Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the possibility of Thai Retirement Visa conversion and whether or not that is still possible. There has been a lot of nonsense, yet again, from the same old quarters on the internet, a bunch of people who are talking about things that either they don't know about, or they speak in absolutes which is just nonsensical, especially for so-called legal professionals. A lot of folks have been saying, "oh it's just impossible to convert to a Retirement Visa in Thailand." Well, that's not true. We have actually assisted a client here in recent days in doing just that.

Now there is a big difference between what this process might have looked like six months ago - depending on your circumstances - versus now. As a practical matter, it's not overly prudent to presume the ability to convert status to retiree status. In the situation that involved the client we just recently converted, there were extenuating medical issues and they went ahead and allowed it. It's important to note, Immigration retains discretion, the Officers I should say, retain discretion to make decisions under extenuating circumstances and again, it's really not right to say it's just impossible to convert one’s status from some other visa status into retirement status here in Thailand. 

Now that said, moving forward is it more prudent to come into Thailand on some kind of Retirement Visa? Probably. Are there more optimal and less optimal ways of doing that? Yes, because there are multiple categories, and depending on your circumstances, it might be in your interest to get a standard Retirement Visa, it might be more in your interest to get an O-A Retirement Visa; again, it depends on underlying facts. The point of this video with regards to that side of the equation is you may want to talk to a legal professional regarding exactly what type of Visa you want to seek before coming to Thailand, because that decision can have a tremendous impact on your status once you're here.

That being said, if you are already here, you are confused, you don't really understand how this stuff works, again don't necessarily presume that conversion is impossible. Depending on your circumstances, again there may be some way of converting status, there may not; understand that as well. It will be driven by the specific facts in the underlying case. But for people to walk around or go around - whatever you want to call it - float around in the ether of the internet and talk about visa conversion in terms of a Retirement Visa conversion as being impossible under present circumstances, again that's talking in absolutes, that's not a good idea under any circumstances when it comes to legal issues, and I'm here to tell you, it is possible to convert. It's not like it was, there was a time where conversion was a much less onerous process and these days, we have seen the paradigm shift within Thai Immigration apparatus especially in the aftermath of the events of this past summer where they are taking immigration matters much more seriously and they are scrutinizing things much more seriously, so this isn't something that you can deal with cavalierly. You need to have a plan, if you are moving into Thailand you need to have a plan. But if you find yourself in a scenario where you're in Thailand, you're in some sort of visa that is not a Retirement Visa including like not even non-immigrant status, it may be possible to get into non-immigrant retirement status, but again, it will depend on the underlying facts in a given case.