Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the kind of the "crowded field" as it were of Thai Retirement Visas that are going to be available starting in the fourth quarter here in 2022.

So the reason for the video or the reason I thought of making the video was I was reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's Latest 10-Year Retirement Visa Available From September. Quoting directly:"As regards retirees, the LTR," (that is the Long-Term Resident Visa that they have been talking about for some time now; kind of on the lips of many expats. Again, as noted in prior videos, not a Resident Visa, it is just a really long Non-Immigrant Visa. There is a major distinction there and I have done a number of videos on that) Quoting further: "the LTR is muscling in on a crowded field." hence the reason for the title of the video. Quoting further: "There are already O and O-A annual visas and extensions of stay in Thai Embassies and Immigration Bureau, the 5-20 year Elite Visa and even a 10-year predecessor known as O-X, introduced in 2017 and barely taken up because of its complexities and limited advantages. Retirees married to Thai Nationals have their own route too, requiring the foreigner to prove only 400,000 Baht annually in savings or income." Yeah, very good points. I urge those who are watching this video to check out that article. A lot of insight in that article and yes very good points on that. There are a lot of Retirement Visa options out there available to folks and quite frankly they have much less cumbersome financial criteria associated with them compared to this proposed LTR scheme.

The other thing to bear in mind and I often wonder this myself, just quoting again: "10-year predecessor known as O-X introduced in 2017 and barely taken up because of its complexities and limited advantages." I wonder if maybe the LTR program is going to end up on a similar footing as the O-X because there is a lot to prove up associated with the financial criteria associated with the LTR and on top of that, that documentation is going to be required; there's costs associated with dealing with that. Again, how the rubber hits the road if you will on the LTR program remains to be seen and I think that there is going to be probably a period of transition at least where we see how viable this thing is overall.

Now the thing to take away from this video for retirees that are already here in Thailand, just because the LTR is coming online it doesn't mean anything presently is going to be changed associated with the O Retirement Visa. As we have noted in other videos, the O-A the insurance requirement associated with that, is slated to change substantially in the fourth quarter of 2022. We will keep folks updated on that as a situation evolves. The thing to take away from this video, yeah the LTR is coming in but it is not the only option. There are many, there are multiple different options associated with those who would like to come to Thailand to retire and just live here.