Transcript of the above video: 

At the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well we are basically doing a comparison - contrast between Retirement Visa options, Retirement options in Thailand versus the Philippines.

I don't talk about the Philippines too awful much. Quite frankly there are a million people out there in the ether of the internet that probably have far more insight into Philippine Immigration than I do. I'm sure there are a bunch of LARPers and fakes as well, but that being said, look our centre of gravity if you will, our operation is here in Bangkok; we are very much a Thailand centred firm. That said, every once in a while, we do discuss other immigration apparati if you will throughout the region. I talk about Cambodia and Malaysia quite a little bit, but Philippines from time to time because a lot of the expats that come to Thailand, oftentimes will split time between here in Thailand and other places. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Should Thai retirees escape to the Philippines to avoid income tax. Quoting directly: "Compared with Thai Immigration practices with the "O" type," - what they are talking about there primarily is the O Retirement Visa which we discussed in another video made contemporaneously with this one - quoting further: "...the Filipino version is much more of a hassle to process. Not to mention the interview with the Philippine Retirement Authority or PRA." Interesting. Interesting observation there by the Pattaya Mail. As usual, I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article for more insight. But yeah, it's worth pointing out that look it's not all wine and roses in the Philippines; they have their own issues for expats associated with maintaining long-term retirement status in that jurisdiction. Now again, a deeper point to get to here though is especially if you have never been to both places, you need to understand that comparing Thailand and the Philippines is like comparing apples and bowling balls. They are not exactly the same thing for a variety of different reasons. I'm not going to fully go into it here and I'm not getting into the whole, "well Thailand is better than the Philippines blah, blah, blah". Depending on your circumstances, Philippines may be much more of a better fit for you compared to Thailand - I'm not going to get into that. But the only point I want to make is there is a lot of exaggeration that goes on in the ether of the internet as regards what is a better place to be. Sometimes there is kind of an exercise in teamsmanship, where people, "Oh, I am team Philippines" or "I am team Thailand". It's not very useful for analysis, okay? At the end of the day, the big thing anybody looking to retire in either of these jurisdictions should do is go to them first and see if you like them or not and then make a decision as to whether or not you actually want to retire there and then at that point start looking at your visa and immigration options for retirement in either location. 

Again though, on the internet to just try to figure out where you want to go to retire based purely on what you see online, I think that's a very bad idea; you need to experience both. The other thing to realize is look every place is different but they have their own problems, their own pros and cons. So, some things that might be rather straightforward or easy to deal with here in Thailand, might be very difficult in the Philippines and vice versa. So at the end of the day, the thing really retirees should be looking at is one) knowing where they are going to go and sort of ascertaining the lay of the land as to what that place is like, and then looking at Visa options and then understanding that look, some things in one jurisdiction may be better, some things in the other jurisdiction may be better. You need to compare and contrast and decide what is your priority before making a final decision as to where to retire here in Southeast Asia.