Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well even more new announcements and changes associated with the Thailand Elite or Thailand Privilege Visa. I thought of making this video after receiving an email from a viewer, quoting directly: "Thank you for your very informative videos." - no problem, tip of the hat to you sir - "The attached picture is from the new Thailand Privilege Services update for May" - and we'll go ahead and throw some of this on screen, but – “they go into more detail for the new Visa fixation requirements which may be interesting for your YouTube channel, especially it stood out to me that they accept employment outside of Thailand making me and surely other of your viewers confused about if remote work is allowed or not. Best regards and keep anonymous." 

Real quick, before I get into further analysis just off the cuff here, my better half and I did set up a restaurant in downtown Bangkok. If you're interested in American Diner style food including breakfast anytime, the name is Pancake Palace. As the name implies, we have pancakes. We also have English style breakfast, and we also have American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, buffalo wings, grilled cheese sandwiches, Coke in glass bottles; if you're interested, please feel free to check us out at Pancake Palace. Again, links are in the description below.

Okay, so back to sort of the main points here. Going over here to Thailand Privilege Services and again, this doesn't necessarily only pertain to Elite. We're seeing a lot of this. I really need to make a video maybe on this specifically, but the issue of work authorization - especially where it pertains to where the nexus of the work is sort of occurring outside of Thailand, one sort of implicit policy change has been that basically, if it's occurring outside of Thailand, Authorities here - again it really depends on the underlying facts of the case, and this is wherein lies the problem and why I am very much in favour of comprehensive Immigration reform - but if it's occurring outside of Thailand, there are all these new visas that say well we're not looking at that. Basically they are turning a blind eye to it, notwithstanding the fact the actual definitions and things - which I've gotten into in videos on this channel - from the Labour Department etc. are very stringent on what constitutes work. But they are basically saying we're turning a blind eye to that. 

The problem with that is it leaves this very sort of nebulous situation for these foreigners where they don't quite know where they exactly stand. Again one turn of events could lead them to a situation where it could be determined that the nexus or whatever they are doing is here, which is pretty easy to deduce or infer if you are looking at it interpretively from the fact that they are spending the predominant amount of their time physically here. It's a very almost schizophrenic argument to say, "well you're here in Thailand, but you're not working here in Thailand, but you're deriving money even though you're not working in Thailand." Again, I get it. In the digital world and all of this, it's possible, but again the law hasn't really caught up with that and it's why it's left all these people finding themselves in situations they didn't really want to put themselves in, because they were detrimentally relying on a visa of that they thought had certain parameters, but it turned out that they didn't. 

That said, this person was referring specifically to: For Employed Members (Outside Thailand) and this is under Thailand Privileged Services, we will put this on screen:

• Recent bank statements (from the last 3-6 months) 
• Payslips and an employment verification letter from your employer (must include an official certified stamp)

You know, again Elite Visa was supposed to be designed to be this thing where you just paid in; once you're in the system it was sort of hassle free. It's proven to be anything but. Meanwhile, they created the DTV which they said was one thing and then people started using it, it turned out to be a totally separate thing. We're also seeing all sorts of issues associated with folks that are not really understanding what the terms of other types of newly created visas, most notably things like the LTR, and they go around talking about it as if one thing is correct, when in reality, again depending on the facts of their case, it's not actually the situation as they see it. I mean the whole name of the Visa, Long-term Resident, is a little bit misleading because it doesn't confer Lawful Permanent Residence which is a defined thing under the Immigration Act of '79 as we have discussed in other videos.

The point I'm trying to make with this is as I've discussed at length in one video I made contemporaneously with this one specifically, is one, I think we really need comprehensive immigration reform. It would be good for Thailand to streamline the Immigration System so that we can better deal with folks that are out of compliance, and I think it would also be better for the expat community and people looking to invest money in Thailand, to be able to point to an actual Act that says these are the terms and conditions associated with the Visa. So long story short, yeah there are continuing changes in the Elite System. Work authorization across the board remains nebulous, but we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.