Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn who for those who have watched this channel for a fairly prolonged period of time, are going to know I talk about him rather frequently. He was the former Head of Immigration Police, now he is the Deputy National Police Chief and there was a recent article in the Bangkok Post and I will go ahead and quote it right here. He has been talking a lot about Immigration stuff and this is worth noting. For those who sort of pre-date roughly about 2018 when I first started talking about "Big Joke", you probably aren't going to have a real good frame of reference for quite honestly how important it is when this guy talks about Immigration to kind of take note because he can have a tremendous impact on Immigration and he has had a tremendous impact on Immigration in the past. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Driving out the gangs. The thrust of the article goes in a totally different direction, and I urge those who are watching this to read that article. But there are specific excerpts where he is talking about Thai Immigration specifically Retirement Visas, quoting that here, quote: "For example, requirements for attaining a Retirement Visa are easy, he said, adding the law requires any foreigner aged at least 50 years old to have at least 800,000 Baht in their bank account or an income certificate with a monthly salary not less than 65,000 Baht. That requirement is too low and does not help screen applicants." That is interesting stuff. So this is "Big Joke". 

Now let's be clear, I don't want to cause anybody to panic. Nothing has changed about the Retirement Visa requirements, this is simply Big Joke talking; I did another video contemporaneously with this one where he has even talked about trying to amend the law on Visa Extensions in Thailand. Now that was in a more general context, in this video we are talking about Retirement Visas specifically and he brings up the financial requirements; he brings up the fact that he believes they are too low, to quote the article. So again, the financial requirements associated with Retirement Visas, so again let me reiterate nothing has changed here and it doesn't look like anything's going to change in the immediately foreseeable future. But that said, down the road they could. Now as opposed to the video I did before talking about amending the law on Visa Extensions, changing the rules regarding financial requirements associated with Retirement Visas that can be done regulatorily; that doesn't need to be done via an act of Parliament so in theory this could happen more easily if you will then could laws related to the overall Immigration Act, changing the law itself, that's a different procedure. The thing to take away from this video and the thing to understand is, this person doesn't talk about this these things idly and we have actually seen him as the Head of Immigration Police, make major changes to the evidence associated for example with Retirement Visas. We saw this a lot going back into 2018, into 2019; this was the cause of great deal of consternation on the part of retirees.

So the thing to take away from this video and the thing to understand is again nothing is changing anytime soon; I don't expect it to change immediately but it is kind of one of those things to have in the back of your mind when "Big Joke" talks about changes to Immigration it is something to take heed of, something to take note of. So again this isn't made to scare anyone, it is not made to cause any undue concern but again, keep it in the back of your mind. Now with regard to the notion of grandfathering, I think it's possible, I will do another video contemporaneously with this one where I will kind of go in to that in a lot more detail. Again I think it is possible but hard to predict. I don't think it is wise to try to make plans based on something that has an outside possibility. It is always a better idea to go ahead and sort of deal with things as they are and as they are now nothing has changed with regard to the Retirement Visa or the financial requirements associated therewith. Now that said, as things change we will certainly keep people updated on this channel as this situation evolves.