Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing more than one way to process a Thai Retirement Visa. Unfortunately, yet again, a lot of nonsense out there on YouTube land talking about how "oh it's now impossible to convert to Retirement Visas in country." Well one, I've been talking about that rather major change for some months now, so I don't know why this is a big bunch of news; I've done a bunch of videos on this topic.

That being said, it's not a foregone conclusion that it's impossible to convert into a Thai Retirement Visa in Thailand. Again, as I've discussed - and I probably sound like a broken record doing it, many times in other videos - the underlying facts in the given case are what will dictate the legal analysis and possible outcome. So yeah look, at the end of the day, Immigration here in Thailand has discretion on matters pertaining to things like conversion, extension, issuance of visas in the first place. It's not outside their bailiwick to continue converting people from Tourist Visa into Retirement Visa. 

That being said, there has been a major policy shift especially since we had to start dealing with the rump coalition Government of the last Government and it really hasn't changed all that much going into this one, at least as it pertains to Thai Retirement Visas, and yeah we have seen a lot less conversions here in-country, to the point that you could say as a practical matter, it's not a good idea to rely on that mechanism to go ahead and get you into Retirement Visa status, but it's not completely ruled out either. This is why I get tired of the charlatan so-called lawyers and legal professionals out there talking about this stuff in absolutes, in black and white. They may not even be charlatans. They may just be actual lawyers out there who just don't have a lot of experience and don't actually know what they are talking about. 

It's also interesting, I've done videos in the past about some of the other "so-called law firms" here in Thailand and where they utilize or have as a principle, someone who is one, a foreigner operating in the legal service business to begin, which is illegal pursuant to the restricted occupations, and also, where they are a foreigner who has in the past and possibly may be doing so now and in the future, holding themselves out as an Attorney when in fact they are not, and I have documentation of that as it pertains to certain folks who may have been putting out videos over YouTube pertaining to Retirement Visas in the past week or so, and frankly I'm only being vague right now because I really don't want to get into all of that. But long story short, be careful with whom you are associating with in terms of seeking “legal advice” because if you are dealing with somebody who does not have any credentials, you may not be protected by lawyer-client confidentiality. You may not be protected when you think you are by Attorney-Client privilege, again depending on the underlying facts in the case, but where you are dealing with a lay person especially one who is fraudulently holding themselves out to be a legal professional, what kind of legal protections are you going to have in the event that that person, you are relying on that person for your legal means. If anything, you could put yourself into a position where you are engaged in what the American Rico statute might refer to as a continuing ongoing criminal enterprise or conspiracy, various other things, all kinds of problems with not hiring somebody who is actually a qualified legal professional for the matter you're talking about. Just keep that in mind generally speaking.

That being said, point of this video, at the present time dealing with anything in-country pertaining to Immigration, even in a Retirement context which generally in the past, there was kind of a hands-off attitude toward Retirement Visas - not so much they didn't adjudicate, but it was just the thinking was, "hey, they've got the money, they're here, they're spending it. Let's just give it to them, move on. The other thing was it was a rather simple calculus for Thai immigration as well because they weren't work authorized, so it was also well what are they doing here other than just adding to the country. 

That attitude has shifted a lot. Unfortunately, under the last government, we got all this World Economic Foreman influence, as well as the OECD with all this banking nonsense. It's making everything associated with banking more difficult; it’s making anything associated with banking and Immigration more difficult, and the Retirement Visas are no different. But that said, there has not been some absolute decree that says it's impossible to convert from any type of visa, be it a visa exemption, Visa-on-arrival, DTV, LTR, whatever, to a Retirement Visa. It's just more difficult right now because Immigration is exercising their discretion in such a way that it makes it practically, I won't say impossible, we have actually converted cases recently, but they have had extenuating circumstances in them. A couple of them involved health issues. 

Again, not a completely foregone conclusion that it's impossible to convert to Retirement Visa status in country. That is why you have always got to be leery to anybody talking in absolutes, as it pertains to any kind of legal legality or visas or whatever because especially with Visas, because at the end of the day, it falls on an adjudicating officer’s discretion so you can't just say a blanket statement, “oh nobody can get this or nobody can do this. That's ridiculous. That being said, it is more difficult to get a Retirement Visa right now. The practicalities associated with processing a new Retirement Visa especially, will be driven by the underlying facts in a given case. It wouldn't be a bad idea for those who feel overwhelmed by this to contact a qualified legal professional, somebody that actually has the expertise to do what they claim to be doing with regard to legalities, visas and Immigration. Contact one in order to gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.