, no discretion was introduced with regard to work authorization of the DTV because none of the bodies in Thailand that have anything to do with work authorization were consulted about the DTV in the first place which is why it was bad policy and bad implementation to begin with. That said, quoting further: "There have not been test cases, but these foreigners are likely to be in the" - likely to be - in the clear." That doesn't mean anything, and honestly this is one of those scenarios where soft soaping this issue is going to actually hurt people because they are going to go over the line; look nobody is saying that Thai Immigration is running around like special operations guys, like repelling down the side of of buildings to look into windows to see if somebody is on their laptop working from abroad or remotely or something. Nobody is doing that but what but I'm talking about is over time complacency sets in, people start doing things, they end up operating too flagrantly, and the next thing you know they are getting arrested and deported and then they are making some kind of social media post which makes Thailand look bad, all because they were detrimentally relying on a Visa that was ill conceived or if it was conceived to its purpose, it was only conceived for political expediency, again for point scoring in the short term, okay. And again, Thailand is going to end up looking bad out of all of this if and when people end up in violation of the Work Permit rules internally and end up with problems on it. That said, quoting again: "There have not been test cases, but these foreigners are likely to be in the clear." Well I wouldn't want to bet on “’likely” when it comes to work authorization in Thailand - "provided their employer, earnings and customers are wholly non-Thai." Again, that's not the analysis for how work authorization works in Thailand and never was, and when this thing was created, nobody from the Department's pertaining to work authorization were really consulted in any way.

So again the point I'm trying to make with this video is if you're coming to Thailand to use the DTV and you really just aren't working, you're probably going to be fine okay but if you are trying to come over here and do something and try and skirt around the Labour Laws here in Thailand, it's a bad move. And on top of it, the Government that created this thing is gone, okay. At best what you can hope for is just mild benign neglect. My thinking is notwithstanding in this article as I have discussed in other videos there's talk that “oh, they are going overhaul the Immigration Act and all will be well.” I don't see that coming, I don't think that's a foregone conclusion at all. That said, I do think that detrimentally relying on this thing and thinking you can just skirt the Labour Department rules here in Thailand just because you have got this Visa, under the current circumstances, I don't think it's a great idea.