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As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question "Are Retirement Visa options becoming increasingly Byzantine here in Thailand, increasingly complex?" I thought of this when I was reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Retiring to Thailand just got more confusing. Quoting directly: "The Government's recent announcement of Long-Term Residency or LTR Visas for retirees aged at least 50 adds yet another layer of complexity to an already overcrowded field."

Yeah, just my commentary here. It is a very good point and I urge those who are watching this video to check out that article on pattayamail.com. But the Thai Immigration system, it is almost like a stalactite or a stalagmite if you will. It sort of creeps over time and as time goes on different governments come through, they will add a new visa here, a new requirement there. If you go back and you talk to some of the older folks and I urge those who look to live in Thailand or live in Thailand who are younger, talk to guys that have been here 40, 50+ years. They have a lot of insight into how things that are operating now came about or evolved or what they were like when they were dealing with them. One thing that I thought was interesting talking to folks, I mean there was a time when you came into Thailand and they basically just said, "are you a tourist or are you staying?" If you said you are staying they stamped you a Resident at the airport and this was before Work Permit so you were just done. You could just wander around Thailand, work, do what you wanted. Then later they added things like work authorization but over time it accreted until you have this rather complex Byzantine system." Quoting further: "In exchange for a 10-year Visa (actually 5x2) and the privilege of avoiding the queues at Immigration for the 90 days report," (I am going to do a specific video on that. I am not so sure that you can avoid 90-day reporting). Quoting further: "applicants must show an annual income of at least $40,000 plus US dollar $250,000 (so a quarter million dollars) in Government Bonds or yet to be defined real estate purchase." So as we have noted, I don't really think these newly proposed Long-Term Visas are going to be overly useful for the vast majority of expats or prospective expats here in Thailand.

That said, it remains to be seen. We have yet to see this fully rolled out and more importantly, we have yet to see the rubber hit the road with respect to practicalities so stay tuned and we will keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.