Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thailand Elite Visa. We have done other videos on this where we compare it to Permanent Residence but a recent article came to my attention and I thought it was worth noting it. It came out August 23rd, 2021 so relatively recent and there are just some misnomers in here and I wanted to note them and do this video so that people are aware. Some could argue this is a semantic difference but no, it is not semantics, it is a substantive difference here. 

Thailand so this article is titled: Thailand Residency Visa Program Hit as COVID Spooks Chinese. This is from NIKKEI Asia, that is asia.nikkei.com. Again the title is: Thailand Residency Visa Program Hit as COVID Spooks Chinese. Quoting directly and these are the relevant, this is a pretty long insightful article. I urge those who are watching this video go check it out and read it in full. I am just going to quote a couple of excerpts here so I can use it to explain the difference between Permanent Residence in Thailand and Thailand Elite Visa status.

Quoting directly: "After achieving 2 years of record growth, Thailand's long-term residence program the "Elite Visa" is now stalling. The program faces myriad challenges: COVID-19 cases keep surging to record highs, anti-government protesters are again taking to the streets, and the Visa initiative's leader has resigned. These Elite Visas are Thailand's version of Permanent Residency Permits. Foreigners will have to pay at least 600,000 Baht or $17,947 to enroll in the program which allows them to stay in the Kingdom for 5 to 20 years without having to leave its borders." Yeah there is just a lot, I am sure folks that watch this channel frequently will already know what I am going to point out. Well first of all, it is not Permanent Residence, that is not what it is. It is a Non-Immigrant Visa that confers one year of status. The Visa sticker itself is for 5-year increments and upon each entry to Thailand you get one year of lawful status or you can renew it in one year increments. You can extend status in one year increments. It is not you just come in and you are here for five years. That is not how it works. It is also not Permanent Residence.

There is Permanent Residence in Thailand. It is a different thing. Permanent Residence in Thailand is governed by an entirely different section of the Immigration Act of '79 which for example TM 30 and the 90-day reporting apply to Non-Immigrant Visas; they apply to the Elite Visa. Folks that have a Thailand Elite Visa still have to do 90-day reporting, they still have to do TM 30. It does not apply to Permanent Residence. If you have Permanent Residence, AKA Immigrant Visa status in Thailand, if you are an immigrant and you have been registered as such through the Immigration system here, and there are prerequisite requirements; there is a certain time period you have got to be in Thailand; you have got to maintain work permit status generally speaking; you have got to maintain long-term unbroken status and certain salary requirements etc. There is also a point system associated with it. You have to do all of that to overcome the requirements in order to get Permanent Residence. Elite Visa status is not Residence. In a sense, it is just a really long Tourist Visa, that is kind of the best way to put it although it is a non-immigrant Visa so to be clear it is an NIV category but as opposed to a tourist category, TR, but that said it does not confer Lawful Permanent Residence and thinking it does is a big misnomer. I have seen people that have made that mistake and just thought "oh okay I have gotten this and I am just here for 5 years now”. Lo and behold they go look at their passport or they leave the country 13, 14 months later, wow, they are in overstay because they didn't maintain their extension status by extending their Elite Visa status.

So the thing to take away from this video is No, in fact Elite Visa status is not Permanent Residence.