Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing "the Elephant in the Room" regarding Thai Visas. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand Elite cancels Visa change at the last minute. I have done a number of videos contemporaneously with this one where we discussed the fact that yeah Thailand Elite is in an intense state of flux at the moment. We are currently dealing with kind of a transition period. One can get into the old system up to September 15th but after that point, we are going to see the system change and we don't know what the new categories are going to look like. We also don't know what the upcoming cost structure associated with Thailand Elite Visas are going to be. So for those who are interested in that topic specifically, stay tuned on this channel, we will keep you updated, but we are talking about Visas sort of generally now. 

I got to thinking of making this video after reading the following quote: "The elephant in the room is the future of all Thai Visa programs and not just Elite options." Quoting further: "A Deputy National Police Chief stated recently that some annual renewable visas are too cheap whilst criticizing corrupt practices in the issue of retirement, study and voluntary visas. Meanwhile the issue of some foreigners not having Medical cover and being unable to pay their hospital bills is still a hot potato in political circles." Quoting further: "The last major overhaul of Thailand's Visa regulations and fees was almost 20 years ago. On the other hand, Thailand must aspire to be competitive with other South East Asian countries who are just as keen to increase tourist and expat numbers. Thailand, in its hunt for high tourist spenders and wealthy expats, must be careful not to throw the babies out with the bathwater." 

Yeah, fair point there. I do think that it is fair to state that a lot of Thai Immigration probably we could be seeing major changes to that in coming weeks and months. Now I don't think it is going to be, I am not Chicken Little, the sky is not falling here, especially regarding standard Thai Retirement Visas. I don't think there is a lot to worry about that in the longer term. Yeah I do think we could see some of the financial requirements raised but I don't think it is going to be something that is going to be sort of earth-shattering; I don't think it is going to be doubled or anything like that. If you look at the past when those were increased in the past, it was incremental relatively. Now setting that aside, do I think there could be major changes with regard to certain Non-Immigrant Visas that people have abused in the past? Yeah absolutely. Education Visas and Volunteer Visas which were pointed out in that excerpt specifically, yeah I think moving forward especially those who want to live in Thailand and are looking to live here long term, you are going to want to be very, very careful with those kind of visas because I think they are under intense heightened scrutiny from various authorities here in the Kingdom regarding Immigration protocol. For that reason, it is probably a good idea to maybe steer clear specifically from those two categories. Retirees, I don't think it is something to really freak out about, and I want to be clear, I have done a number of videos recently where people have accused me of being a scaremonger and a fearmonger and all of this. Not my purpose. I have done videos like this for a number of years now where I have tried to get the word out that some changes may be coming down the pike and I think that is what we are looking at looking into the next forthcoming year roughly that yeah there is probably going to be some changes associated with Thai Immigration matters. Exactly what those are going to be remain to be seen but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.