Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, are Retirement Visas "renewable forever"? I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment actually in one of our shorts. Quoting directly: "Wow, this can happen. Isn't a Retirement Visa renewable forever?" And this was on the video "Thai Visas and Immigration: Can Negative Immigration Decisions be Appealed? Now yeah, as discussed in that video and later in the short, we get into the fact that yeah you can be deported from Thailand; you can have your Visa effectively cancelled; you can have it terminated; you can be deported, but there is something of an appellate procedure associated with that if you have your Visa in country. We discussed that pretty well at length in that video. That's said, the comment, "aren't Retirement Visas renewable forever?" got me to thinking and I said, you know what? I'm going to make this video and kind of give this clarification.  

Strictly speaking, Thai Retirement Visas, call it the standard O Retirement Visa - you could be talking about the O-A as well, although there are slightly different requirements including for insurance as we have discussed at length in many, many videos over the years - that said, the point I am trying to make is okay we are talking about Retirement Visas, call it the standard O. Now those are issued, the extensions associated with Thai Retirement Visas occur on a yearly basis. You are going to extend that yearly, okay. So your lawful status is granted for one year at a time. Now the question is, isn't it “renewable” forever? Well in theory yes, so long as you are in lawful status, and so long as the visa category remains, in theory yes, you should be able to renew it on a yearly basis. Now that said, each extension application is in and of itself its own adjudication, so a decision is being made once a year whether or not to extend it. So one, understand the decision regarding an application for extension is not a foregone conclusion. That said, I think the point of the video is this person was trying to say, “can they just cancel your Visa?” Not really without cause. Again, as explained in that video regarding appeals, you have to show cause, and then there is kind of an appellate process. It is pretty actually rare to see the termination of a visa. I've seen a couple in my time here, and it's usually for extenuating egregious circumstances usually. More to the point though is they can just fail to renew. They can just say, “yeah, we're not going to extend you anymore” and they have that discretion to do that. So in point of fact, while it's possible to apply for a renewal of an O Retirement Visa indefinitely, the ultimate decision rests with the adjudicating officers at the Immigration apparatus and should they deem that it's not appropriate to extend someone, they have the ability to do that. 

One final point regarding all of this pertains to what I have called in the past "grandfathering". We've talked a lot about insurance requirements; we have talked a lot about the possibility of changing financial requirements. I have discussed in the past; it is always possible they could change the rules regarding Retirement Visas and that rule change could make it more difficult to renew. It's always been my personal opinion that ultimately when the rubber hits the road, they would opt to “grandfather” people in. My reasoning for this is in the past, especially in the '90s there were two major changes to the Retirement Visa system and in both instances, they grandfathered in people who were already in the system. They basically said, look you can keep renewing under prior terms. My opinion is if they radically were to change the Retirement Visa moving forward, I think they would allow for grandfathering in much the same manner they did in the '90s. 

That said, it's not a foregone conclusion, that is speculation on my part to a certain extent. It's based on a fair amount of study and a fair amount of experience dealing with Thai Immigration, but it does remain at the end of the day an opinion and a speculative opinion at that. So that said, we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.