Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well we are discussing Smart Visas. I haven't really discussed Smart Visas for quite some time in its own video so I thought I'd go ahead and make one mostly because I was recently reading in the Bangkok Post, this is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Long Stay Visa become sole enticement.

Quoting directly: "Foreign investors who are granted a Smart Visa, will be able to stay in Thailand for 4-5 years said Tanit Sorat, Vice-Chairman of the Employers Confederation of Thai Trade and Industry.” Quoting further: "The Smart Visa targets business people who want to invest in 12 S-curve industries: New Generation Cars, Smart Electronics, Affluent Medical and Wellness Tourism, Agriculture and Bio-Technology, Food, Robotics for Industry, Logistics and Aviation, Biofuels and Bio-chemicals, Digital Medical Services, Defense and Education Development." So yeah Smart Visas are out there and while on the one hand they have been touted a lot and under certain circumstances can be very beneficial for folks, as a practical matter, what we have been seeing in our office for the most part we find that the vast majority clients we deal with do not use the Smart Visa for various reasons. In some cases they are just not qualified; the business activity they are looking to do is just simply not qualified and there is a whole adjudication process through the Board of Investment that you have to deal with, with respect to that. 

Long story short, yeah I just don't see a lot of these getting used particularly frequently. However, when they are used, as I noted before and as noted in this article, they can have a lot longer validity; they have work authorization built into them; derivative visas are substantially more beneficial to the derivative spouse for example of someone holding a Smart Visa, notably they can work; we have discussed that in other videos. So again there are benefits to it but it is probably not going to apply to the vast majority of Expats looking to do business here in the Kingdom of Thailand.