Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Retirement Visas. I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment from a prior video. We have been talking a lot about Retirement Visas on this channel lately; there has been a lot of information we have been putting out there about that because there has been a lot of talk in sort of the ether of the internet about that topic generally. I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment. Quoting directly: "Hi Ben, just a question. Can you please explain 'grandfathered in'?" Yeah no problem. 

We have done videos on this before; we have discussed it at length. We especially discussed it when they first brought in the insurance requirement associated with the O-A Retirement Visa. But yeah, the notion of being "grandfathered in" we also discussed it in the context of when financial requirements changed in the '90s regarding Retirement Visas. Those who had already been in the system were allowed, as long as they continued to renew their visas without their visas expiring, as long as they continued to extend their status prior to expiration, many folks were allowed to continue to extend based on the terms under which they first got their visa. So for example I believe at one time there was a 250,000 Baht requirement, it went up to 600,000 Baht and it went up again to 800,000 Baht and that occurred in like the late '90s the 800,000 Baht, and we have been dealing with that since then. 

As we discussed in prior videos, I did videos on this sometime ago wherein we discussed the fact that for example when it went from 600 to 800,000, the folks that had been in the system under the 600,000 Baht rules were allowed to just continue to renew based on the prior rules. Now obviously those folks kind of phase out over time. They either leave Thailand or unfortunately some folks pass away so as time goes on and it rolls forward, new people have to come in under the new system but the folks that were using the old system, were allowed in the past to continue renewing under those terms. Now if any changes happen to the Retirement Visa it's hard to say one way or the other if somebody would be “grandfathered in” but based on past experience, it's my opinion that there is a strong probability, in fact a very high probability, can't say certainty but let's get as close to that as we can while saying that there is a risk that yes the rules may change entirely, I think based on past experience, based on what has happened in the past, pretty safe to presume that in the future, if they do change the rules regarding Thai Retirement Visas, those who have had a Thai Retirement Visa under the "old system” or the system up to that point possibly and I would say probably, will be “grandfathered in” then and allowed to continue to renew under the terms of which they started in Retirement Visa status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.