Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the overall situation with regard to conversions of visas here in Thailand. There is a lot going on, a lot of new rules coming in. We have had a lot of correspondence from folks wanting to know whether or not they are going to be able to convert their status. In certain situations I have had folks calling in asking about Retirement Visa conversions and what I mean by that is going from an O-A to an O Retirement Visa; folks asking about the possibility of getting out of the Amnesty Visa or the so-called COVID Visa, getting over into a more regularized Visa. Here is what I can say. 

We do have a new Immigration Chief. That has come on board in the last few weeks. Candidly there is nothing really fully concrete that we are seeing just yet but we are and I have had folks at Immigration here in Bangkok and in Pattaya in the past couple of weeks, especially in the past few days quite frankly, who have been telling me, "hey conversions may not be quite so easy in future days." Now I haven't seen anything with any specificity regarding that but let's look at the past and try and extrapolate on what might be happening. 

Let's recall, prior to the Emergency Decree of March 2020 in-country conversions from one visa category to another or even intra category for example like an O to an O-A or an O-A to an O, that is probably which way they are going to go, or like a B to an O or a B to a Retirement Visa for example, all of these things. This was not the way Thai Immigration likes to do things. In these Non-Immigrant categories, the prevailing paradigm is: "Look you are a Non-Immigrant. If you want another category leave the country, go to a Thai Embassy or Consulate, get a new visa and come back in. We are not going to convert your status because you are not really permanently legally, in a legal sense in the Kingdom." For that reason, prior to all of this, everything being upended in March 2020, you just didn't see conversions very often. Now out of expedience and extenuating circumstances, we have seen a lot more conversions happening in the past 18, 20 odd months than frankly I have ever seen before in almost 15 years of dealing with this because just the circumstances quite frankly demanded this. If the situation is truly normalizing and we see Thailand effectively opening up especially by air to vaccinated travellers and being able to not quarantine and being able to go back to their home countries more easily, things are starting to revert to status quo COVID if you will, it stands to reason that a lot of the policies regarding visa conversion may revert as well.

Again we haven't seen anything overly concrete on this but what I would say to people just in kind of a general sense, if you are not in the visa category that you want to be in on a permanent basis, it may be a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how to rectify that moving forward.