Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing conversion from Tourist Visa status and you could also say maybe Visa Exemption status is covered under this video to an extent, I'll get into it in a moment, over to retiree status. So that is O Retirement Visa status here in the Kingdom of Thailand. 

Now there's a lot out there kind of in the ether of the internet, the sort of fog of comments and things where I am seeing a lot of people saying "oh it's real easy, just get on a plane, come over to Thailand and you can just convert right into Retirement Visa status." That's being a little bit cavalier with the actual situation as it is on the ground. Now again depending on the circumstances, it may be possible to convert into a Retirement Visa in Thailand. That said, it is discretionary on the part of the Immigration Officer and different Immigration Offices may or may not have different feelings on that. Some places may view it as "yeah we need to go ahead and do that and we should exercise our discretion favourably", some offices may say "no, we want to see you leave, get a proper Retirement Visa from an Embassy or Consulate abroad and then return." Your nationality may impact this as well, bear that in mind. One's nationality may have an impact on whether or not a conversion is feasible or not. So again, this is all going to be very much based on the given facts in an individual case. I am not trying to be overly vague, that is just how it is. I do see across the internet that "oh yeah it's no problem, just get on a plane, come to Thailand and you can do it". Maybe, maybe not. I have seen scenarios in the past couple of weeks where not so much at all in fact. The Immigration apparatus was quite stern and strict and said "no, you need to leave, we want to see you get a Retirement Visa abroad and then come back in." That said, it is possible at least in theory, again depending on one’s circumstances. 

So the thing to take away from this video is don't just presume that oh yeah everything's hunky dory, you can just do this. Also something to bear in mind as time goes on, is things that you read about that were posted sort of now, may not apply a month, 2 months or 3 months from now. For example, Thai Immigration analysis that I was doing in January of 2020 was radically different than what I was talking about in April of 2020. Now obviously we are not in a situation where events are quite that extreme but anything can happen. Never say never as it were. So the thing to take away from this video is don't just presume you can just sort of walk into Thailand in Tourist status and just convert into O retiree status at the drop of a hat.