Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Work Permits and Business Visas. I want to clearly preface this by stating we are not talking about the newly promulgated Long Term Residence Visa so-called. As we discussed in other videos, it is not technically a Residence Visa, it does not confer Lawful Permanent Residence, kind of a misnomer. It is kind of just basically a long Non-Immigrant Visa. Nor are we discussing the Smart Visa because in either case, work authorization is sort of built into both of those Visa categories. They really haven't proven to apply to a large number of people over the course of the lifespan of the Smart Visa and from what we have seen thus far with respect to the LTR visa, it is a pretty narrow subset of folks that are even going to qualify to get that type of Visa. 

What we are talking about here though is a standard Work Permit and a standard Business Visa and the question is are they sort of tied together? In a sense they are. You can get into kind of a catch-22 situation where in order to get your Business Visa, you have got to have work authorization and in order to get that, you have to have a Company and da, da, da. So it can be kind of convoluted process, some would even argue maybe even Byzantine in trying to get your Work Permit and your Visa sorted out.

For purposes of this video, what we are talking about is the Work Permit; "Is it sort of tied to the B Visa?" In a sense it is because you need the B Visa to get your Work Permit and then you need the Work Permit to get your B Visa extended in Thailand. So in that sense it is kind of tied together. In another very real sense they are not the same document and you may have to deal with extension of one at a different date and time than an extension of the other; generally those dates are not aligned. So again, it is going to depend on the circumstances in your given case but for the most part if Work Permits are tied to B Visas, they are loosely tied to B Visas.