Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing O and O-A Retirement Visas. Why am I discussing this? Well we got a comment on the channel, quoting directly: "What's the difference between an O-A visas," (I think they meant Visa) "and an O Visa? Thanks."  Yeah done a lot of videos on this over the years, but I will go ahead and do another one. I can kill a couple of minutes and get another video up out of it, I will do that. Quite honestly we have had a lot of news subscribers and new viewers to this channel over time and the old stuff that I talked about some years back, it might not be so readily available due to YouTube’s algorithms, whatever.

So long story short, yeah the O and the O-A Visa are two types of Retirement Visa. O-A stands for O-Annual. I think, I've been told that. I've also heard it's O-Abroad because they are generally issued at Embassies and Consulates outside of Thailand and then they are renewed or extended here in Thailand but not actually issued in Thailand. They are not promulgated in Thailand, they are issued, created overseas, they are created at Thai Consulates and Embassies outside of Thailand. 

A big difference between the O-A and the O, one of the major ones is insurance. The O Retirement Visa presently does not have an insurance requirement which may or may not behoove folks because it may or may not be possible to actually apply for an O Retirement Visa at the outset depending on your circumstances. Now the O-A again it requires Insurance, that is a big one. The other interesting thing or used to be an interesting thing, it was treated like a multi entry visa so there was a way to do sort of a final Border Run on the O-A to get an extra year on the back end; I've done videos on that before. That has effectively fallen by the wayside because the insurance requirement is now attached sort of into the DNA if you will of the O-A itself because in order to get a renewal of a Visa or in actual fact if you arrive in Thailand on an O-A, even if the O-A is good for a year, they will only give you lawful status for the duration of your insurance coverage which can be a major hurdle for certain folks. Meanwhile you have got the O Retirement Visa which the O Retirement Visa is exactly what it seems like, it's an O Retirement Visa. I have talked about this before. There are varying degrees of difficulty in getting into this category although many find it to be rather beneficial to them, one of the big reasons being they kind of want to side step the insurance requirement. Now again, O Retirement Visas are not routinely issued at Embassies or Consulates abroad, I want to be clear O Retirement Visas, there are other O Visas. Other categories of Visa fall under the overarching O moniker but different Embassies and Consulates abroad have different protocols with respect to the O Retirement Visa. It's really not going to be something you are going to see issued with a great deal of frequency; Embassies and Consulates prefer to issue the O-A. 

So the thing to take away from this video, yeah they are different although I have made videos in the past where I have said "hey be cautious, one day they may consolidate the two categories and it all sort of becomes one thing. I haven't seen that happen, no indication to think it's going to happen anytime soon but you never know it could. Long story short yeah within the Retirement Visa designation there are two different types of Retirement Visas, the O-A and the O.