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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called Long-Term Residence Visas or LTR Visas. Let's say this out of the gate, I know those who watch this channel rather frequently that you are probably thinking I am a broken record. Strictly speaking, this LTR moniker, this Long -Term Residence Visa appellation, this label is something of a misnomer because these aren't Permanent Residence. Permanent Residence is its own thing; we have discussed them in another videos on this channel. These are simply sort of long stay visas, they may have like a 10 year validity but they are not in the traditional sense of residence in that once you get them you can just be here indefinitely. You still have to deal with things; looks like you are still going to have to deal with things under a Non-Immigrant rubric. 

The reason I made this video is I have had some feedback from folks asking if this stuff is still moving ahead. I got some insight when I was reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Every cloud has a silver lining. Quoting directly: "In order to tap this potential segment, the Thai Government rolled out a Visa policy for 10 year long term residents targeting "high potential” foreign groups including retirees that can invest to live in Thailand, said Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Yuthasak Supasorn." Quoting further: "Earlier in May, the Visa scheme received Cabinet approval to reduce the Visa fee by half to 50,000 Baht from 100,000 Baht." To clarify, to the best of my knowledge the Visa scheme itself has not been rolled out. The most recent announcement is they tinkered with the pricing scheme. Also note, and I have made other videos on this, even though the application fee is changing from 100,000 Baht to 50,000 Baht, the financial requirements associated with these visas are substantial and it looks like you are going to have to prove up as well that you meet these financial criteria and that will be something of a substantial hurdle to overcome as well. 

Quoting further: "The TAT is continuing to work to attract active senior tourists with higher spending power for longer stays using the Government's Visa perks said Mr. Yuthasak." Yeah I think that is a fair statement. I think the Thai Government is very keen to bring in retirees; I think they are very keen to retain retirees because tax money is an issue right now. In the past two years we've seen real hits to the Thai economy especially the tourism sector and quite frankly I think that the retiree sector has been the one thing perhaps keeping that segment of the GDP on a certain level of life support because they have been here continuously in some cases, spending money and just living their lives and this has brought positive benefits to Thailand. 

So again, something to think about. Yeah do I think the Thai Immigration policy apparatus is keen to retain and get more retirees into the Kingdom? Yes most assuredly I think that is the case.