Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question: “which Thai Visas don't require insurance, so which long-term Thai visas don't require insurance?” I kind of made a companion video to this where I asked “which Thai Visas require insurance?” Now we are kind of doing one where we say which don't. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, article is titled: Thai Immigration updates: November 2022. Quoting directly: "Those converting a Tourist Visa to non-O Retirement at Thai Immigration do not require insurance. Nor do foreigners seeking visas or extensions based on marriage or family, nor those with the Elite visa." So notably, too Business Visas I think that was left out here. Standard Thai Business Visas at least as of the time of this video have no insurance requirement either. Now there are different kinds of Thai Visas and for example there's kind of a Business Visa component to the so-called Long-Term Resident Visa which as we have discussed is not actually a Residence Visa it is basically kind of like, well it is supposedly a 10-year Visa but it's not really that, it's a five and five visa and then there's all this ongoing scrutiny. So overall the Long Term Residence Visa isn't exactly what it appears and it does have an insurance requirement actually the LTR, does but standard Business Visa not so much but again just kind of go back through Non O Retirement does not require Insurance presently, Thailand Elite does not require Insurance presently and then extensions based on marriage does not require insurance and as I said Business Visa extension does not require insurance as of the time of this video. 

Now a couple of things to bear in mind, and again I urge folks who are watching this video, go ahead and check out that article and read it in detail for yourself, it is not a foregone conclusion that you can convert to an O Retirement Visa in Thailand. A lot of people talk about this like it is just like a foregone conclusion. Quite honestly, if you go back status quo ante pandemic before we were dealing with all the discretionary rules under the Emergency Decree, it was pretty uncommon to see conversions in country, in fact very uncommon, quite difficult. Most of the time Immigration wanted folks to leave the country, get a Non-Immigrant Visa and then come back in and then extend that status once they were back in. Presently again there is a little bit more discretion because we are still not quite back to where we were a couple of years ago, so it may be possible, it may not be possible to convert to an O Retirement Visa here in Thailand; it is very much up to the discretion of the Immigration Officer. I have seen Officers deny even since we have reopened. So it is possible that a denial could happen on a conversion but for the most part conversion is, again it's possible but it's not a foregone conclusion and you should be aware of that sort of coming in, when dealing with these things. But long story short, there are visas that still do not require insurance coverage in order to maintain long-term status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.