Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Work Permits and Work Authorization in 2026. Boy, 2025 has been really kind of not a great year to be discussing work authorization because quite frankly this schizophrenic government that we have had and then the rump coalition government has just really put the issue of work authorization - not legally speaking, nothing's really changed legally speaking - but the perceptions of the foreign community in Thailand have been thrown into a cocked hat regarding work authorization because of the last government, primarily the Shinawatras, let's be really clear. They created especially the Destination Thailand Visa, specifically they just sort of obfuscated issues associated with work authorization. They were just sort of vague, it was all created when Pheu Thai had control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and created the Destination Thailand Visa out of whole cloth and exclusively within that Ministry and issued them overseas, and then foisted the people using them on to Thailand domestically, onto the Immigration apparatus in Thailand, which doesn't have any mechanism to deal with these people and nothing in Thai Law regarding work authorization has changed. 

And as I've discussed in other videos, the late great Barry Kenyon brought up and quoted directly from the Ministry of Interior: "anything that “impinges upon the Thai economy” is considered work", and as I have discussed in other videos, that is massively broad so it's virtually anything is considered work and therefore can find someone in violation of their Destination Thailand Visa, and their immigration status, and therefore left deportable. As I discussed in a recent video involving somebody who was deemed to have been working in Thailand and not allowed to return to the country; I got into that in great detail in a prior video. Again, these are all issues. 

Those who are on the outside looking in who want to come to Thailand to work, what is the best way to do that especially as a small business? Set up a Thai Company, get a Business Visa and get a Work Permit in the standard way it has always been done since the promulgation of the Immigration Act of 1979. This is the most certain path to proper work authorization and being completely in compliance with relevant Thai laws. Everything associated with these supposedly work authorized visas - where the work authorization was just created from whole cloth and not based on any proclamations or determinations from the Ministry of Labour here in Thailand - are I would say at best spurious and should be looked upon with a great deal of caution. Because at the end of the day, as we have discussed in prior videos, people detrimentally relying on unfortunately the rather vague and in many cases nonsensical promises of certain aspects of certain visas here in Thailand, are finding themselves in a bad position.

If you are looking to come to Thailand to comply with relevant laws and deal with work authorization in a straightforward manner and not have any surprises when you are here in Thailand, the best way of going about that is obtaining a proper Work Permit which would presume some sort of Business Visa status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.