Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called Elite Visas. It is worth pointing out that some time back, they decided to effectively officially change the name of the Elite Visa Program to this Thailand Privilege Program. That also happened at the same time that they upped the fees associated with that Visa. So I'm calling it Thailand Elite colloquially, sort of euphemistically, everybody refers to it as the Thailand Visa, but officially it's the Thailand Privilege Visa, so just sort of keep that in mind. 

That being said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Foreigners and Thai Law: the changing Pattaya scenario. Quoting directly: "The customer base for lawyers is changing as more non-traditional markets, especially China and India, expand annually. Apart from tourism, there is currently a lot of interest in Long-Stay Visas such as Elite, Long-term Residence.." - again the LTR, we have discussed that in the past, it is called a Residence Visa, it does not grant Permanent Residence in Thailand. It remains a Non-Immigrant visa. There are also a lot of misnomers associated with it. Those misnomers are often propagated by the Board of Investment which I don't know why they want to talk out of line with regard to the actual Immigration Act of '79, but let's just leave that aside. Quoting further: .."and the new Destination Thailand Visa or DTV." And as we have discussed with regard to that at length, Thai Immigration has not spoken to that Visa specifically. Now Ministry of Foreign Affairs has gone out and done a massive PR blitz on it but a lot of what they're saying and they have even said, their own spokesman, "well yeah, Immigration will have to deal with that." Immigration hasn't spoken to any of it so whatever you are reading online about the Destination Thailand Visa, you may want to take with a grain of salt and you may want to contact a legal professional to gain some insight into all of your possible options as there may be other better ways of dealing with things than the Destination Thailand Visa. Also, we don't know precisely what the practicalities are going to be like associated with that Visa. That being said, quoting further: "The Elite Visa dates from 2002 and was originally designed for westerners, but the largest number of applications in recent years has been from Chinese Nationals." And actually, we have seen a number of Indian Nationals here recently applying for the Elite Visa. Meanwhile, we have also seen a number of folks who have passports that may not be covered under Thailand's Visa Exemption or visa-on-arrival scheme looking with interest in the Thailand Elite Visa system and also some of the other visa options that are out there. 

But that said, yeah, I think Thailand Elite is always going to be a very sort of niche if you will type of Visa for a certain type of person that just wants to front load all of that, deal with it, pay for it, and not have to worry about Visa hassles again. Again, certain folks with certain kinds of "weak passports" if you will may be greatly benefited by the usage of the Thailand Elite but again, such things are never quite a complete 100% foregone conclusion, so we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.