Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the 4-to-1 Thai employee to foreign employee ratio on Companies with respect to Business Visas.

For those who are unaware of what this is and we have done other videos on this channel describing this, there is a currently required ratio for maintaining Business Visa status in Thailand. It is four Thai employees to every one foreign employee. I often get folks that try to dispute this. They say "well that is an Immigration requirement that is a Labour requirement. As a practical matter, it pertains to either or both, however you want to look at it because to have a Work Permit you need a Business Visa and to have a Business Visa you need to have a Work Permit in the standard context of maintaining Business status here in Thailand.

More to the point in this video, there recently has been an announcement and it has been officially announced and promulgated by the Cabinet here in Thailand or at least in principle, that they are trying to bring online certain Visa categories for so-called "high net worth" folks. They are trying to attract wealthy expats and I thought it was interesting. A recent article from Thai PBS World, that is thaipbsworld.com, the article is titled: Several Incentives Approved to Attract Long-staying Foreign Investors, Wealthy Foreigners. Buried in here, I have gone over a lot of this, talking about the possibility of getting rid of 90-day reporting; the possibility of long-stay visas, 10-year visas and we have talked about there are high financial criteria associated with this. In this article, and this was just noted and it didn't seem to me to be connected overly with the overall framework specifically, there was this excerpt. Quoting directly: "The requirement that 4 Thai Nationals will have to be employed for every foreigner hired will also be lifted he added." My question is, “Is that across the board?” as that would have tremendous ramifications for folks looking to have a Business Visa and Work Permit here in Thailand. It remains to be seen. 

Now understand, if it only applies to these newly created Visa categories, this isn't going to be an overly broadly applied benefit to many foreigners here in Thailand. As we have described in other videos, the financial criteria for these visas is high. There are a lot of hoops to jump through with respect to eligibility. Now if deemed eligible and if it is applied, there are fewer hoops to jump through, presumably fewer hoops to jump through, for example this 4-to-1 ratio. So we will definitely keep folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.