Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thai O-A Retirement Visa. To give a little background here we have discussed this in other videos but coming up here in September the insurance requirements for the O-A Retirement Visa are about to go up substantially. People need to show $100,000 in equivalent coverage in Insurance in order to either obtain or maintain a Thai O-A Retirement Visa. 

The reason for the video, the reason I thought of making the video came from a recent article I read in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, article is titled: Pattaya Grapevine: Retirement Visa Stampede. Under Retirement Visa Stampede under Retirement Visa subheading it says: "Many holders of O-A Retirement Visas and extensions of stay which require medical insurance on an ongoing basis, are now leaving the country without a re-entry permit in order to cancel their permission. They then return with a 30-day Visa exempt or a 60-day Tourist Visa and apply at Immigration for a three months O Visa plus the 12 month extension. In this way they avoid any and all insurance requirements from start to finish."

So yeah looking at that, clearly there are folks who are trying to for lack of a better term get out of the O-A category but bear in mind that this is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. There are a lot of moving parts that go into leaving the country; not having your O-A, allowing it to expire for lack of a better term; obtaining another visa to come in or getting an exemption stamp to come back in and then converting and extending in O Retirement Visa status - a lot of moving parts associated with that. So, those that are thinking of doing this, it is really not a bad idea to contact a legal professional on this because there is a lot that goes into getting this done correctly if this is what you are looking to do, if you are already in O-A status. Meanwhile, it may be possible depending on your circumstances if you have been extending for example in O-A status, to convert directly into O Retirement Visa status here in Thailand. Again, it is going to be circumstantially dependent but it may be a possibility.

So yeah, I won't say there is exactly I don't know if stampede is quite the right word but definitely I think there are a number of people that feel that the O Retirement Visa is more advantageous to them in their current circumstances and I think there is going to be a number of people that are going to be looking to get over into O Retirement Visa status.