Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing retirees in Thailand. A recent article from thaivisa.com came to my attention. The article is titled: Retirement Visa Holders Largest Group of Foreigners to Enter Thailand in October. I urge folks watching this video to read this. There is a lot in here, very interesting stuff. I am always particularly interested in the statistics of Visa categories of folks coming into Thailand as we don't get to see that data very often. Quoting directly: "According to figures released last week by the Tourism Authority of Thailand Deputy Governor Thapanee Kiartphaibool said 1,465 foreigners have been issued with a Certificate of Entry and entered the country in October." Quoting further: "Of those, 501 foreigners arrived on a long stay O-A Retirement Visa, applicants for which must be aged over 50." 

So as we noted in prior videos on this channel, they opened up the Retirement Visa category and there certainly were a number of folks that have been very interested in obtaining a Retirement Visa here to Thailand. The question posed further should be, "Should Thailand be taking special care, for lack of a better term, of the retirees?"  And I would answer emphatically "yes". The Retirement Visa if you want to call it, subset of folks that come into Thailand are very unique. Business Visa holders are what they are. Tourist Visas are what they are. Elite Visa is what it is. Folks on a non-O for Thai family purposes, they are what they are. Retirement Visa holders, they come to Thailand and they specifically just want to be here, frankly just to spend money and be here. I certainly think that that is quite a boon to the Thai economy especially under the circumstances. I take these 501 people as welcome news. I hope we see that number go up exponentially over the coming months and hopefully as they ratchet back or pull back from the more stringent aspects of this COVID response, hopefully we are going to see more retirees entering Thailand in the coming months and weeks. 

Now it should be noted, the process for obtaining a Retirement Visa has changed rather fundamentally in recent months. Those we are finding who contact us, are bit overwhelmed by the overall process and we would say that well if you do feel overwhelmed it may be a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed in applying for a Thai O-A Retirement Visa as quickly and efficiently as possible.