Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing banking issues associated with the Thai O Retirement Visa. I am going to go ahead and quote a comment from one of our recent videos on this channel. Quoting directly: "Speaking of streamlined Immigration, can you comment on recent changes by Thai Banks to require a long-term Visa and Work Permit to open an account. Foreigners are caught between two sets of rules. Thai Immigration requires bank account two months prior with a certain amount deposited for a non-O Marriage or Retirement Visa. Thai banks will not allow foreigners to open an account without a long-term non-O Visa and/or Work Permit. It is presently impossible for anyone to apply for a non-O Visa because banks don't allow foreigners to open accounts." 

Well yeah we assist folks it is kind of a Gordian knot, it is very much kind of a catch-22, sort of chicken or the egg, which comes first, the bank account or the Visa? We assist a lot of folks with this and oftentimes it is sort of a one swoop process that we are able to get banking done, Visa status sorted out. Again, it is going to be circumstantially dependent. Different cases are going to operate differently but for the most part, we have been able to find a number of solutions both in terms of banking and in terms of Retirement Visa status on behalf of clients here in Thailand. Now again, bear this in mind, different banks are going to have different rules regarding things like bank account set up and different Immigration offices are going to have different protocols associated with the Retirement Visa. So again, it is going to depend where you go, it is going to kind of depend how you thread the needle so to speak.

Now again we have assisted a number of clients with this for a number of years out here. For those that may feel like they are a bit overwhelmed by the whole catch 22 aspect of banking and Thai Retirement Visas, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.