Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question: "Can you lose Thai Permanent Residence?" The reason that I bring this up is I was talking to an acquaintance within last week or so and this person said "oh a friend of mine lost their Thai Permanent Residence," and I said "what?" and they said "oh yeah, he was dealing with Immigration and he lost his Thai Permanent Residence." Then I inquired further and eventually I drilled down to find out that, no he actually had an Elite Card this person and unfortunately the person was in a situation where they thought that someone had taken care of something for them, notably their renewal of status, and it hadn't been properly taken care of and they fell out of status and they ended up in overstay. Thailand Elite Visas are Non-Immigrant Visas just like any other Visa: Business Visa, O Marriage Visa, O Retirement Visa, O-A Retirement Visa, Education Visa; Thailand Elite visas are just the same thing essentially. They are a non-Immigrant Visas. They have kind of this built-in longevity to it but it is not Permanent Residence. 

So first off understand what Permanent Residence is in Thailand. Permanent Residence is an adjudication that is undertaken after someone has been in Thailand for a prolonged period of time and then they are converting over to Residency, again circumstantially dependent, they convert over to Residency. Once you are Resident, there is no Visa renewal. If you are just remaining in Thailand, you just remain in Thailand, you are in Residence status; you are in Immigrant status. Now that being said, it is not impossible to lose it. I have never heard of anyone having lost it but for those who are going to lose their Resident status there is a substantial adjudication; there is due process for lack of a better term associated with the adjudication of somebody losing Residence. It is probably one of the reasons why it is a bit cumbersome and difficult and quite frankly not all that common because the system kind of knows in a way that once you have it, the name very much implies the nature of the status; it is Permanent Residence in Thailand. Yes crimes, criminal activity, various other things can cause one to lose it if they remain in Thailand. 

Another key point though and bear this in mind, is those who remain outside of Thailand for longer than one year can lose their Residence. Essentially their Residence is deemed abandoned and they just simply, they can return but they don't return in Residence status and that is a substantial difference and not something you want to go ahead and cause a loss of but be aware of that fact that Thai Permanent Residence can be lost if that foreign national remains outside of Thailand for an overly prolonged period of time.