Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Work Permit violations, specifically working illegally in Thailand, working without a Permit, working outside of one's Permit. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's Work Permit rules for foreigners becoming much less Draconian. The title of this is a little bit, it's definitely not misleading, it is an interesting article. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article. I am going to read a little excerpt. Yes it is a little less "Draconian", of course I would argue that it became a little less Draconian back in 2017-2018, but that doesn't mean that anything has really fundamentally changed regarding work authorization in Thailand. I will explain here in a minute so quoting directly: "As is typical in Thai fashion there is scope for argument. Whether Company Directors or voluntary workers can rest easy is debatable. Suffice it to say that there haven't been reports of any prosecutions of those groups lately."

So in the broader part of this article, again I urge those who are watching this video to check that out, they kind of talk about people who are kind of teachers who work without a Work Permit in Thailand, they talk about so-called volunteers which that's a real issue; people that live in Thailand on ED Visas and they don't really have a Work Permit and then they kind of also get into these sort of new visas that are supposedly being rolled out with sort of built in work authorization. Bear in mind, those types of visas, Smart Visas, the so-called LTR, Long-Term Residence Visa which as we have discussed isn't really a Residence Visa, but these different categories that have these built-in work authorizations, understand it is not that they don't need a Work Permit it is that they have it built in. They have a Work Permit, that is part of it. But most people, even with these new categories, most people are going to be dealing with a standard Work Permit- Business Visa in Thailand probably into the even unforeseeable future. I don't really see where that is going to change fundamentally anytime soon.

The point of the video is, "haven't been reports of any prosecutions". Well fair enough but I am here to tell you notwithstanding the fact that Immigration didn't have a whole lot to do for the last two years, I had to deal with multiple cases, well not just me but other folks here in the office, where we had clients who were in violation, they weren't working with us in the beginning, we sort of came at it after they were found in violation, but yeah if you are found working illegally in Thailand that is not a prosecution sort of issue. You are not going to be going before a Court necessarily, necessarily, circumstances may dictate that you have to if there is like a criminal matter that arises. Work authorization is essentially a labour offense that has implications with respect to Immigration. Where you see problems with work authorization, it is not going to be in a courtroom with a prosecution and I understand prosecution is a broad term. It can mean a bunch of different things most notably just essentially sort of enforcing laws but the use of the word, tends to in my mind at least imply you would have been seeing this in Court records or arrest records or whatever. Not necessarily. Where you see it is in deportations. If there is a work authorization issue, generally where you see a problem with that is those folks are going to get detained and possibly deported. They might just be fined depending on circumstances, which you usually see in circumstances involving sort of Off Work Permit working where you clearly in violation of things like the restricted occupations of Thailand notwithstanding the fact that you actually have a Work Permit. Oftentimes, although not always, I have seen deportations on that too.

The long story short, and the reason for the video, yeah just because you don't see on like the front page of the newspaper that somebody has been deported for violating the Work Permit rules, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen and in point of fact I do see it. I am not going to say it happens all the time, it is not like a daily occurrence but it has happened multiple times in the past couple of months that we have seen and it is something to bear in mind because if you are looking to come to Thailand to work, you really need to be assiduous about maintaining lawful work authorization if you want to work here in the Kingdom.