Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Retirement Visas. Kind of an odd question I think for some is: "Are Thai Retirement Visas created by Thai Law?"

In a sense, the answer to that could be "No". You could argue the answer to that is no insofar as Thai Retirement Visas are not specifically laid out in the Immigration Act of 1979. I have done a number of videos discussing the Immigration Act, I am not going to dig too far into it but long story short, there are some visas that their categories are explicitly mentioned in that Act most notably Business Visas for example. Tourist Visas is another example; Diplomatic Visas, things like this. I think even Religious Visas are specifically delineated in there although they are kind of rarity. I should state that part about the Religious Visa is kind of off the top of my head. 

Long story short, Retirement Visas are not actually mentioned in the Act so where do they come from? Did they pop up out of the ground like mushrooms? No, in point of fact there is a stipulation toward the end of the section of the Act which pertains to all the Visa categories where it basically says: "or any other Visa as designated by the Ministerial Regulations", so the regulations that can be issued by Immigration which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior, to be clear. So just to clarify this, Retirement Visas are actually a creature of the regulations not the Law directly. In a sense, obviously they are legal. They are created by Law insofar as the law allows Immigration to create them and then Immigration created the regulations which deal with Retirement Visas but they are not explicitly mentioned in the Act. I have said this more than once, that makes Retirement Visas on a certain limit and let me be clear on this, I am not saying that they are somehow shakier in their foundations legally or anything, in fact quite the contrary. If anything, actually because it is regulatorily driven they are actually more specific in how the rules operate and in some cases especially when you are dealing with things like Business Visas. Different Embassies deal with things very, very differently sometimes with respect to Business Visas than for example Retirement Visas because there is more of a regulatory structure that is in place that designates what makes a valid Retirement Visa, the rules associated with it etc. 

Long story short and the reason for this video is yeah and I know it is kind of a semantic point, maybe a fine point, but no it is not explicitly mentioned in the Act. In theory, yes they could go away tomorrow if the Thai Immigration Authorities wanted them to. In practice I do not think that will ever happen for a number of different reasons most notably because and this is certainly the case, Thailand derives a lot of benefits from the expat Retiree population currently living here in the Kingdom.