Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking "what are foreign residents in Thailand?" I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Very, very few expats will escape the new Thai Tourism Tax. Now the thrust of this article goes in an entirely different direction from what we are talking about in this video, and I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article. Quoting directly: "The latest notice from the Thai Tourism Ministry lists the exceptions to the rule that all foreigners must pay on arrival 300 Baht at airports and 150 Baht by land or sea. The fortunate ones are diplomats, infants under 2 years, those with work permits, single day and transit passengers and that famous expression: foreign residents in Thailand." Quoting further: "The latter phrase is optimistically being interpreted by some expats to include themselves as they see themselves as "residents" by virtue of their annual, renewable extensions of stay based on retirement or marriage or because they are learning Thai. But the contextual meaning of "resident" here is "permanent resident" or that category of foreigner who holds a red police residency book and has no Visa expiry date in his or her passport. Needless to say, it is a much sought-after status with a complex application procedure which can take years." Yeah, it absolutely can. Well put in that article. Yeah, Thai Permanent Residence, very different thing from just the notion of "oh I reside here." This becomes kind of confusing because for example they can issue Residence Certificates at Thai Immigration which you can use to go get things like a Thai driving license for example or documentation for banking, or things of this nature. That doesn't mean you are legally resident in Thailand, what we would call in an American context in American jurisprudence, Lawful Permanent Residence. That is not what we are talking about when we are talking about Retirement Visa status or Thai ED Visa status or O Marriage Visa, even though you may be married to a Thai or Business Visa status. Those are Non-Immigrant categories and by definition, actually maybe the better way to look at it is Non-Immigrant versus Immigrant. Permanent Residents in Thailand are on Immigrant Visas specifically once your residence is issued, non-quota Immigrant Visas. Folks that are here in Thailand for example on a B Visa or an O Visa, you're in Non-Immigrant status so again by definition you are not resident in Thailand; you're not residing here, and that is a big difference and it's one that I don't think many people fully kind of parse out when they read stuff about Thai Immigration. 

Now something to keep in mind is Permanent Residence. We usually file those cases at the end of the year. There's a window in which the window is open to file for Permanent Residence. We assist folks in filing for Permanent Residence. If you are looking to file for Permanent Residence here in Thailand any time in the relatively near future, it is probably a good idea to contact a legal professional. If you are looking to do it this year, now is the time to start preparing, now is the time to start preparing. You don't prepare for this when the window opens. Usually they open it in like November, December. There was one year they opened it in the middle of the summer. I think it was because it had been kind of a weird time before that so we don't know when they will open the window but it's a fair bet they are going to probably in the last month of the year although it is not a foregone conclusion necessarily. That said, if you are looking to prepare to file for PR, get ready early, now is the time. We are sitting out here in May yeah it will take us about that long. It takes quite a while to start prepping a PR application. They're like a phone book, the paperwork goes on and on. So yeah, it is kind of a sought after status; it does take a little while to go ahead and process it. We have successfully processed a number of PR cases for clients here in our office but that being said it is different from Non-Immigrant status and if you are looking to apply for it, probably best to do it sooner rather than later.