Integrity Legal - Law Firm in Bangkok | Bangkok Lawyer | Legal Services Thailand Back to
Integrity Legal

Legal Services & Resources 

Up to date legal information pertaining to Thai, American, & International Law.

Contact us: +66 2-266 3698

info@integrity-legal.com

ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawCan I Work In Thailand On A Retirement Visa?

Can I Work In Thailand On A Retirement Visa?

Transcript of the above video:

In this video, I'm going to briefly discuss retirement visas and a question to disclose to me rather frequently actually here in Thailand which is “Can I work on retirement visa?” The short answer that question is no. Retirement visas are specifically issued to those who are, you know, retiring.

That's exactly what they’re issued for, for those foreign nationals who wish to come to Thailand and simply retire here.

This being said, it's possible to go ahead and go out of retirement visa, go into a business visa category or an O visa category for marriage which are both work authorized and go ahead and try to get a work permit on one of those categories. But it should be noted, it's always been my experience here in Thailand that you know retirement visas, they're not issued easily by any stretch of the imagination, in any sense of the word. But I would say, the adjudication of retirement visa applications is done in a much more straightforward manner when compared to the scrutiny that business visas are put under. Or even as of the time of this video, what I'm finding is that marriage visas are being placed under an even higher degree of scrutiny than they have been let's say five years ago.

But that being said, so I think part of the reason for all the scrutiny is B visas and O visas are work authorized. So those who were present in Thailand physically in B visa status could theoretically be undertaking employment and there is a policy mandate on the part of officers in Thailand to make certain that those who are working in Thailand, they are not otherwise basically taking a job that I could be doing or are not, you know, utilizing work authorization for sort of nefarious purposes. So that extra component of work authorizations associated with visas I would argue makes those cases more heavily scrutinized whereas with retirement visas, one simply needs to show their financial ability to remain in the Kingdom of Thailand which is clearly delineated in the requirements of the retirement visa itself

I strongly recommend those who are interested in this topic research further, there are numerous videos now on this channel regarding retirement visas specifically. But to the question: can one work in retirement status? Please know if one is physically present in retirement visa status in the Kingdom of Thailand, work authorization is specifically prohibited now. This is slightly different than the education visa which we've talked about in another video on this channel. The education visa is generally not work authorized but there are certain very specific discrete narrowly scoped situations where an individual may be able to go ahead and get work authorization on an ED status. In those situations, they're generally in connection with the academic endeavor. However, with respect to retirement that's just not possible.

Retirement visas are explicitly for the purpose of retirement in Thailand. They do not have work authorization and therefore, the answer to the question is an unqualified: No, retirement visa status in Thailand does not allow someone to work.