Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called source of funds which I will get into here in a moment, but let's just jump in here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Privilege Card loophole lets criminals in front door. First things first. Let's clarify. We are talking about what was once primarily referred to as the Thailand Elite Visa. For whatever reason, it has decided to rebrand itself as the Thailand Privilege Visa; I don't know why. To my mind, pretty much everybody knew of it as the Elite; I think of it as the Elite; most people that have it that we talk to, that are clients and things call it the Elite but they want to call it the Privilege Card so okay, whatever. 

Quoting directly: "Immigration Officers can only verify that the cards are valid, and if the holders are not on the Blacklist, they can enter the country. Quote: "Before being eligible for the Privilege Card, a background check on one's financial sources should also be required,” he said." and he is Police Lieutenant General Jirabhop Bhuridej.

I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail. Basically what they get into there is there is a lot of concern within the law enforcement that foreign nationals of a dubious nature are attempting to obtain Thailand Elite Visas and obtaining Thailand Elite Visas and they are trying to basically weed out the bad elements of folks that are getting that type of visa. And one of the proposals is what we often call in the American Immigration vernacular, "source of funds". So I've had to deal with this in the past when dealing with applications for the EB-5 Visa to the United States - an Investor Visa - as well as the E2 Visa as a Treaty trader or a Treaty business person going over to the United States to set up a business. Basically part of the process of getting either one of those visas to the United States is proving up that the source of funds if you will, that is sort of the idiom we use when discussing this issue, you have to prove up source of funds is what we call it. That means you have to show that wherever you derive your income from to pay for that visa, or to pay for that investment into the United States is from a legitimate source. And it appears that elements of law enforcement here in Thailand - I don't necessarily think that they are directly pulling this notion from the American Immigration System - that I don't necessarily think it's what is occurring, but what looks to me to be the case will probably end up in the Thailand Privilege System. Those who want to get an Elite Visa are going to at some point in the future probably need to prove up source of funds as part of that process.

Now again like with everything, these things don't change overnight but based on reading this article and sort of my analysis of the current posture of the privilege or Elite Visa system as it stands, I think it's very prudent to presume that we will definitely see some sort of source of funds regime maybe also known as KYC, Know Your Customer, whatever, some sort of income verification or monetary verification procedure associated with the Thailand Elite Visa in the foreseeable future.