Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are paraphrasing a line from George Orwell, which is the pen name of Eric Blair, who wrote the book Animal Farm. For those who are unaware of that book I urge you to read it, it's good reading, but one of the lines in there as the Animal Farm descends from this sort of initial kind of Utopia if you will, into a communist hellscape by the end of the book, one part that it has really kind of become poignant to the point of the line has almost become cliché, there is a line that says "all animals are equal" and then later that is amended as time goes by and the pigs try to take over, literally those are the characters in the book who try to take over, they say "some are more equal than others". And while at first glance this might not seem like something to refer to when talking about Thai Immigration, I think it is noteworthy because especially the O Visa category, there is a lot of misunderstanding as to what is going on in that category, so I thought this video was a pretty good way of pointing it out. And again especially in terms of O Retirement Visas, there is a differentiation in my opinion where one type of Visa is "more equal" than the other.

So I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel, quoting directly: "I am confused. I have a Non-O "Retirement Visa". What is the difference between that and an O Visa?" Well in point of fact and as we have discussed in other videos on this channel, Nothing. The O Visa quite literally in the Immigration Act, it stipulates that certain visas can be created by Ministerial Regulations, effectively by regulations within Thai Immigration under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior. Now the thing to keep in mind is there are different rules which are promulgated within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pertaining to Thai Visas which are obtained and sought abroad. We are not talking about that necessarily here although it is another example of how O Visas can be not only issued with different requirements associated with them, but they can be issued in totally different ways; and the way in which they are issued can be totally different if you're applying for an O Visa abroad versus applying for an O Visa within Thailand.

Now that said, the O Visa quite literally it means "other". It is the miscellaneous category and a lot of things that are used on a rather regular basis here in Thailand by expats especially are utilized in the O category. What are we talking about here? First off, there is an O Marriage Visa; it's not even really exactly, it's not even really precise to call it an O Marriage Visa. It's an O Visa based on a family relationship with a Thai National in one set of fact patterns I get or, in one fact pattern you can view that as O Visa based on marriage; there's also the possibility of an O Visa based on having Thai children. We've discussed that in other videos. Meanwhile within the sort of retirement rubric if you will, there is a bifurcation between different types of O Visas, specifically for retirees and again this falls under the miscellaneous category so while it is an O, it is an O very different from other types of O visas for example different criteria associated with O Retirement Visas as opposed to O Marriage Visas. But understand within just Retirement, within the Retirement Subcategory if you will, there is a difference between the O Retirement Visa, the standard non-O if you will and an O-A. As we have discussed in other videos, O-A Visas have a mandatory insurance requirement associated with them and those that cannot meet that requirement have to meet a threshold of I believe it's 3 million Baht in a bank account or insurance coverage meeting that criteria which again it gets kind of nebulous between can you show it or do you just need to show cash, but cash in a bank account can be used to meet the insurance requirement. 

As of the time of this video, the standard O Retirement Visa does not have the requirement of medical insurance, so hence the reason why the title and I will grant it is a bit snarky, but the title of this video is ‘some O Visas are more equal than others’ in the sense that O retirees in Thailand extending their status via the standard O Retirement Extension, yeah in a sense they have kind of a better situation in terms of requirements insofar as they do not or they are not required to have medical insurance to maintain their long-term status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.