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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing LTR Visas, so-called Long-Term Resident Visas versus O Retirement Visas. Let's go ahead and talk about this. I probably sound like a broken record to regular viewers but yet again, LTR Visas are not Resident Visas. They are long stay visas; they have like a 10-year validity but they are not Resident Visas. Permanent Residence in Thailand is its own category of Immigration status as covered in the Immigration Act of 1979. So there may be special provisions for a special type of long stay Visa but under the Act itself, there is a differentiation between non-immigrant Visa holders and Residents in Thailand and LTR visas are still considered Non-Immigrant Visas.

So setting that aside, comparing the LTR to the Thai Retirement Visa, specifically the O Retirement Visa, what are we looking at here? Well as we have discussed in other videos, 80,000 seems to be kind of the magic number associated with proving up financial ability and 80,000, when I say that it is US80,000 Dollars and not 80,000 Baht. One needs to generally prove up either assets or income over time that will show that that person is considered sort of a high net what individual, however you want to call that, and is therefore eligible for these LTR Visas.

The Thai O Retirement Visa doesn't require that at all. It requires either 800,000 Baht in a Thai Bank Account or 65,000 Baht a month income in order to maintain a Thai O Retirement Visa. The other thing to bear in mind with Thai O Retirement Visas as opposed to the O-A category is that the O-A category will require insurance and the O Retirement Visa category currently does not. Now bear in mind, the O-A category is going to change a little bit at the end of this year, at least it is slated to. We are making another video contemporaneously with this one where we discuss the O-A in a little more detail. 

But the thing to take away from this just generally is that the LTR Visas have a much higher financial requirement associated with them. Now they grind a much longer period of stay in Thailand as opposed to an O Retirement Visa, but O Retirement Visa extensions can be maintained in Thailand on a fairly regular basis and quite frankly, people have been doing it for decades. Yeah nobody really loves dealing with their Visa, it is kind of a hassle or whatever, but for the most part it can be done; it can be done in a straightforward manner and you can get that sorted out and move on with your life. It just depends on what you want and for certain people they kind of want the peace of mind of 10 years sort of front loaded. For other folks, it may not be that big of a priority and it may not be something that they feel they want to really invest the kind of resources in, in order to get that kind of status.