Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing foreign YouTubers and Business Visas and Work Permits. This is kind of a follow-up video because I have done other videos on this and I have received varying types of feedback - there are folks that really thank me for doing the video and then there were folks that were really sort of angry at me for making the video. 

Long story short and I have discussed this at length in other videos, but those who are working, they are doing YouTube in Thailand, they are deriving profit from it, even the profit is not necessarily the issue, that can be deemed to be work. I think in most circumstances those who are making their living especially at YouTube and doing it a lot, could be deemed to be working in Thailand. In fact I think they would be deemed to be working in Thailand if you read the definition of Work under the Emergency Decree of March 2018 or if you just go through the Labour Act and get an understanding of how that works here in Thailand. Yeah foreign YouTubers who are operating in Thailand and using Thailand as a platform to do YouTube, yeah I think it is pretty clear you are going to need a Work Permit, you are going to need a Business Visa. Now I know there are some folks that don't want to hear that but it is what it is. 

I am making this video sort of in follow-up because I have seen a couple of instances where there has been communication or interaction between authorities and YouTubers here in Thailand; we have dealt with some folks who had some issues over the past couple of months and it is not just one, there are multiple circumstances where this has come up. It hasn't been a major issue but what it looks like to me is that there is, I made another video contemporaneously with this one where we discuss taxes. Look, at the end of the day the Law looks backwards. Bureaucracies do not adapt overnight to the current situation on the ground. It takes them a little while. Think of it as like a big boat. A battleship does not stop on a dime; you have to stop it and then it sort of coasts along. It doesn't turn on a dime either; it takes a little while. Well that is kind of what we see with respect to these bureaucracies. Those who sort of think that, "Oh, it is not going to be a big deal", now I saw the same kind of thinking almost 15 years ago people thinking the infinite Border Run would continue or people that thought that you could live in Thailand in perpetuity in tourist status just sort of cobbling it together through Border Runs. Time has since proven that not only in the context of for example COVID shutting things down like border running but also the Immigration apparatus long before that was clamping down on all of that stuff. I don't think YouTube is all that much different. I think as time passes we probably will see more initiatives especially in a tax context and a labour context, to go ahead and bring folks that are on YouTube sort of in line with Thai Law on labour and Thai Law especially on tax, I think in a revenue context you could definitely see it.

So again, depending on circumstances, this may not happen tomorrow; it may not happen two weeks from now. It could happen a couple years from now or further out but I think at some point in the not totally unforeseeable future, we could see a change with respect to enforcement of Work Permit and Visa rules being directed toward the YouTubers.