Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing new Thai Visas versus old Thai Visas. What we are talking about here, as we discussed the so-called Long Term Residence Visa has been rolled out here recently. Again it is not technically a Residence Visa, it is just a really long Non-Immigrant Visa but yeah, that has been rolled out recently. We have also in the past we have seen really in the grand scheme of things, the Thailand Elite Visa is only five six years old as far as active usage. It goes back a lot further, due to the fact that it was created probably 20 years ago something like that but then it kind of fell into disuse. They thought they were going to scrap the program then they turned around and sort of revived it and now it is currently in the form that we know it but it is kind of a newer visa. Then you have got things like the Smart Visa and now again this LTR and the question posed by this video is, "Are the new ones better than the classic ones?" 

In a sense, it is an exercise in comparison. So my opinion one of the big major pros of the Classic Thai Visas is they oftentimes can put somebody on the path to Permanent Residence, specifically Thai Business Visas, Classic Thai Business Visas and Thai O Marriage Visas. Both of those types of Visas can place, again if all circumstances are right and they meet all the requirements, either of those Visas could place somebody on the track for true Permanent Residence in Thailand which may open up the way for naturalization to Thai citizenship. So again, the old Thai visas are quite beneficial in that respect. 

Now meanwhile, yes there are a number of benefits being touted by some of the new visas. I hesitate to go through all of them in detail because frankly I don't think it has been fully shaken out whether or not all of these so-called benefits are even going to be feasible. One major one that I will say is, and it is pretty clear to me that that it is a solid benefit that you can Bank on you are going to have it, is attachment of work authorization in the Visa which with the Smart Visa and some of the LTR Visas, yeah there will be work authorization attached in there, or supposedly with the LTRs there will be. Meanwhile though, I mean that can have its own kind of issues because sometimes they actually want a Work Permit not just work authorization and they are two different things. Work authorization is not necessarily a Work Permit per se; I probably should do another video on that topic just specifically.  

But yeah, to take away from this video, there are pros and cons to either. With the Classic Visas you are generally looking at a renewal on a yearly basis. With these other newer visas you may not need to do renewals quite so often but it is going to be circumstantially dependent.