Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not the Elite Visa program here in Thailand is "stalling". First of all I want to I don't think that that is an accurate description and I will get into why I am using that terminology when I get into some source material here in a moment.

The thing to understand about the Elite Visa it has been a substantial benefit to many users of it. It can provide significant benefits but I think it is often misunderstood and folks believe it has attributes it doesn't actually have. As we have noted in other videos, it is not Permanent Residence; it is an extended Non-Immigrant Visa; it does not provide work authorization. In a sense, it is kind of a really long VIP Tourist Visa if you want to look at it like that. The reason I went ahead and made this video came from a recent article from Nikkei, that is asia.nikkei.com. The article is titled: Thailand Residency Visa Program hit as COVID Spooks Chinese. Just at the outset, please remember and I have done another video contemporaneously with this one where I discuss this in more detail, it is not a Residence Permit. Elite Visas do not confer Permanent Residence in Thailand. Quoting directly: "After achieving two years of record growth, Thailand's long-term residency program the "Elite Visa" is now stalling." Quoting further: "The program faces myriad challenges: COVID 19 cases keep surging to record highs," well not recently. This article is from August 23rd, 2021. As we have seen here in September things are kind of changing with respect to that. Quoting further: "Anti-government protesters are again taking to the streets and the visa initiative’s leader has resigned." Quoting further: "Amid all the problems, Thailand Privilege Card president quit in June, citing personal reasons."  

Again I urge folks who are looking into this to go check this out, asia.nikkei.com, the article is titled: Thailand Residency Visa program hit as COVID Spooks Chinese, and as they say, "is now stalling"; again I think this is a little bit of the mark. I don't think the Elite Program is stalling, it is just we are dealing with a lot of the economic fallout just generally from everything that happened since March 2020. This is having ramifications across the board. It is having ramifications with the Elite Visa program; it is having ramifications in the standard Immigration apparatus here in Thailand; it is having ramifications for the food and beverage industry in Thailand, the tourism industry in Thailand. It is reverberating substantially throughout the country so to say specifically that the Elite Visa program is stalling I think is a little bit off. Now exactly where this evolves remains to be seen but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel.