Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing work authorization and certain restricted occupations here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket Express, that's thephuketexpress.com, the article is titled: Phuket Police Crack Down on Illegal Tour Guides Ahead of the Upcoming High Season. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail. We did another video contemporaneously with this one on this channel which we are going to put out as well regarding specifics to the tourism sector but I wanted to speak a little bit more broadly on restricted occupations here for a moment. That said, I wanted to quote a quick excerpt and again I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article for further details. Quoting directly: "The operation is part of a nationwide effort targeting 10 categories of crimes with an emphasis on curbing illegal foreign tour guides, which is a protected Thai occupation that even Work Permits and Visas are unavailable for." Two things here. One) the Tourism Sector is the only thing that is specifically noted in this article as being something they are targeting but they are also saying they are targeting 10 total sectors, 10 occupations specifically. So there are nine other things they are out there looking at although they don't specifically say what's up with that in the article, specifically which occupations they are looking at. 

But that said, as we have discussed in other videos, there are a number of occupations that are specifically restricted to Thai nationals only. One of the big ones we have discussed a lot is and unfortunately there's just a ton of quite honestly just fraud artists for lack of a better term, that are out there in the ether of the internet claiming to provide Legal Services as foreigners here in Thailand when as you can see, the restricted occupations specifically prescribes that activity, it's only available to Thai nationals. I know I get a lot of blow back from everybody about this but it's important. The reason it's important is because foreigners could fall into a really serious trap regarding this issue of restricted occupation and they could do it in a very inadvertent way. 

What am I talking about? Well somebody who thinks that they are going to get valid qualified legal advice - if they're getting it from someone who's a foreigner here in Thailand - that foreigner is restricted from engaging in that occupation especially as it pertains to Thai Law. So a lay person who's operating in good faith trying to gain some insight with regard to legal advice here in Thailand, there are certain scenarios I could see where they could be deemed to be engaged in some form of conspiracy because of the end of the day, those “legal advisors” are operating illegally; It's a restricted occupation to Thais only. So if they are operating illegally and somebody else is engaged with them to try to figure out how to deal with Thai Law, in many ways try to circumvent certain aspects of Thai Law, how is that not engaging in some form of conspiracy? I mean at the end of the day, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you have to start to say is it a duck?  

Now again this isn't me just trying to go out on a rant on people that are engaging in this but it can cause serious damage. Again the lack of enforcement with respect to this has also given rise to literal fake lawyers over here. Foreigners who are just completely unqualified whatsoever, have no foreign Law Degree, no foreign background in the legal profession, just operating as if they were Attorneys or something. And again this is a real problem. Again I don't know if that's one of the occupations that they are targeting that they note within that article, but it is worth noting. This needs to be looked at from two angles: one) foreigners should be aware of the restricted occupations so as to stay away from them, so as to not get themselves in trouble here in Thailand, but also recognize that for example Legal Services, Tax Advisory, Accountancy, all of these things are specifically prohibited from foreigners and engaging with foreigners who are operating or holding themselves out as such professionals, could lead to problems for the person who is trying to rely on the assistance of those individuals operating illegally here in the Kingdom of Thailand.