Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Marriage and Retirement Visas. I have had a lot of questions here recently from folks who wondered to themselves especially in light of certain things that have been happening here regionally in Southeast Asia with respect to Immigration policy as to whether or not there is sort of a better category of Visa if you will in case they were to ratchet back requirements on who is going to be allowed into Thailand. If you recall a year ago back in 2020 when they started reopening, it wasn't just sort of reopen to every non-immigrant holder. It started off where the only non-immigrant visa holders who could get to Thailand were Work Permit holders, then that changed to Marriage Visa, then Retirement and it went over to the category of Tourist Visa and then that is what brings us here.

First of all I am not, I have had people ask me this but I don't think they are going to restrict backwards. If anything I think things are going to ease moving forward, I want to be clear on that, but it did lead me to kind of think about making a video comparing these two Visas under current circumstances. 

Yes there is something to be said for a Thai Marriage Visa in the event that they were to lock things down like they did a year ago. I don't think that is particularly likely to happen. Also, unlike last year, I think if they were to do that, if and when it were  to come back online, I think my opinion that they would bring it back online with the non-immigrant visas, sort of the way the system is now. I don't think they would phase it in the way they did before where Work Permits first and then they allowed Marriage and then they allowed Retirement. I personally think that if they bring it back online, they will just allow those categories in status quo anti, how it was prior to the lockdown occurring, if that were to happen again. I don't see that occurring. I know some folks are concerned about it out in our audience. I think actually what we are probably going to see is things starting to ease up quite a bit especially as we get vaccinations rolling in here in June and hopefully we are going to start seeing Immigration policy lighten up. I would definitely love to see a lot of the other policies regarding just all of these restrictions that we are dealing with here, I would like to see those end sooner rather than later as well so hopefully we will. 

The purpose of this video though is you know comparing and contrasting Retirement and Marriage Visa, yeah in theory if they were to roll it out like they did last time, if they were to lock everything up and then reopen like they did last time, Marriage Visas were prioritized timing wise. They were allowing those folks back in prior to Retirees. That said, you really need to examine the facts of your own case to determine what is best. Something people do forget, Marriage Visas can be a little bit more difficult to deal with sometimes especially scrutiny of the underlying marriage itself. The other thing to bear in mind with respect to Retirement versus Marriage Visas is Retirement Visas are not contingent upon the marriage continuing to exist for any reason. So one has for lack of a better term, independent status associated with the Retirement Visa as opposed to an O Marriage Visa.