Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking "will only Rich Retirees be able to stay in Thailand?" The reason for this video, the inspiration if you will for the video, came from an excerpt from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article title actually says: Pattaya can longer rely on elderly retiree expats. (I think it is meant: Pattaya can no longer rely on elderly retiree expats). Quoting directly: "Meanwhile the Thai Tourist Minister Phiphat Rathchakitprakarn has made it very clear that the welcome expats of the future will be high-net-worth individuals such as multi-millionaire pensioners, well-heeled investors and foreign professionals and executives who can transfer their work skills to boost the Thai economy." 

There has been a kind of pervasive ennui or sort of almost I don't know cynicism, despondency, if you will among the retiree expat community. Look I do understand going back into like 2016 where we saw the end of the Income Affidavit, the creation of insurance requirements and now we are seeing some new requirements associated with the O-A Visa being brought online at the end of 2022, there are those who are concerned about the future of the retiree space if you will here in Thailand.

I would like to kind of allay some of those fears. I don't think Thailand on a policy level or otherwise has any desire to drive off retirees. I think the thinking was that going from the mid-90s up until roughly 2016-2017, so basically '97 to 2017, that is 20 years, there was some tweaking that needed to be done if you will to the Retirement Visa framework, to the rules and regulations associated with Retirement here in Thailand. I think for the most part this tweaking is probably pretty well done. Yeah the O-A category has had a lot of changes made to it that has piled on some requirements frankly associated with the O-A but the O Retirement Visa remains as it was. It is a viable option for a number of retirees here in Thailand. Notwithstanding the discussion of these new visas which as I have stated in other videos, I suspect are only going to apply to a relatively narrow subset of prospective expats coming to Thailand, I just don't see where we are really going to see on any broad scale the rollback of Retirement Visa benefits for foreign nationals looking to retire here in the Kingdom of Thailand.