Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Work Permits here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, Thai Work Permits are required for those who are work authorized in Thailand as we have discussed in many, many other videos but the point of this video is a little bit different. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that's pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Very, very few expats will escape the new Thai Tourism Tax. This article goes in a different direction than the thrust of this video. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail, but quoting directly: "The latest notice from the Thai Tourism Ministry lists the exceptions to the rule that all foreigners must pay on arrival 300 Baht at airports and 150 Baht by land or sea. The fortunate ones are diplomats, infants under 2 years, those with Work Permits (I'll come back to that), single day and transit passengers and that famous expression: foreign residents in Thailand. Okay this is all just a proposed tourist tax. They have been talking about this a while. I'm kind of skeptical that they will ever manage to get this thing incorporated or promulgated because quite honestly, it's an uphill battle this whole thing. In any event the people that are presumed to be exempted would be diplomats, infants under 2, those with Work Permits and then transit and then so-called foreign residents which I'm making another video contemporaneously with this one where we get into that. 

But the Work Permit issue. Going back into April 2020 when Thailand cracked the door open if you will with regard to the quarantine, the full lockdown of the country, there was about a month in there where nobody could get into Thailand, even Thai Nationals could not return to Thailand. Thailand did a full quarantine, for good or ill that's what they did. Quite honestly, they followed the international protocols to the letter; other jurisdictions not so much. Point being, one of the categories that was allowed back into Thailand during that period when they just cracked the door open just a tiny bit, if you go back and look, the only people that were able to do that were Work Permit holders that were foreign nationals. The only Non-Immigrant Visa holders that could get back into Thailand had work authorization. That was it, those were the only ones that were foreign. Again Permanent Residents, okay they are foreign nationals but they are sort of more on the Thai side of the balance of the ledger if you will. The point I am trying to make here is that is how prioritized Thai Work Permits are within the sort of paradigm of the Immigration apparatus that Work Permit holders were the first and only for a while foreigners that could get into the country. I think that lasted about 2 months and then if you go back  and look, they started letting in folks that had Thai family so O Visa holders that would like married to a Thai. I think even folks that had children here in Thailand whether they were married to a Thai or not were eligible technically to come back and then retirees toward the end of that summer going into the fall, retirees were put on the list allowed to come back in and then that sort of raised its own issues because there were all kinds of issues with O retirees versus O-A Retirees, not the point of this video. Long story short, Thai Work Permit holders were immediately prioritized. The moment things reopened here in Thailand they were immediately prioritized.

This importance of Work Permits is also indicated in the discussion of this policy on a Tourist Tax wherein Work Permit holders are just presumed to be exempt from that from the outset. Now others, like Retirement Visa holders sort of remains to be seen. But the thing to take away from this video and the thing to understand is, Thailand definitely prioritizes those foreign nationals who come to Thailand and gain work authorization. It's clear, 'the proof is in the pudding' if you will; 'by their deeds you shall know them'. I mean when just barely anything was open in Thailand Work Permit holders were prioritized. Meanwhile, when any discussion has come up regarding a possible Thai Tourism Tax or some sort of tax on foreign nationals coming to and from Thailand, Work Permit holders immediately are presumed to not be part of that. That shows you the thinking behind Work Permits within the mind of the apparatus if you will that deals with both Thai Immigration and work authorization here in the Kingdom of Thailand.