Transcript of the above video: 

This is kind of one of those odd sort of paradoxes where I see this a lot in Thailand because of the way the law or the regulations or visas and things sort of evolve. Things that at first glance seem like a liability or a hindrance on someone or on folks, turn out to actually kind of work in their favour albeit in sort of a counterintuitive fashion. 

I was talking recently to a client in a consult, and by the way, for those who are unaware, I was talking to another person actually who went ahead and got an Elite Visa, and they even said after talking to me, they were actually in the Pancake Palace. Real quickly before I go on, my better half and I did set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. It is breakfast anytime, including as the name implies, Pancake Palace, pancakes. We also have English style breakfast and American style diner food including hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, buffalo wings and grilled cheese sandwiches, tacos, all kinds of good stuff; Coke in glass bottles. So if you're interested, links are in the description below for Pancake Palace. 

But I was talking to somebody who came by the Palace after watching some of our videos and said yeah, I went ahead and went ahead with the Elite on my own. They were kind of giving me a bit of a tale of woe because as we have discussed in other videos, the Elite Visa is becoming incredibly more onerous than it seems at first glance; you can get into that in other videos. 

That said, the point of this video is I think the Elite Visa may be something of a harbinger for some of these newly created visas most notably the DTV, the Destination Thailand Visa, as well as the LTR, and it got me to thinking that actually in the O Visa category, the financial criteria, the threshold for example for an O Marriage Visa: 400,000 baht in a Thai Bank account or 40,000 Baht per month in stated income on a Thai bank account, or on an O or O-A Retirement Visa, 800,000 in a Thai Bank account, balance maintained over the course of a year or 65,000 Baht per month in monthly income. The fact that the O Visa requires banking documentation might actually auger better for those who are on those visas. And what I mean to say is, as we have seen with the DTV, they won't allow folks on a DTV to get a bank account, and that was kind of a surprise to folks that went after the DTV. Meanwhile, we are seeing all these issues with the Elite Visa. I'm starting to wonder if maybe banking might be an issue with the Elite Visa because it is increasingly of concern seemingly to Immigration that Elite Visa holders demonstrate dispositive, unequivocal if you will, "tourism intent" which is kind of an odd thing on a long-term visa like an Elite Visa. But nonetheless, that seems to be part and parcel of what they are going after these days on these kind of visas, or the kind of paradigm they have about these long-term nebulous visas for example. 

Meanwhile, the O Visas are clearly stated in the Immigration Act. They are clearly a product of the Immigration Act albeit they have a regulatory component, but one of the regulatory components that has been associated with them since they have been created is a bank balance, which implies that you need a bank account. So for this reason, I can see where the O Visa may be optimal for many people if for no other reason than look having a domestic bank account here in Thailand is a major benefit compared to not having them, it's just a fact. So something to think about for those out there who are looking at all of these Visa options. The fact that the bank account is part of the criteria of maintaining ongoing O Visa status may operate in its favour compared to for example the DTV, where you can't get a bank account or the Elite where they are nitpicking it already and tourism intentions etc. are paramount in the analysis and maybe banking in the future might not be allowed along the same paradigm as the DTV; so something to think about. 

It is just kind of one of these paradoxical things that in the end oddly works out in favour of the folks that at first glance would have said, "well this financial threshold is something, I’d prefer they just give me the Visa without it”. Well by dint of the fact that they require a bank balance, it thereby requires that folks with that Visa be allowed to have a bank account here in the Kingdom of Thailand.