Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are describing or discussing the perils of trying to do Thailand if you will "on the cheap".  Let me be clear here. I am talking about living here, I'm not talking about people who come here even for an extended sort of Tourism like stay: a few months, maybe even half a year, but people that are really trying to live here and then they are trying to do everything completely on the cheap. 

And let me be clear, I completely understand trying to be economical. You want to get value for money, that's one thing and I totally get that, but there are folks that come over here and one, they operate on this presumption that Thailand is or should be cheap or cheaper than what is being presented to them. That is a really bad way to operate here. I have said it for years. I know I don't get a lot of popularity when I make these videos like this but really this is my best advice on this topic, you cannot think like that. Every time I see people that that is just their raison d'être if you will, their reason for being here is just find everything on the cheap, do everything on the cheap, cut corners when it comes to things like Immigration. Oftentimes in the past, I noticed these were the kind of people that I would say “the Thais don't really like you living here on a Tourist Visa”, and they would sort of scoff and then they were the first ones that effectively couldn’t get back in or got deported or they came through an Immigration checkpoint, and finally they got the wrong Immigration Officer and they just weren’t able to get back in and then they were put into the system and effectively they were kind of sidelined if you will from Thailand for multiple months before they could get back in. Ultimately oftentimes they go back in on the proper visa they should have had to begin with but they ended up spending a lot more money going through the hassle because they tried to do everything cheap and tried to cut corners.

I am seeing a lot of this in discussions I have seen or been involved with people asking me about the ED Visa; this is oftentimes and the old Volunteer Visa although we have seen a lot less of that since the scandals that erupted surrounding the Volunteer Visa here in Thailand. But I have seen a lot of people talking about “oh you can just live here on these types of visas and things!” Hey I have done the videos. You can go back into this channel, into the archives and see the videos in real time when I made them talking about the raids on schools, supposed schools that were actually “Visa mills”. Again if you are legitimately doing something, if you want to come to Thailand and spend a period of time learning something, there are different programs out there that are legitimate, that may have a visa component but again you know who you are and if you are trying to simply operate, trying to obfuscate what you are doing in order to get a visa to stay here, it is not going to turn out very well. I find it really fascinating making these videos because again I will get burned a lot, even in person and things people will say "oh I don't agree with you, I can use an ED Visa to live here!" Okay fine, there's a million ways to skin a cat. You do you, it's your journey, do whatever you want. 

That said, I don't know how many people I have seen burned as a result of these kind of plans if you will, of this kind of thought process especially at the beginning of COVID. We saw a ton of people right when COVID hit that were really in limbo and in a bad situation because they really didn't have their visa situation in order. Again there is a way to do things sometimes and there is a way not to. I am not saying I have the end all be all strategies for all people to stay in Thailand, but I like to think that we are pretty good at determining strategies and solutions for people that want to live here. I have been here 16 years; I've been through the entire bowels if you will of the Immigration System insofar as I have been a Non-immigrant, I've had a Work Permit; I've gone through dealing with things like Residence, ultimately I became a citizen, I've gone through all of that stuff. While again, I'm not the end all be all, I don't have all the answers, we like to think we have got a pretty good repertoire of solutions around here and unfortunately when we deal with folks that say "oh there's a cheaper way to do that, or that I don't need to go through this, I'm going to cut that corner", whatever, okay have at it, that's on you but be prepared to deal with the consequences.