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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawCan O-A Retirement Visa Holders Seek Admission to Thailand?

Can O-A Retirement Visa Holders Seek Admission to Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing O-A Retirement Visas.

Specifically this video pertains to O-A Retirement Visas. We are not talking about O Retirement Visas. I have other videos made contemporaneously with this one which we will be putting out shortly to discuss O Retirement Visas, O-As and the difference between the two and O Retirement Visas specifically in this context, but this video is discussing O-A visas specifically.

Recent announcements, we found it on both the Thai Embassy in the United States' website as well as and we are going to put this one up on screen, this was posted to the Thai Embassy in Denmark's website. If you notice there along the left side under Section 7 it says: "Foreigners under a special arrangement and that is Non-immigrant OA and OX, APEC card, Thailand Elite card and their spouses and children under 20 years old." 

So this is a relatively new development. It now appears that Thailand is allowing retirees to attempt re-entry to the Kingdom and it is possible to gain a Certificate of Entry to Thailand if you hold an O-A Visa; if you are a retiree or presumably you can apply for an O-A visa and simultaneously be granted a Certificate of Entry pursuant to eligibility and the meeting of the requirements of eligibility associated with retirement status. 

So for those who are watching this video, this is probably a bit of good news for O-A visa holders. However, I would like to put a caveat on this by saying we have yet to actually see as a practical matter how this is playing out. We are starting to see it now with our clients and we will keep you updated as things progress but I would sort of forewarn folks that are looking to get an O-A Visa in the forthcoming weeks that it looks like the process of doing this is not going to be anything like you have seen it before. This is a rather cumbersome process in this current environment we are in with respect to visas to Thailand. There is a lot of coordination, a lot of logistical concerns that have to be met with respect to getting a Visa actually issued including but not limited to things like Alternative State Quarantine needs to be dealt with, flights need to be dealt with. The Certificate of Entry in many ways is sort of like hitting a bullseye with a dart in that it is issued for one single day and you have to sort of coordinate everything around that including COVID testing etc. 

So again this is definitely welcome news but do not view this as sort of a reversion to what we were dealing with status quo ante COVID because for the moment it appears that it is going to be a rather more complex process then we have seen in the past. For that reason it may behoove some folks to go ahead and contact legal professionals in order to gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.