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10 Year Retirement Visas in Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

This video is just a quick overview regarding recent news that Thai authorities have enacted or are in the process of enacting legislation and regulations creating a new 10 year Thai visa for those over the age of 50 years old.

Basically, the way I am looking at this is as if it’s a long stay retirement visa so those who are attempting to, first of all we don’t exactly know how the rules on this are going to be implemented because this came about within the past 7 days of this video so as of yet, we haven’t seen the actual “on the ground” implications of this new announcement. But that being said, there are some things we do know, most notably, those who want to apply for this category visa have to be over the age of 50 years, so that is much like the current situation with respect to retirement visas. For specific information on the sort of I don’t know what you want to call it, the sort of traditional retirement visa, I urge you to check out our blurb on this channel regarding retirement visas, but back to the 10 year retirement visa. The 10 year retirement visa, tentatively, the rules seem to state, that one has to put 3 million baht into a Thai bank account, and hold that money in a Thai bank account, without removing it for a total of 1 calendar year, for a period of 1 calendar year. The other thing to keep in mind about this is, apparently the approval process is going to be multi phased, so initially, and again we haven’t seen exactly how this is going to be implemented but initially the stamp one will be getting is for 5 years and then I am assuming after it’s been proven that the 3 million baht has stayed in the bank account for more than 1 calendar year you are going to go ahead and see another 5 years be stamped into that individual’s passport.  Again, it’s very similar to the retirement visa in that it’s not only a lump sum requirement. I believe if one can prove that they are bringing in over 100,000 baht in revenue, now that may not necessarily be income per se but it may be social security benefits, pension benefits, investment benefits, whatever, again 100,000 baht in revenue per month, it appears that that will also be available as a foundation for applying for one of these 10 year visas.

As with anything in Thailand, as with anything in the law, when there’s a new announcement, I find that there are many individuals who sort of run out and immediately expect that the world has just changed overnight in that particular sphere; that’s not really the case. This stuff tends to be implemented gradually. I expect that we won’t actually see full implementation of this kind of thing until calendar year 2017, if at all. I have seen various visa schemes over the years that were announced, promulgated, passed and they have sort of fallen into the dustbin of history, not that they haven’t been enacted, they actually are on the books, but as far as from a practical standpoint, actually getting those visa benefits, virtually impossible. So something to think about but,  Yes, the retirement visa is apparently, now there is a possibility, there is a category, I don’t know how you want to phrase it at this point, but there is a possibility of obtaining a 10 year visa which looks very much like a retirement visa, it just has higher requirements with respect to money in the bank or revenue being generated and it is apparently going to be a multi phased process whereby there’s going to be one initial stamp granting a certain amount of status presumably while they’re ensuring the relevant amount of capital remains in the bank or that that individual is actually bringing in that amount of money every month and then thereafter, there’s going to be another point, where the rest of the status is going to be granted.  So stay tuned, you may see another video on this channel regarding the specifics of the 10 year retirement visa. As I expect, most people are fairly, there are some people that are fairly excited to see this happen as it will result in probably less issues for some retirees here in Thailand with respect to having to visit immigration. It should be noted that tentatively at least, and based on what we are reading from source material here in Thailand, and announcements from various ministries, it looks like the 90 day check in requirement, which if you check out the video with respect to 90 day check ins, there’s another video on this channel regarding 90 day check ins here in Thailand, 90 check ins are still going to be required, notwithstanding the new 10 year retirement visa, so although certain aspects of the retirement visa process will no longer be around presumably under the 10 year retirement visa scheme, most notably one will not presumably need to go and renew their retirement visa every year as is the case right now. That being said, 90 day check ins are still required, and again, with respect to how the 90 day check in process works, I urge you to go and check out the video regarding 90 day check ins on our channel here but I am always fairly cautiously optimistic about these matters but it would appear that this 10 year retirement visa is genuine, they are promulgating rules with respect to it and we should be seeing implementation and issuance of those documents fairly soon and we will keep you updated as things progress.