Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called Long Term Residence Visas or Long-Term Resident Visa. Again the misnomer, I think I probably sound like a broken record at this point but it is very much a misnomer. It's not a Resident Visa. I think they should call like a "Long Stay Visa" or something rather than “Resident” because it is just not legally accurate, it is just not correct. Folks that come to Thailand on these visas do not gain residence in Thailand, they just have a long Visa; that is basically the way to look at it. They have got long Non-Immigrant Visa in a certain way. Yes, there is work authorization things attached, we will get into that but I just kind of wanted to do this video. 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 10 year Visas will be launched September 1. Quoting directly: "The other LTR perks apply to all categories and include no need to get re-entry permits or to report location every 90 days," Yeah on the 90 day reporting the keep saying this, but I haven't seen where any legislation has been promulgated which aggregates the provisions of the Immigration Act of '79, and the Immigration Act of '79 says: "look there are residence visas and the non-immigrant visas. That are those who are resident in Thailand under Immigrant Visa status, specifically that's actually the correct term, Immigrant Visa status confers Residence; there are folks that are either under that or they are in Non-Immigrant category which is my understanding what's going on here. Those folks do still have to deal with 90-day reporting. I have yet to figure out legally where that is popping up. Now I may be missing something, I am always happy to stand corrected but for now I don't really see what's going on there; I don't really understand why people keep saying there's no 90-day reporting on it. So quoting further: "and minor attractions such as fast-track at airports, the latter bonus already being offered to Elite Visa holders. Amongst the downside factors are a registration fee, compulsory and ongoing medical insurance, regular checks with the Internal Revenue Service and the need to renew the visa after 5 years: it is actually 5 x 2 years." Now we saw this already with the O-X Retirement Visa. For those that are unaware of that, going back years ago now it has so long when that came out, that was a 10-year Visa but the way that it worked is your met the financial requirements and you got your 5 year visa and you had to maintain them to get that second five years. Not a lot of people ended up using the O-X Retirement Visa. This thing is a little bit different so I think that there is probably going to be more uptake on this than the O-X but again as I have said before, it's a pretty narrow subset of people that I think are going to be using this Visa. Quoting further: "The LTR does not carry the automatic right to buy 1 Rai of land but any foreigners investing 40 million Baht for at least 3 years may be able to do so." Again based on what? Just what they are saying? We literally saw and I read about it, l we did a video on it, there was an officer from the Land Office that came out last year and said "no that's not going to happen" with respect to land ownership. Quoting further: "The proposal is currently being tabled to the Cabinet. Board of Investment which actually runs LTR says that the detailed rules may be amended in the future. The early signs are that it is going to be necessary sooner rather than later. Well yeah it is going to be interesting to watch. I do have to say just as an offhand frankly as a Thai, I find it kind of weird the Board of Investment is so involved in Immigration. Board of investment to my mind should be worry about getting some investment into Thailand. Immigration is there; frankly there are already 2 Government Ministries that have oversight over Immigration - Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs - I kind of wonder if getting another, even though it is maybe not Ministry level, but getting another Department involved, Committee, Board of Investment, whatever you want to call it, is that really necessary? Do we really want that? Just something I am thinking off the top of my head.

Look, there are upsides as noted for folks that are interested in the Immigration aspects of this. There are upsides to the LTR. Obviously it's a 10-year Visa; it's got a long status attached to it but as noted it does have some downsides, most notably you have got to be in the Thai tax system which maybe digital nomads especially might be a little bit averse to that, that might make them a little squeamish, I don't know. The other thing to bear in mind is yeah there is an insurance requirement. Again that may be an issue for some folks. So yeah there are many upside but it looks like there may be some drawbacks to dealing with the LTR when compared to other categories.