Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well we're discussing Retirement Visas and we are discussing longer term Retirement Visas. The reason I thought of making this video is because I was reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Elite Card is winning the battle of Thailand's longstay visas. I would take a more nuanced approach with respect to this title; I don't agree with the title of this 100%. I would say Elite Cards are in demand, there's no doubt about that, but the notion they are winning the battle of longstay visas, I don't think that is quite right. There was a small excerpt in here and I urge those who are watching this video go read that article in detail but there was a small excerpt in here I thought was worth quoting. Quoting directly: "Attempts to extend beyond one year at a time the Visas and extensions of stay for retirees over 50 years and foreigners with Thai spouses or dependents have also stalled."

What are we talking about here? Well, there have been initiatives for a number of years that I can remember personally and I have heard about this from other folks who have been here for longer than I have that there are many times that have been sort of requests made of the Immigration Bureau to allow Retirement Visas to be issued for example for 2 years as opposed to 1 year extensions. And yeah that just has never gained any traction for one reason or another. I think one of the big reasons is that the Immigration Bureau wants to continue to reassess folks' financials, basically make sure that they do indeed have their retirement financials in order. Really this isn't that far out of line with for example this current LTRV, so-called Long-Term Residence Visa which doesn't really provide residence. There's ongoing scrutiny associated with that as we have done other videos on this channel talking about how ongoing Revenue Department scrutiny as well as Immigration scrutiny are part and parcel with that Visa, not really all that different with respect to the Thai Retirement Visas.

My personal opinion, the O Retirement Visa remains kind of the staple if you will, the kind of bedrock Long Term Retirement Visa here in Thailand and I think it will continue to do so. So the thing to take away from this video in my opinion is yeah okay, O Retirement Visa sort of are what they are. They're not really going anywhere; they are not really going to be extended much further than what they currently are now. O-A Visas in the past, if anything their length has kind of been truncated. There was a time when you could use an OA retirement Visa if you used it sort of correctly, you could effectively get two years out of it, that's kind of gone by the wayside. Now we are really only looking at one year at a time on the O-A. As far as the O Retirement Visa, it remains kind of the bedrock Retirement Visa and yeah, I don't see the expiration of it being extended any time soon.

That said, quite honestly if you are talking about affordability, at the end of the day, the O Retirement Visa or the O-A to some extent, but the O Retirement Visa especially for extensions, remains the most affordable methodology of maintaining long term status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.