Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the O Retirement Visa yet again. For those who are unaware, the O Retirement Visa is sort of the standard Retirement Visa Extension. It is used by the vast majority of folks who remain in Thailand in retiree status full time. This is different from the O-A Retirement Visa. Again O-A is a Retirement Visa which is sought at an Embassy or Consulate abroad. It can be extended in country but the terms associated not only with initial issuance but also later extension are slightly different from the terms of the O Retirement Visa as we have discussed in many other videos on this channel.

I thought of making this video though regarding the notion of a pass for reporting, and specifically what we call 90-day reporting, but I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel. This comment was made regarding the TM30 specifically. Quoting directly: "They dropped the TM7 so essentially there is no reporting of address or phone numbers for the first 90 days which I can see is a gap in the tracking process.  What I don't understand is why O Visa holders don't just get a one-year reporting pass. Verify your address once a year at Visa renewal and do the odd random check across the year. They don't get any revenue for TM30. Why keep doing a pointless labour consuming exercise 3 extra times a year? Also why can't they get a user group of customers and staff and beta test new processes under NDA to find out, "does this work? does it help solve a problem? does it cause unintended consequences?" 

First things first there, well actually I will just answer there. Unfortunately the reason for the ongoing reporting it is spelled out in the Immigration Act of 1979. Those maintaining a Non-Immigrant Visa in Thailand as opposed to Permanent Residents, Lawful Permanent Residents are treated differently. They don't have to deal with 90-day reporting, they don't have to deal with TM30, none of that applies to them. But if you are in Non-immigrant status, which O retirees are in the O Retirement Visa status, then yes indeed, at the end of the day, you are dealing with a different part of the Act and that part of the Act stipulates that you have to do this reporting unfortunately. That is just basically what it comes down to. So in my opinion honestly, I think resources could be utilized elsewhere to far better effect than a lot of this, especially I can understand a bi-yearly reporting where basically you extend once a year and once a year you report in your address. That would make more sense to me than this quarterly thing. But again the Act was written in '79. I think there is an argument to be made that may be revisions could be made to some extent and that might benefit folks, it might benefit the Government too not having again to allocate resources unnecessarily. That doesn't appear to be changing any time soon, but we will certainly keep you updated on this situation as it evolves.