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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawVisa NewsIs Retirement in Thailand Becoming a Thing of the Past?

Is Retirement in Thailand Becoming a Thing of the Past?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing retirement in Thailand.

I have seen throughout forums, I have gotten correspondence, and I have actually talked to people in person the past few weeks who are older folks and either in retiree status or long-term marriage status here and there seems to be a kind of despondency if you will. Some of the folks I have talked to, and some of the things I have read basically pause at the question "Is the notion of retirement in Thailand kind of passé? Has it run its course? Is it not possible or should it be presumed that retirement in Thailand or retiring in Thailand is not going to be something that can occur in the future?"

I don't think that that is particularly accurate. I think it is accurate to say that the Retirement Visa scheme has changed rather substantially in the past 24 months. Most notably, we saw the phasing out of the Income Affidavit regime from many of the nations that were allowed to have Retirement Visas. We also have seen a change in some of the requirements for Retirement Visas, most notably Medical Insurance requirements which have been imposed upon folks since late October of 2019. So all of this coupled together along with a more stringent analysis of people's financial abilities has also come about in late 2018 and early 2019. All of this has culminated in just a general overall restructure of the Retirement Visa scheme and I think that this restructure is permanent. I do not particularly think that at this point the powers-that-be are looking to change things much further. I think the changes that have been implemented are what we are going to be dealing with for a fairly prolonged time moving forward. Some aspects of it have yet to fully be sussed out. Certain things like the Medical Insurance, we have yet to see exactly how this is going to be applied and sort of the finer points of that but overall I think the rules themselves or the general concepts are now in place and we are going to have to deal with things on a case-by-case basis moving forward but we have a general idea of how it is going to work in the future. Do these rule changes mean that retirement is not possible?  Not at all. Basically these rule changes require more evidence, especially with respect to finances, as well as documentation pertaining to insurance which was not an issue at one time.

So the thing to take away from this video is no, I think retirement is still an option for many folks who are looking to retire here in Thailand. There are simply a few more requirements for those who wish to retire but if folks get their ducks in a row at the outset of their retirement here in Thailand, they basically can maintain that status, in my opinion, into the foreseeable future in a fairly straightforward manner.