Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Media Visas. I don't discuss these very often. Quite honestly when you talk about a Visa that pertains to a rather narrow category, narrow subset of folks that are going to be coming to Thailand, the Media Visa is high on that list for various reasons. Now there are different kinds of media visas; there is a Visa associated with Foreign Press Correspondents, Foreign Journalists, it falls under the rubric of the Media Visa as does status associated with like filmmaking in Thailand, the entertainment industry. So again we are talking about a rather narrow category of Visa, that even within the narrow category there is a discrepancy between the types of people who are seeking that Visa, the vocation if you will of the people who are seeking that type of visa. Again folks that are in the entertainment industry, they are doing something that is fundamentally different than journalism. Now it all pertains to Media hence the reason it falls into the Media category but again what is actually being undertaken here in Thailand, two different things. I think that's noteworthy. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Flexible visas are promoting Thailand's soft power abroad. Quoting directly: "There is also a special visa for media professionals to film in Thailand which avoids the lengthy bureaucracy of traditional work permits or the common practice of filming without authorization and hoping for the best." Yeah that's not a good idea. Don't film in Thailand without authorization for a variety of different reasons most notably because it is actually illegal in Thailand to film people without their permission whether advertently or inadvertently, so that is something to keep in mind.

That said, this notion that the Media Visa ‘avoids a lengthy bureaucracy’, I can see where that argument can be made because the Media Visa does not necessarily go through the same channels as does standard Business Visas with work authorization. That stated, it is sort of "out of the frying pan, into the fire." Media Visas have their own bureaucracy you have to deal with. This is not some magic bullet that will allow you, "if you go after a media it will thereby allow you to just bypass everything having to do with immigration!" In many ways, it has its own stringent requirements associated with it and there is a specific bureaucracy that will process such cases. So while it is different, and again in many ways it is very optimal for those, again that narrow subset of people who could or would use it, but I think it is not quite accurate to say that you are avoiding bureaucracy, or implying I should say you are avoiding bureaucracy all together. That's not the case. You are still dealing with some amount of bureaucracy, it's just different from many of the standard Non-immigrant Visas folks use to remain long-term here in the Kingdom of Thailand.