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As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question is it possible to study in Thailand on a Retirement Visa. Apparently out there, there is a lot of talk that it's affirmatively prohibited to study in Thailand on a Retirement Visa. I've never heard that. Working has always been prescribed; you're not allowed to work on a Retirement Visa. It was basically created under the old Basel 2 kind of framework, so Thai policy dictated that they affirmatively precluded work on a Retirement Visa. I don't expect that is ever going to change. But now the question becomes, well can you study? Well I don't see where studying is necessarily work. Now that said, as we have discussed in other videos, the definition of work is so broad. I mean in theory breathing could be legally considered work in Thailand. So on that analysis, actually in my mind it's pretty clear. Studying is not work; that's me. I just don't see the connection there. 

Now again what is the difference between studying as a hobby if you will on a Retirement Visa and coming to Thailand and going fishing? I mean I don't see the difference there. So while they may say it's precluded to study, I don't know how they can do that. Now maybe they can say, "hey Universities, you can't give people a degree if they're on a Retirement Visa." Okay, then go through all your course of study and maybe change over to a new visa, an ED Visa or something, when it comes time to go after your degree. Again, that may be one way to handle that. Again, I don't see anybody running around looking to kick down doors on retirees studying in Thailand. 

So again that sounds to me like something some officer somewhere said maybe off hand, and it just kind of cottoned on and became sort of the conventional wisdom that can't study on a Retirement Visa but I have a hard time going through the analysis on how you ascertain what “studying” is, how it's any different than living your life otherwise. And I don't see where you can make much of a good argument that studying and working are somehow the same thing. I have a hard time making that leap in my own head, and believe me, I've gotten very used to the rather tensile thin thinking that comes from work authorization analysis. So if I'm having a problem seeing a connection, I think it's pretty attenuated to the point of not being connected at all. 

Now that being said, again relevant authorities can interpret things however they want, and it's at their discretion to basically make findings of facts and conclusions of law in the moment. So you may find a situation or a scenario where studying might get you into some problems with your Retirement Visa, but I just don't see where it's there. I mean I don't see where studying is work. So if people want to come over and attend Bangkok University on their Retirement Visa and audit classes or go to classes and receive marks or something, maybe receiving marks can somehow be construed as in violation of again the Retirement Visa akin to the way receiving a degree can be viewed that way. But the act of like listening and absorbing information, I find it hard to make the legal argument that you are precluded from doing that on a Retirement Visa here in the Kingdom of Thailand.