Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Destination Thailand Visa. This is a relatively new type of Visa which has been brought in here and we are kind of just now dealing with it. I have actually been going over the Royal Thai Gazette, the English language version, well the translation that here in the office was made of the Royal Thai Gazette announcement regarding the Destination Thailand Visa.

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thailand's new visas: call for questions. Quoting directly: "A new "Destination Thailand" 5-year visa will allow stays for up to 180 days, extendable for another 180 days." It is my understanding you are only allowed to have 180 days within a one year period. Now again we are just now dealing with this, so I will make further videos in the upcoming days and weeks to provide further clarification but for now, it is my understanding thing that while I am not understanding the extension process yet based on what we have read from the Royal Thai Gazette, and again we'll make further clarification, so it's my understanding that the Visa only allows 180 days per calendar year over the course of 5 years, but that said we will do further clarification as time moves on. Quoting further: "The requirements are B500,000 in a bank account and proof of activity (such as Muay Thai course or remote work portfolio);" yeah and let me get into that here in a minute, "the Visa fee is 10,000 baht; and working (except for overseas companies) is prohibited (effective immediately). 

So again, this work authorization side of things seems to be sort of confusing people. Is it work authorized? Is it not? It is not work authorized for Thailand. It does not confer a Work Permit to work in Thailand. That said, it does seem to deal with kind of a vexing nettlesome issue we have had in Thailand over the course, well ever since I've been here, which is what about if I am working for my company. They are outside of Thailand, I may get online every once in a while, I get on a phone and be dealing with work matters that aren't occurring in Thailand. In the past we would sort of say well you still need work authorization but I would often say are they out kicking down doors to look for people who are on a call to their Board back in New York City or something? Not really. This Visa seems to sort of explicitly deal with that issue. If you are not working in Thailand, if it's sort of a remote work kind of thing, if you are basically getting online and working on something of that nature, work authorization is not a major issue associated with this type of Visa. 

Now again, we are just seeing this thing rolled out so I am sure I am going to be doing some further videos clarifying the parameters of this thing moving forward, so stay tuned for that.