Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing COVID insurance and we are discussing this in the context of retirees in Thailand. The question is posed "which retirees?" because there is kind of a difference between 0-A retirees and O retirees, so there is the O Retirement Visa and the O-A retirement Visa; these are two different things if you will. Now the O Retirement Visa, some just say it is an O Visa for purposes of retirement because it is an O, the miscellaneous category. If I use the term Retirement Visa interchangeably please don't burn me endlessly in the comments; I do get that a lot when we have this discussion or when topics come up regarding O-A versus O. 

There was an interesting article in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, and it was over a topic we have done videos on this. Initially and I believe it was first reported, at least I first saw it in the Bangkok Post print edition where it looked like COVID-19 insurance was going to be required for all Non-Immigrant Visa holders. Then that was further elaborated upon and we found out that "oh no it seems to only pertain to retirees." The next question that came down the pike was "Does it apply to all retirees, or O-As or does it apply only to Os or either or both?" I have read a number of things on this. I have talked to Immigration myself but this article from the Pattaya Mail pattayamail.com to me kind of welled some things up. The article is titled: Initial Confusion over Virus Insurance for Retirees in Thailand clears a bit. Quoting directly a few excerpts here: "Early reports that the Thai Cabinet had agreed in principle that all Non-Immigrant 1 year Visa holders will need cover for COVID to renew their stay appear over-blown." Quoting further: "It now appears that only O-A Annual Visa holders will be affected. O-As are issued only by Thai Embassies abroad although the annual renewal can be done at Thai Immigration Offices. Most holders are retirees." Well as a practical matter I think pretty much all of them are. Quoting further: "The reality is that most retirees in Thailand have an O visa either granted by a Thai Embassy abroad or more likely awarded by the Thai Immigration Bureau. They do not currently require any insurance to renew their annual permission to stay and there is no mention of them in the Cabinet announcement." That tracks with what we have been seeing and talking to Immigration about here in Bangkok that no it does not appear that O Retirement Visa holders are going to need to have to deal with this COVID-19 Insurance. O-A folks, you probably are. Depending on your circumstances I know I get this a lot “is it possible can I change over from an O-A into an O?” Maybe, sometimes that is not possible; sometimes it is. It is very fact specific so those who are interested in doing that, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to do that if that is a concern. 

Long story short at least for now and this is always subject to change, I have discussed this at length with the more general Insurance but yeah this could change, we could see this change. It really wouldn't require very much on the part of Immigration Policy makers to simply change the regulations and make them apply to O and O-A as well. Do I think that is likely to happen? Probably not at least for the foreseeable future but we will certainly keep people updated on this channel as the situation progresses.