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As the title of this video suggests, what we are asking is "are Thai Elite Visas better than Retirement Visas?" We have discussed this at length in other videos but there was a recent article that came to my attention that I felt was deserving of some further analysis to kind of parse out sort of where things stand. The article is from Mondaq that's mondaq.com, the article is titled: Reasons To Retire In Thailand Under a Thailand Elite Visa Rather Than A Retirement Visa. Quoting directly: "Dynamic young retirees from all over the world are looking at Thailand as a land of opportunity to enjoy a peaceful, luxurious and affordable retirement. Whilst on its face, the Thai Retirement Visa may seem like the natural route, those that consult with professionals are often advised to walk away from the Retirement Visa and instead opt for one of the various types of Thailand Elite visas for a multitude of reasons."

Well I couldn't disagree with that more and I will explain why here. Yes, there are certain circumstances where a Thailand Elite Visa is more advantageous but for those who truly fall under the requirements for the standard Thai Retirement Visa, oftentimes I don't really see the point of an Elite Visa because an Elite Visa requires sort of like a front loaded capital injection. That's not really required if you are on a standard Retirement Visa. Again, when you get into the Elite Program, you buy in to membership and then the Visa comes as part and parcel of that membership. But when you buy it, for example a five-year Thailand Elite Program Visa, 600,000 Baht, okay. But you pay that in, that money is just gone, that is paid, it is paid for. Now it is 5 years front loaded, there is some certainty there that is arguably not there with the Retirement Visa but as a practical matter, I will get into in a moment, I think it really is there. Long story short, if you are a retiree in Thailand, again you can use pension or the 800,000 Bat requirement and use that to meet the requirements associated with the standard Retirement Visa, either an O or an O-A. Again with the O-A you have insurance requirements but with the standard O Retirement Visa you are in the system as long as you can show your finances which that money you keep, that 800,000, that's not paid out, that is just you have got to prove you have it in order to maintain the Retirement Visa. In my opinion, for many people that is going to be more advantageous, not for everybody. I have advised many people to look more at an Elite Visa; again age has a lot to do with it. In most cases if you are over 50, a Retirement Visa is probably going to be better but I do know folks, there are some folks out there who have serious disabilities for example where they really can't get to Immigration to deal with all that on a regular basis, and they kind of prefer Elite; that is just one example. Then there are folks that just don't want to deal with that stuff. They just want to come and go as they please. They don't spend more time in Thailand than a year, a year at a stretch so they don't really need to deal with the extension thing, they just want to come and go and use the Elite Visa to do that and again for them that works great. 

The thing to take away from this video however is I think the title to that article is not really full on and I don't think even some of the content is quite in line with the practical reality which is yeah there are a number of cases where Elite Visas are going to be better than Retirement Visas depending on those circumstances, but I also see a substantial number of cases where quite the opposite is true.