Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thailand Elite Visa and specifically the fact that it is sort of being phased out. 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: "The four new types of card will also remove the word "Elite" from their title which has been used since this scheme's establishment under the Thaksin Shinawatra Government in 2003." 

So as they go on in this article and I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail for further information, but as they go on in the article, they point out the fact that yeah Thailand Elite is no longer calling itself Thailand Elite, it is going to be the Privilege Card or the Thailand Privilege Card, the Thailand Privilege Visa, so they are changing that, so we are not going to call it Thailand Elite anymore. The other thing to take note of is yes the prices are going up substantially. I've made other videos on this channel noting that.

But yeah, the Thailand Elite has been an interesting thing to watch. I've watched it ever since roughly about 2009, somewhere in there when it really hit a long nadir if you will and it almost went away. I remember when they almost scrapped the entire program and they almost just got rid of it. Then it came back, or it sort of sat in limbo for a while, then it came back, it came back in roughly its present form where it was not an infinite Visa in its inception it was a forever Visa, it never really ended. It was also kind of an ongoing multi-entry Visa. As I recall it only granted 90 days of status at a stretch so I think it required either border runs or dealing with extension in-country. Then they brought in the new system which again are in sort of five year blocks: it's five 10, 15, 20 year increments and again as noted in other videos made contemporaneously with this one, the new system has been much more streamlined. There were like nearly a dozen different programs before; they are sort of streamlining it down; it looks like it's basically just four programs. Again we discussed those in another video contemporaneously made with this one so go ahead and go to the search function on this channel, check out Elite Visa, or go over to our resources section at legal.co.th, type in Thailand Elite Visa, you will find a ton of information on there about Thailand Elite and sort of the history of this. But yeah, so it's interesting, it's no longer going to be called the Elite Visa, it looks like it is going to be called the Privilege Visa moving forward.