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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Immigration raids as well as audits of businesses. Let's just jump in here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Rising crime prompts visa-free policy review impacting Pattaya's business and expat community. Yeah, just a real quick aside. I've been talking about this now for a while. I've gotten some blowback from people saying, "well there's not that many foreigners behaving badly in Thailand etc." Maybe not; I've gotten into this before. In terms of like per capita crime within the foreign community, is it rising as a percentage of overall foreigners? No. But in absolute terms as we are adding foreign nationals into Thailand - we've seen an influx of tourists and various other nomads and things - we have seen an uptick in crime. Authorities here in Thailand are noticing that, and as a result, they are taking measures accordingly. 

Really quickly before I jump into the Pattaya Mail article, I've had folks ask or tell me, they have said, "is there any way we can support you? We like what you do with the channel; we know you're not monetized. We don't need to avail ourselves of a lawyer at the moment, is there anything we can do to support you? Links are in the description below to the restaurant my better half and I set up here in Bangkok. It is called Pancake Palace. As the name implies, it is breakfast anytime as well as American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, buffalo wings, hot dogs, chilli dogs, chilli bowls. We have also got grilled cheese sandwiches and Coke in glass bottles. If you are interested and you do want to support us, but you don't necessarily need to hire a lawyer, check out Pancake Palace; it's appreciated. Again, links are in the description below. 

Quoting directly from this article in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, under the sub headline: Business License and nominee crackdowns. I have discussed in other videos, yeah, there has been a heavy crackdown on nominees. They are utilizing all sorts of new tools including digital tools, as well as AI technology to ascertain or to at least put them on the trail of what looks like nominee sort of setups here in Thailand. That said, quoting directly: "Criminal networks rarely operate in a vacuum. They require local infrastructure. In tandem with Immigration raids, the Department of Business Development (DBD) and local law enforcement are intensifying audits of foreign managed businesses and suspected nominee corporate structures used to lease property or front illicit operations." Again, this is just sort of an overall trend that we are seeing, and I think this trend is going to continue, especially through this summer in 2026. Again authorities here in Thailand have heavily prioritized going after these nominee businesses. On top of that, there have been raids, inspections, whatever you want to call them from Thai Immigration in tandem with this policy paradigm shift as well. Do I think that this is going to abate over time? No, but I think that the most acutely intense period we are likely to see with regard to this is this upcoming summer. What does that mean?

Well look, if you're operating a company that is basically purely a nominee sort of thing, it may be time to seriously rethink that and may be time to possibly restructure your operation; again it depends on the other like facts in your case. At the same time, if you're in Thailand working for example without work authorization, or you are in Thailand and you're sort of shirking visas, or saying, "ahh, it is not something I need to worry about." This is actually the time to worry about it. Law enforcement in Thailand is cracking down. They are utilizing hyper-scrutiny if you will and they are looking to see if they have any problem actors. The thing to do is to get oneself into compliance sooner rather than later here in the Kingdom of Thailand.