Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, and the reason it is in quotes, we are discussing Thai Long-Term Residence Visas. As we have discussed in other videos, this isn't actually a Residence Visa it is just a really Long Stay Non-Immigrant Visa; I know that is of a semantic point but it is worth noting. These are 10-year visas, proposed 10-year visas by the way. We haven't actually seen them rolled out yet. We are supposed to see them in quarter four of 2022 here.

The reason for the video is as we said the "devil is in the certification". I thought about making this video after reading a recent article in Hua Hin Today, that's huahintoday.com, the article is titled: 10 year Long-Term term Resident (LTR) visa to make living in Thailand easier and less bureaucratic. So they were talking about wealthy pensioners, quote: "are defined as retirees age 50 years and older who have "personal income of at least USD 80,000/year at the time of application”. Alternatively, "in case of personal income below USD 80,000/year but no less than USD $40,000/year, applicants must invest at least USD $250,000 in Thai Government bonds, foreign direct investment, or Thai property." 

Then on another topic they were also talking about for "work from Thailand Professional" they need to show "personal income of a minimum of USD 80,000/year for the past two years." They also need to be employed by a "Public Company on a stock exchange or Private Company in operation for at least three years with combined revenue of at least USD 150 million in the last three years." 

Kind of the reason for the video is, I know there are a lot of people chomping at the bit about getting these visas but there is going to be a period of time after this comes online where the "rubber is going to hit the road" and we are going to figure out exactly what the practicalities are with these kinds of things and often times when you are dealing with immigration, and this is both in a US context, a Thai context, both, certification of documentation can be a really tricky thing. Trying to get the documentation needed to meet the requirements associated with getting especially a Visa of this magnitude, I think is going to be a rather serious endeavour. When I say a Visa of this magnitude, I don't know of any Visa other than Thailand Elite which was only really sort of recreated little less than half a decade ago or maybe a little more than half a decade ago, give or take about five 5 years, we have not seen the Elite, up until now this has just not been there. With the Elite it is not just a matter of certifying anything, it is a matter of just paying to be in the Elite system and even then, you have to go through an Immigration background check which that has its own set of problems. 

So the reason I bring this up, going back to the era of the Income Affidavit associated with the Thai Retirement Visa when they stopped accepting notarized just affidavits the issue hinged upon certification; whether or not the American Government would certify that somebody was, in the case of Americans the American Government, in the case of the British and Australians etc., whether or not, their respected Embassies, their respective Governments would certify the veracity of that person's financial situation and those governments said NO.

I don't know how this is going to play out in the Long-Term Residency Visa context, in this LTR Visa context, but I suspect there is going to be a rather prolonged period where dealing with the documentation requirements associated with these Long-term Residence Visas is going to be a pretty difficult and cumbersome thing until we kind of get things smoothed out and we start to see a system, sort of an overall system that one can sort of has a degree of certainty in processing through but yeah certification I suspect is going to be a major sticking point at least initially associated with the application and approval of Long-term Residence Visas here in the Kingdom of Thailand.