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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing O-A Visas, annual O-A Retirement Visas. I have gotten a lot of feedback on this both positive and negative. We have done a lot of videos on financial requirements seemingly going up although it is kind of still murky exactly how this is playing out.

I got some correspondence on this that I thought was noteworthy. Quoting directly: "Ben, is it possible that all the state Thai Consulates in the US are all raising their financial requirements only on first application and return to previous financial requirements at all further extensions while living in Thailand." It is a good point and I think it is very possible that may be the way the policy is going where they may want to see a higher amount of money in a bank account for the initial application and then understanding moving costs are out there as well as perhaps a lack of a desire to keep over 800,000 in a Thai Bank Account. Meanwhile regulations differ between Ministry of Foreign Affairs which has jurisdiction over the Consulates and Embassies as opposed to Ministry of Interior which has jurisdiction over Thai Immigration here internally. Point being, yeah I think actually it may be the way this is evolving.

Now it might be that this was the overriding policy thinking; in fact I think to some extent it was and then at the same time these two different Ministries do things differently. But the end result is yeah I think it is possible we could be seeing a situation where in the future, O-A Visa applications, the initial one might have a higher financial threshold compared to subsequent applications for extension of Retirement status in O-A status here in Thailand.