Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about presumption of conversion of Thai Visas in Thailand. So what are we talking about conversion? Well, when you come into Thailand on a given Visa say a Tourist Visa or a Visa Exemption stamp, a 30-day stamp, that is what you are admitted to Thailand on. Now if you want to change your status, I call it conversion, you can call it change, whatever you want. In fact we might end up just titling this "Changing Status" because I never say that I always say Conversion, that is more a term of art. That being said, people come in to Thailand  on a 30-day stamp for example and they want to change status.

In the past, pre-pandemic, this was not something particularly easy to do. Now here recently, especially with the discretion imparted onto Thai Immigration Officers as a result of the Emergency Decree promulgated in March of 2020, we have seen circumstances where Immigration Officers might be a little more open to dealing with a conversion or might be a little bit more amenable to changing one's status in the Kingdom. But again, this is going to be circumstantially dependent. I have seen them deny applications for conversions even during this situation, so they have that discretion too, it is not a foregone conclusion. The reason I thought of making this video is I was reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya Grapevine: Casinos a Cash Cow. There was a sub headline under there, Converting a Visa. Quoting directly: "The Thai O-A Retirement Visa issued by Embassies abroad is unpopular because of the stiff insurance requirements which also apply at renewal or extension stage. The most popular alternative route is a Visa exempt (30 days on arrival) followed by conversion at Immigration to non-O and then one year extension (15 months in all)". As an aside, this is me talking, 15 months in all is not a foregone conclusion. Especially here in Bangkok it may happen in 12 months, it may happen in 15 months. It just kind of depends on the way that well the way the facts add up, kind of the circumstances. Quoting further: "No insurance at any stage as of now."  As of now, that is a good point to bring up as we have discussed in other videos it is not impossible to see a situation where maybe insurance is required later although the facts that have come about up to this point don't point to that conclusion to me for now.

The purpose of this video, I want to reread this part, "the most popular alternative route is a Visa Exemption (30 days on arrival) followed by a conversion at Immigration to a non-O." Well, and I am not trying to point anyone out here, I am not really even trying to nitpick this because it is not a nitpick, this is a major point. Conversion should not necessarily always be presumed. It should not necessarily be presumed that you can convert to a Visa in Thailand. The default position of Thai Immigration is that Non-immigrant Visa categories are sort of mutually exclusive in that they are temporary, literally. If you look at the Immigration Act of '79, they say that. These are not visas to live in Thailand, that is what Permanent Residence is for. Therefore the default paradigm within Thai Immigration is that those who want to change from one status to another need to leave, get a visa and come back in; that is kind of the presumption. Now here recently, again under the Emergency Decree, we have seen a lot of discretion and quite frankly it just wasn't feasible in any practical sense to leave Thailand and return over roughly the past two years maybe a little more at this point; it is maybe 25 months or whatever it would be. That being said, that is the presumption. The default is you should not be doing conversions. They want you to leave and come back in. Now they have been allowing them with a little bit more frequency. Conversion used to be a really, really difficult thing and I do not think it is impossible, in fact I think it is very likely that as we see this whole COVID thing put behind us and especially as we see this thing being declared endemic, and especially as we see the rollback of the powers and the Emergency Decree itself being rolled back, we may go back to total status quo ante within the Immigration apparatus and therefore we may revert to a paradigm of "hey, look we are not really interested in doing conversions. You need to leave and come back in on the proper visa and then we will extend you." I am not saying that is going to happen, but what I am saying is it is not outside the realm of possibility.

The point of this video and the reason sort of I am bringing this up is if you are worried about this or you are looking to travel into Thailand in coming months and you kind of want to know what your situation is with respect to a Retirement Visa it maybe a very good idea to contact a legal professional before making any finalized travel arrangements, contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.