Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Work Permits in the context of Bank Accounts here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel, quoting directly: "Speaking of streamlined Immigration, can you comment on recent changes by Thai Banks who require a long-term visa and Work Permit to open an account. Foreigners are caught between two sets of rules. The Immigration requires a bank account 2 months prior with a certain amount deposited for a Non-O Marriage/ Retirement Visa. Thai Banks will not allow foreigners to open an account without a long-term Non-O Visa and/or a Work Permit. It is presently impossible for anyone to apply for a Non-O Visa because the banks won't allow foreigners to open accounts." 

Well I have discussed this at length in many other videos on this channel. Notably, the thing to take away from this video is yeah, different banks are going to have different rules and it has always been a high bar to be able to open a bank account. Non-Immigrant status Visa and generally speaking work authorization or you need to be in a Visa status that does not have work authorization associated with it, most notably the Thai Retirement Visa is a very good example of a Visa that does not have work authorization and therefore a Bank can't really ask for the Work Permit because it is not something that the person can get, and they need that for the Retirement Visa. 

So again, you can get into the whole catch 22 Retirement Visa - Work Permit sort of feedback loop, that's not the point of this video. The question posed by this video is: "Do you need a Work Permit in order to get a Bank Account?" and what the answer to my mind is legally speaking there is no answer because at the end of the day it comes down to internal bank protocols. But I will say the vast majority of banks that we ever see foreigners deal with here in Thailand generally speaking do want to see a Work Permit in order to go ahead and get the bank account set up.