Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing LTR visas specifically in the context of so-called digital nomads. I thought of making this video initially just in principle and then I was kind of reading on the internet came across an article which I will quote here in a moment but I thought of actually making this video after listening to, there's a guy also on YouTube, a guy named Doug Casey, an international man, he's been around forever. Frankly he is kind of an icon in the expat community in sort of the perpetual traveler, digital nomad kind of space although I don't think you could classify he himself as a digital nomad in the current sense of the term. I thought of it because he wasn't disdainful about digital nomads but he brought up the point that perhaps they are, I hesitate to say symptom, but they are kind of a byproduct of I don't know, globalization 1.0 where you have this very quick integration of the globe which in certain ways we see in the form of supply chains and things of this nature. We are kind of seeing, I hesitate to call it a disintegration, I don't think that is the right word but kind of a retrenchment, little bit of backtracking in terms of the level of integration we once saw and it also kind of begs the question "will digital nomads in their current form be around forever?" I think probably they will to one degree or another but there is a decent question as to whether or not they will be at the economic level that they are at right now, sort if comparatively to the rest of the world. I think there may be a realignment there within the overall economy around the world where perhaps they won't be paid quite so disproportionately; maybe they are not paid all that disproportionately now but they are sort of arbitraging their earnings from one jurisdiction in another which is quite a bit cheaper in terms of cost of living and maybe that will realign where that is not quite as attractive as it is right now. Long story short, it's oft discussed if digital nomads are really going to be around that long or if they are quite the thing that that we believe them to be.

In the same discussion they were talking about that, there was another person who was commenting that and I have to say that this was a good point. When it comes to digital nomads, it was said I believe that they kind of exist on the surface, they sort of for lack of a better term, I won't say they sort of float on the wave of the overall economy, but in a sense they don't get deeply involved in any one place and as I have said before, there is a big difference and maybe there is a spectrum here. I have often noted that in my mind there is a big difference between an expat and an immigrant. An expat has a totally different paradigm than what you think of as an immigrant. I think of myself as an Immigrant. Now I didn't always think that way. The first few years I was here I was very much in the sort of expat mindset but 15 years in and naturalization to citizenship and everything that I have done here and I love the country, I am an immigrant, I immigrated to Thailand, period, end of discussion. But maybe there is a further spectrum insofar as digital nomads are kind of on one part of the spectrum, then you have kind of got expats in the middle and immigrants then sort of a little further down the spectrum. But the point was that digital nomads, they always kind of keep moving and on one hand they may sort of feel like and I can't speak for anybody, I am not trying to make any judgment calls here but it was a valid point I think where this person said, it seems like you are doing a lot of things, you are experiencing a lot of life but the reality is you are just kind of going to different places and doing a lot of the same things. I don't know if that's fair but there may be something to it. Look at 26, 28, you know 36 whatever, that may be fine and different people have different lifestyle choices but there is something to be said. I totally remember I was in Korea before I came to Thailand, and when I was still in an expat mindset yeah I wasn't experiencing a lot of the real culture  of either country; I kind of regret that with respect to Korea. Thailand I have stayed longer and I have been able to experience some culture. So it is interesting, just this whole concept of Digital Nomads I think is a rather interesting phenomenon. It's really only arisen roughly the past 20, 25 years I would say, and even that might be a little long, maybe it is more like 15, 20. 

In any event, I also thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: 10-year Thai Visas are having a slow take-off. They are talking here about so-called Golden Visa, or the LTR, Long Term Residence Visas, as we have discussed not technically a Residence Visa, it is just a really long Non-Immigrant Visa and the more we are seeing of it, I think the less benefits are immediately apparent. There are major benefits to it but there are some drawbacks to it as well, as we have discussed. In any event, quoting directly: "Digital Nomads or remote workers are another target group, but the LTR requires them to have written contracts with employers which many freelancers do not have, or even want. It is likely that many nomads will continue to rely on Thai Tourist Visas unless the Immigration Bureau changes its stand-off policy or they will choose countries with fewer bureaucratic hurdles and more concrete advantages such as a second passport or freedom from taxes." Well on that point, let's be clear. There really isn't any place all that much better bureaucratically right now in Southeast Asia for Visa stuff than Thailand. Yes I know there is Malaysia my Second Home program; Cambodia has come up with their own thing, whatever, my commentary on that would be yeah all things being equal I think Thailand is doing pretty good in terms of comparative bureaucrat hurdles and kind of encouraging people to come in. Quoting further: "The final group are the wealthy global citizens, a mysterious breed, whom Thai Authorities see as high-value customers and investors." And again, I don't know where they kind of intersect with so-called digital nomads. Digital Nomads seem to kind of be sort of the working professionals of the globalized world if you will whereas the sort of so-called wealthy global citizens wherever they may be and I am sure Thailand would love as many of them to come here as they can get, but at the end of the day, there are only so many of those folks and creating programs that really targets them I think fails to really look at the volume of people you can get by for example just having a good Retirement Visa policy which I think Thailand has. I have discussed this at length in multiple videos across multiple different platforms and said that "look I mean retirees in Thailand, all things considered, it is pretty good compared to a lot of other countries". Now yeah Residence is difficult and yeah the second citizenship thing is just I think never going to happen in Thailand, and frankly as a Thai I would have a real problem with that. But setting that all aside, at the end of the day it is a pretty good place to retire here in the Kingdom of Thailand.