Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thailand Elite Visa which apparently is changing its name. They are now going to start calling this the Privilege Visa; it was called the Thailand Elite Visa, Thai Elite Visa, whatever. We will sort of roll with the punches and keep you updated. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Elite Card price to be increased by 50%. Quoting directly: "Thailand Elite Card is preparing to raise its minimum membership price by 50% to 900,000 Baht, from 600,000 Baht, as the Company attempts to ramp up annual revenue to 8 billion baht, according to Thailand Privilege Card Co (TPC), the operator of the card." 

Yeah as we have discussed, they are making changes to the Thailand Elite Visa, most notably again apparently it's not going to be called the Thailand Elite Visa anymore, it is going to be called the Thailand Privilege Visa and then there are different categories. I think one is Reserve, and Gold; in this category Gold which in the past was sort of the standard Thailand Elite membership – it was 600,000 Baht, that got you a 5-year membership, got you a 5-year visa, there was some other perks associated with that. The fee for that Visa or the equivalent of that Visa in terms of time of lawful status provided in-country, that Visa is going to go from a price of 600,000 Baht up to 900,000 Baht and this 50% increase is basically the floor. All the other Visa categories are going up from there. So a 10-year Visa is going to go up in price even more so than 50% is my understanding. We are making other videos contemporaneously with this one where we discuss all that in detail, all the way up to the 20 year Visa going up to 5 million Baht. So to go ahead and get a 20 year, what has been called a Thailand Elite Visa, what is going to be called a Reserve Visa and I will do another video in depth on that - it is going up to 5 million Baht. 

So the minimum increase seems to be 50%, so in terms of cost, Thailand Elite Visas are going up substantially actually moving forward and we will sort of keep an eye on this as things progress as it is going to be rather interesting to watch exactly how this plays out. Now bear in mind, it is still possible to get into the system as it was under the terms previous up to the 15th of September. After the 15th of September it is not going to be possible to get into the Elite System under prior terms so it looks like we are seeing a major transition in terms of the terms associated with the Thailand Elite Visa.