Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Permanent Residency in Thailand. And this is the time of year where unfortunately I get a lot of inquiries about Permanent Residence and they are not exactly inquiries I love dealing with, consultations I love dealing with. People will contact us because they kind of: look not everybody is like me where they are sitting around constantly thinking of immigration status. People at the back of their mind though, that may be thinking about Permanent Residence, it is not something that they think they need to be proactive about. They sort of think, "oh, I will wait until I need to apply." 

The window for Permanent Residence applications here in Thailand generally opens in the fourth quarter. There have been exceptions to that, most notably one year when Anupong was Interior Minister the window opened in the middle of the summer, and it gave us a lot of time to get things on file. The point I am trying to make with this video though is even people who are semi-aware of the Permanent Residence application and the window associated with Permanent Residence application, those folks are oftentimes contacting us, frankly a little late in the day. It's not necessarily impossible that we can compile a Permanent Residence application in a matter of weeks, but a Permanent Residence application is substantial. They are usually about this thick, okay, of paperwork, all kinds of documentation that needs to be certified, sometimes counter-certified, notarized etc. For this reason I think it is important to make videos from time to time where I tell people look, you need to be looking at your Permanent Residence early and often. The other thing I see a lot of is people that work in international “expat package” jobs, they have like a three year contract, a five year contract, or they are on a subsequent contract or multiple contracts, and then they come to the end of a contract, it gets cancelled, they have like 6 months left or 3 months left of their contract and then they will call us and say, "hey can you file for my Permanent Residence so I can get this in before my contract comes up?" That's not an optimal place to be either. The timing of when you decide to start working on Permanent Residence is as critical as the timing of anything else associated with Permanent Residence, just even the documentation; it's an important factor. 

Those who are interested in filing for Permanent Residence, it is always a good idea to contact a legal professional, but if you think that just because the announcement of the window has gone up that we are going to be able to compile it all and get it filed within that period, within that time that the window is open, that is not a foregone conclusion. So it's best to contact and get working on your Permanent Residence application early and often if you will.