Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, first of all, this is an ALERT. I made this video because I was talking to a client last week on an unrelated matter, I was talking about, I don't remember what exactly it was, it was something not having to do with Retirement Visas. This person had done their own Retirement Visa for a number of years; they were well acquainted with the process, they knew how it worked. But they brought up something to me that I thought was really noteworthy. Apparently they had a house inspection, and they are on an O Retirement Visa. Let me be clear again, O Retirement Visa, not a Marriage Visa. I vetted this, I talked to this person, I asked multiple times, you are sure you are not on a Marriage Visa. Nope. Your financial requirements are what? "800,000, which I keep in a bank account" he said "and I maintain that balance all the time; I don't move that money. I use it specifically to maintain my O Retirement Visa".

So it's worth noting, O Marriage Visas have been subject to spot inspections regarding basically the genuineness of the marriage for a fairly prolonged period of time now. I've discussed this in other videos, and in fact, when the scandal broke out some years back, I want to say it is like 7, 8, 9 years ago now, well it wasn't 9, but probably 7, 6, 7 years ago, there was a situation involving a Civil Registrar Officer, there was corruption involved; they were basically marrying Thai women on paper, to I believe it was Indian Nationals and then using these sham marriages as the basis for O Marriage Visa issuance. The authorities came in, it was all knocked out; they got rid of all of it; they cleaned up the corruption. But the upshot was we started seeing a lot of inspections and extra scrutiny associated with Thai O Marriage Visas. That is not what we are talking about here, but it's similar spot checks. This person told me, and I reiterated again, first off they called and came in on a Saturday, which I thought in and of itself was another big deal. This was not the middle of the week; this is not normal working hours for Thai Immigration. It also and I reiterated it again, was on an O Retirement Visa not on an O Marriage Visa. And I double-checked that this person was on 800,000 baht in the bank. This was not in Bangkok, by the way this was up country. I'm not going to get much more specific for purposes of maintaining their privacy. They were asked a number of questions; they were asked how you support yourself, and then they took photos and they asked for witnesses. They actually had somebody from this person's family sign as a witness that they were genuinely there and that they were genuinely living there. Again, it sounded to me like it was based on a Marriage Visa. It was not; it was based on a Retirement Visa. It was reiterated multiple times. 

I'm making this video, I want to be clear, not to scare anyone, okay? I am making this video first of all, it was in a more rural area, and I do sort of wonder if maybe they have more time on their hands to do more inspections, that could have something to do with it. By rural I mean more up-country. We are not talking about Bangkok or Pattaya or Hua Hin or Phuket. We are talking about kind of more up in the North, Northeast area. That said, again they were asked a number of questions, they had witnesses, they called before they came, but they called and came in on a Saturday. 

Again all of this together leads me to believe I am starting to wonder if there is going to be enhanced scrutiny now associated with the Thai O Retirement Visa that has been similar to what we have seen with regard to Thai O Marriage Visas in the past. Hard to say. I am not going to draw any conclusions, but when I heard this, I felt like really I would be remiss if I did not make a video on this. Again, I don't want to scare anybody. I don't think they have the manpower especially to do this especially in the more urban areas and if you are in O Retirement Visa status I would not want to really move out of that for a number of reasons as I have discussed in other videos. 

But long story short, I definitely thought I would be remiss if I didn't do an ALERT on this. So it is something to be aware of out there in the O Retirement Visa community that yeah, it does look like at least in one instance, there was a situation where an inspection occurred. This could maybe have been something where this person was sort of known in the community, as I believe they very much are, as somebody who is nice and kind of laid back and maybe they just wanted to do an inspection because they knew that they weren't going to have to deal with a lot of hassle or somebody who had a bad attitude, and maybe they did it for that reason. Again, I am not trying to act as any kind of apologist or in any way sort of play this down, but I also do not want this video to become the basis for any kind of hysterical panic; I don't think it's warranted. I heard about this, it was worth noting; it is something happened in the back of your mind. I don't particularly think they have the manpower to just be going out and checking on every O Retirement Visa holder, but it is something to have in the back of your mind for those who are in Retirement Visa status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.