Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing yet again the issue of foreigners working here in Thailand; this is something that has come up a lot here recently. As I have discussed in other videos, a number of incidences of foreigners 'behaving badly' here in Thailand has resulted in, in my opinion, a heightened level of vigilance on the part of Thai Law Enforcement in looking at and scrutinizing foreigners both just physically present here in Thailand, especially on a long-term basis, as well as those who appear to be living and working here in Thailand with the emphasis being on Thai Authorities are very concerned about foreigners who are working and working illegally. That's either working without a Work Permit or even those with a Work Permit who are working in violation of the restricted occupations. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Foreigners working without a Permit in Thailand face Crackdown.  Quoting directly: "A more controversial suggestion is to add the words "working not allowed" on the airport or border entry stamps of tourists and others without authorized Work Permit documentation." I seem to recall there was a time when there were stamps associated with that that would be issued out of certain Consulates where you would get a visa and then it would actually say "working not allowed". I could be wrong on that but I seem to remember; now this is going back like 12-15 years, ago but I seem to remember that there was a stamp kind of similar to that at one time but I think it was generally issued on things like Retirement Visas that were issued at Consulates outside of Thailand if I recall correctly. 

That said, do I think that we are going to see 'working not allowed' stamps added to the procedures at Thai Immigration checkpoints? I kind of doubt it, most notably because it would require a bit of extra and, you think about this, I think about it kind of analogous to US Customs and Border Protection, they have a stamp, an entry stamp in the United States that they use when people come through. People mistakenly think that on a Tourist Visa you get an automatic 6 months. That's not the case, they just set it for 6 months because that is the max they can issue and it also allows them to just change one number every time the clock clicks over on a given 24-hour period. The point I am trying to make is they don't want to reset the stamp every time they have to utilize or they have to stamp somebody into the country. Different people entering Thailand have differing levels of work authorization. You come into Thailand on a Business Visa with a Work Permit or even a Marriage Visa with a Work Permit, you can work in Thailand but if you come into Thailand on a Tourist Visa you can't; if you come in to Thailand on a standard Retirement Visa you can't as a foreigner work in Thailand. 

I am not so sure that it is overly efficient at an Immigration checkpoint to have an extra stamp to put into everybody's passport and then have to make the decision "do I need to do that?" That's not overly conducive to super-fast processing. Sometimes they don't necessarily care about efficiency but I would expect in this scenario, they probably would do a cost benefit analysis and say "going through all that extra hassle to put a stamp in may not be worth the time". They may find differently, they may go the other direction. That being said, I could see that argument or that thinking change if we see further incidents of foreigners working illegally here in the Kingdom of Thailand.