Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing work authorization associated with the LTR Visa, that is the Long-Term Residence Visa which first of all, that is a misnomer; I've done that the videos on this many times. At a certain point I sounded like a broken record. The LTR Visa is not a Residence Visa. Thai Permanent Residence is a status as designated under the Immigration Act of 1979 which says nothing about the LTR Visa. That was purely a regulatory creation frankly of the BOI, and as we will get into here in a moment, I'm not and I never have been certain that the BOI has all the authority that they claim to have especially with regard to work authorization. In any event, Permanent Residence is one thing. That is covered under the Immigration Act; that is Lawful Permanent Residence; that is true PR. That is you can be in a Thai Blue Book; you are permanently resident here, no longer considered a non-immigrant nor any type of tourist or temporary visitor, temporary stay, akin to lawful Permanent Residence or so-called Green Card status in America or one might call Indefinitely to Remain in the UK, but in Thailand that is Permanent Residence. 

The Long-term Residence Visa was a creation some nearly five years ago; it was back in 2021, they were talking about it in earnest. There was a lot of talk about it. It initially came out, you were going to be allowed to have landownership rights associated with it, which ultimately was a misnomer; that turned out not to be the case. Meanwhile, the issue of work authorization with it is one that I have been talking about for quite some time, because I don't see where anybody has the authority to grant work authorization where the Visa is concerned, and I have actually done the research on this. I even have had folks, not at my behest, contact the issuing authority behind the LTR and really drill down on labour authorization and no real answers of any substance based on any law were given. Basically the gist of it was, "well, if you ever have a problem with it just refer them to us and all will be right with the world." Well, that is not an answer when it comes to the actual legal posture of something. That said, we were working, by "we" I mean my colleagues here in the firm, primarily the Thai legal team that deals with immigration as well as tax chimed in, and they were assisting somebody in dealing with an LTR and it has turned out to be a nettlesome thing and ultimately under the circumstances doesn't look like it is going to be possible to do it because this person was working for a Thai company. So let me just put this in perspective while keeping it as bland as possible or denuding all the relevant facts they could delineate who and what; there were confidentiality issues. But basically, hypothetically speaking there is a person working for a company incorporated in Thailand that is an affiliated company of an offshore set of enterprises, okay. Call it a subsidiary, call it what you will, but the onshore entity had been employing this person. They had a Work Permit, and more importantly they had a Tax ID number and were working in Thailand and they were explicitly work authorized in Thailand for work, and this is the key part - work in Thailand - and that is the thing about both the DTV and as we will get to the LTR. These things seem to be designated with this nebulous sort of, I won't call it “work authorization”, but they are like exempt from or they claim their own exemption from the need to be scrutinized by local authorities because whatever work is occurring is occurring as a “remote worker”; it is occurring in an offshore capacity; it is for an offshore entity. And as I have gotten to in videos, I have my opinions about this, but the big one is what is that doing for Thailand? How is that adding to Thailand's GDP overall or productive capacity, just being basically housing for people who are earning money elsewhere, money that's not necessarily if you will, the gross domestic product or the product, the economic byproduct is not accruing to Thailand's benefit. I have my issues on that, and I am stating that just to let people know who are watching this, so you know my biases; I am trying to be as upfront as possible on this stuff. 

That said, going back to the analysis here on the work authorization. With regard to the DTV, as we have discussed in many other videos, DTV is not work authorized insofar as Thailand is concerned. Nothing can be done which “impinges upon the Thai economy”. It seems the work authorization so-called, associated with the LTR is similar. In this case, and I have had a colleague explain this to me in the fine points of it, they were trying to take this person off of a Work Permit. The offshore companies did not want to write up any kind of documentation that said that that person worked directly for them, because it wasn't true. The actual relationship was to the local company - and I think this person just wanted to get out of having to deal with a Work Permit and Visa renewal on a yearly basis get over into LTR status - but at the end of the day, they have been effectively unable to do so because at the end of the day, this LTR is really not work authorized for local work. Local work again, work that impinges upon the Thai economy if you will, you need a Work Permit and standard Business Visa to undertake. That is the difference. That is where we get into the high weeds in parsing out the difference between work authorization for the LTR as well as the DTV and work authorization in a traditional Business Visa and Work Permit sense. And it has been evidenced in this case that we have been dealing with, because this person can't get over in LTR status because the issuing authority and as you will recall from prior videos, this is entirely the brainchild of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they won't issue the LTR Visa unless it is being signed off by an offshore corporation. That tells you everything you need to know about these so-called "work authorized" LTR Visas. It is like a really long continuous DTV if you will, and even that, the work authorization on that is nebulous, and in my opinion the legal opinion behind it is spurious to say the least. Interior Ministry has specifically spoken about all of this and says, "hey if it doesn't impinge upon the Thai economy”, we are going to kind of look the other way, is basically what they said. And again nobody asked about Interior Ministry's, they didn't ask for their input on this thing and let me go back and state something here, BOI is involved with the LTR but ultimately this stuff is issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that is the other thing to think about. Now Interior Ministry may have something to do with this thing in terms of dealing with the ongoing renewal process and that type of issue, but the point I am trying to make is with regard to work authorization specifically, that has to do with Labour Department, okay. And labour authorization to the best of my knowledge, I haven't been able to find it, there is explicit authorization for BOI to issue visas under the Immigration Act of '79 but I don't see where they have authorization to issue work authorization. That's a Labour Ministry prerogative as I have discussed in other videos. 

Now under prior Governments, they created the so-called One-Stop System where it basically put an Immigration Officer and a Labour Department Officer in the same room so all that could be done at the same time, but the functions are still different. So the point I am trying to make in this video is there is a fundamental difference - we have seen it in practice - there is a fundamental difference between work authorization associated with these new visas like the LTR and the DTV and work authorization that is specific and explicitly allowing work authorization for work occurring in Thailand; work that “impinges upon the Thai economy”. They are different things, and you need to understand that to not have one of these things can cause you problems especially as it regards to ongoing work status as well as other issues pertaining to like being in line for Permanent Residence, possible citizenship in Thailand, which we get to in other videos. 

But long story short, I think it is important to point out and delineate the difference between the “so-called” work authorization or maybe we should call it the exemption or the really turning of a blind eye on what somebody is doing with regard to remote work on one of these LTR or DTV Visas, as opposed to a standard Business Visa and Work Permit which grants explicit work authorization here in the Kingdom of Thailand.