Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Retirement Visa policy. I went ahead and made this video because of correspondence I got from a viewer. It was actually a pretty long correspondence. Clearly the person that sent it to me had a pretty strong grasp of the overall situation with respect to Thai Retirement Visas but the conclusion of the correspondence I am going to quote right here. Quoting directly: "Therefore could we assume if an O Visa is changed in the future to Thai Baht 1.2 million that people who started out on the 400k and myself on the 800k, will be granted grandfather rights to remain with these numbers or should we also expect a requirements to rise in line with what we assume of 1.2 million baht?" 

So the question is: "Can we presume that if, let's go back here for anybody that hasn't watched some of our prior videos on this channel, we have discussed postings on both the Royal Thai Consulate website in Los Angeles as well as the Royal Thai Consulate website in Sydney, Australia. We have discussed the fact that on both of those sites they note that for the O-A Visa, that in order to get those issued through those Consulates, they want to see a minimum or equivalent of 1.2 million Baht in basically currency in a bank account or something equivalent to that perhaps like a money market account or something of that nature; basically, they want to see 1.2 million. As we have discussed, this is kind of nebulous right now. I would call this something that is in flux but it is moving toward the 1.2 million. Now as we have done other videos on, this does not pertain to Immigration here in Thailand so Royal Thai Immigration Police under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior here in Thailand, they don't have anything pertaining to a 1.2 million Baht requirement. 

Now the question posed is: "Could this be a harbinger of things to come? Could this be a signal of what may happen within Thailand?" If so, will folks that came in under the 800,000 scheme be grandfathered in? We have done specific videos in the past on this. My opinion is probably although it is not a foregone conclusion. The other thing is it is never particularly a great idea to make assumptions or presumptions with respect to the evolving state of Thai Immigration Policy. That stated, thus far the O Retirement Visa has remained largely unchanged in the form of it is extension requirements here in Thailand. Still 800,000; still no fundamental requirement associated with insurance although as we have talked about in other videos when it comes down to leaving Thailand coming back in and using the Thailand Pass, there can be some issues with respect to that especially in the insurance side of things. To the point of this video, yeah in the past if you go back into the 90s when policies changed with respect to 400,000 versus 800,000 and if you go even further back I think it went from 200 to 400 at one point, the folks that were in under 200 or 400 they were grandfathered; they were just sort of left alone. 

Now in this there is a phrase that I want to be clear on not making this assumption. So basically, "people who started out on the 400k and myself on 800k will be granted grandfather rights to remain”?" Never presume “rights to remain”. These are all Non-Immigrant Visas. There is no "right to remain" associated with a Non-Immigrant Visa. They are renewed on a yearly basis and they are renewed at the discretion of the Immigration Officer adjudicating the renewal; they are also renewed under the laws pertaining to Thai Immigration at the time that they are renewed. Permanent Residence has rights of abode and Thai citizenship obviously has rights of abode but Non-Immigrant status does not. This also includes other long-term visas; things like Thailand Elite Visas just as a for example. You don't have a "right" to remain in Thailand. It is just an ongoing Visa that allows you to ask permission to remain. So do I think ultimately there would be a change? It may happen. I think it is probably out in the relatively unforeseeable future insofar as a couple of years at the earliest that we might see this. Based on times past, yes, I think it's very plausible that we could see for lack of a better term, a grandfathering at 800,000 but that is not a foregone conclusion and I would say that this hasn't happened yet but it is best not to presume any rights here. It could happen. I don't think it will change anytime upcoming but if it does yeah Thai Immigration can come out with some fundamental sea-change with respect to Retirement Visa policy quite frankly anytime they want. Especially Retirement Visas are regulatorily driven, they are not driven by the Law. We have done videos on this before. The Thai Immigration Act of ‘79 does not specifically delineate a Thai Retirement Visa and therefore it is entirely a creation of the regulatory structure under the authority granted to the Immigration Authorities here in the Kingdom of Thailand.