Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing residency or citizenship in Thailand for retirees. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thaiger, that is thethaiger.com, the article is titled: Retiree’s paradise or visa maze? Thailand’s options but no land grabs. Quoting directly: “Thailand is a popular choice for foreign retirees offering several visas types including annual extensions, a five to 20 year Elite Visa, and a 10-year Long Term Residence (Correction) (LTR) Visa. However, none of these options allow direct land ownership, not do they guarantee a pathway to permanent residence or citizenship.”

Well, yeah and I find it interesting that Thaiger doesn’t even mention the standard Thai Retirement Visa which has been the staple visa used by virtually every retiree expat in the last 30 years, up until maybe the last one to five. Yeah, we saw a little bit of more uptake of the Thailand Elite Visa especially during the time period when you could buy the 20 years for a million baht, there were retirees that said: “you know what, I don’t want to mess with the hassle, I will just get an Elite Visa” - they were a pretty narrow subset. Most folks just dealt with the standard Retirement Visa.

Now that being said, it is worth noting none of those options though do provide a pathway to Permanent Residency or Citizenship. I know there are going to be those in the comments that will say “no, no, there are ways to do it”. As a practical matter, you have to go through the process of dealing with work authorization, working and paying taxes in Thailand and being in Thailand on a long term basis in unbroken visa status. So, the thing to take away from this video and understand is while you can come to Thailand and obtain a visa that will give you lawful status for very long periods of time, the Elite Visa for example, the LTR, or even the standard Retirement Visa which is renewable on a yearly basis, again all of these are good options but they do not ultimately provide a path to Residence or Citizenship here in the Kingdom of Thailand.