Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called LTR Visas or Long-Term Resident Visas. As discussed in many other videos, I don't want to be a broken record but it is notable that these are not Resident Visas in the true sense of the term. They are a very long stay Visa, 10 years validity, but these proposed and presently it is still my understanding I haven't seen a regulatory scheme rolled out yet that we are seeing these visas issued so this kind of still remains on the drawing board but definitely coming off the drawing board and being put into practice but we are still in a bit of a fluid situation on these kinds of visas. In any event, they have been proposed, it looks like they are going to come about. A lot of questions arising about these things and a lot of folks want to know how to look at them or whatever. One of the big ones has been retirees have contacted us and said "yeah what is the difference between an O-A Retirement Visa and this LTR Visa?"

Well the big one is first of all, again setting aside it is not a Resident Visa, it is not covered under that part of the Immigration Act, Permanent Residence in Thailand is what it is, it is Permanent Residence. You can get that, it is like Green Card status in a way where once it is issued you don't get visas anymore if you don't want to. You are just in Thailand presumably in perpetuity. Different than this LTR scheme, this LTR scheme is a Non-immigrant scheme; it does issue 10 year visas but it is a Non-immigrant scheme at the end of the day. In any event, comparing these two one of the big ones is financial requirements. The magic number seems to be and there are much higher numbers including up to a million dollars required in terms of financial investment in Thailand and one key number especially for those who may be looking to be kind of a working expat is like proof that you make $80,000 a year or more and that $80,000 just has kind of popped up a lot in the proposed requirements associated with these LTR visas and again that's $80,000, US dollars, not Baht. So one of the big differences between the O-A Retirement Visa and the LTR Visa is financial requirements because an O-A Visa is going to require minimum 800,000 Baht in a Thai Bank Account or 65,000 Baht a month in income. The other thing to bear in mind with respect to the O-A Retirement Visa is it does have an insurance requirement and slated for the fourth quarter based on what has been announced that that insurance requirement is looking to go up to, my understanding $100,000 in coverage in order to maintain O-A status here in Thailand. 

Now the thing to take away from this is there is a difference between an O-A and an O Retirement Visa. An O Retirement Visa does not have those insurance requirements; we have done another video concurrently with this one where we discuss the O Retirement Visa in more detail and we urge you to go check out our channel to find that video, the LTR Visa versus the O Retirement Visa but the thing to take away from this is yeah, on the O-A there is an insurance requirement but at the end of the day the O-A Retirement Visa is still a lower financial threshold when it comes to pure finances than this proposed LTR Visa scheme.