Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing O Retirement Visas and whether or not they are routinely issued at Thai Embassies and Consulates outside of Thailand.

Now going back to quarter one of 2020, before the Emergency Decree and all of that, my answer to that question would be quite simple; NO, it was not a routine thing to see an O Retirement Visa issued at an Embassy abroad. In fact I would say in my experience, I had never seen it happen. As we went through the two years under the Emergency Decree, there were exigent circumstances that popped up where the Immigration apparatus in the form of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweaked some of their internal rules to deal with the facts on the ground at the moment. The big one was there were folks that were abroad that had, I knew multiple people we dealt with that had multiple years of O Retirement Visa status, they got stuck out of Thailand when the lockdown hit and the quarantine hit and they couldn't get back in. As a result, their O Retirement Visa expired. Now, as a temporary measure, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was allowing people to get an O Retirement, like a 90 day, and then come back in and get back into status but it was a temporary measure, it was not intended to be permanent. I have had a lot of folks ask me "well can I get an O Retirement Visa abroad?" I would say as a practical matter especially with the end of the Emergency Decree and again tempering it by saying every case is different, the facts in the underlying case and the circumstances as well as the prerogatives of the Embassy or the Consulate may dictate a different outcome. I would say in the vast majority of cases, you are going to be looking at a situation where No, it not going to be possible to get an O Retirement Visa issued abroad.