Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Education Visas. A lot of people have been sending me correspondence, sending me messages, making comments discussing the Thai Education Visa, asking me .what do I think the long-term implications of some recent activities, what do I think the long-term prospects are for the Thai Education Visa?

My short answer is .not very good. I think the Thai Ed Visa, if you go back about 3, 4, 5 years ago, whenever it was "Big Joke" first came in, that was where he went first; crack down on Ed Visas immediately; he did roundups of places that were known to issue Ed Visas, all kinds of crackdowns. Long story short, the Ed Visa was viewed as at best being a pretext for maintaining status here in Thailand, for maintaining Visa status and frankly I think in most cases Immigration Officers view it truly as a pretense to just get a Visa even though one isn't actually studying.

As we have discussed in videos recently, quite recently, Thai authorities, specifically Immigration Authorities are undertaking a number of actions in order to try and deal with Education Visas. In fact they have noted that they are not going to issue anymore in the context of so-called language schools. It's a little bit murkier as to other types of schools; it is a little bit murkier as to Universities and things. It is my understanding, I don't think we will ever see the Ed Visa go away because obviously Universities and Secondary Schools here in Thailand need to be able to assist their students in getting some kind of Visa if they are not Thai in order to maintain status in Thailand in order to undertake their studies.

The long and the short of it is Ed Visas have been used for a number of years by folks who don't otherwise qualify for really much of any visa and oftentimes they are used very much as a pretense I would say. I don't think that's unfair, I don't think that's really saying anything that isn't really out there. Now that said, there are people that legitimately use the Education Visa for legitimate reasons. But as far as the future of the Ed Visa as sort of a long-term option for folks to come and live in Thailand, I just don't see that is going to be a viable option in the foreseeable future.