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Thai Retirement Visas: Insurance and Certificates of Entry

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Insurance and Certificates of Entry in the context of Thai Retirement Visas. Now we have discussed Thai Retirement Visas at length on this channel a lot and for those folks who are interested, go to the search function in our channel, click in "Retirement" there is going to be a ton of stuff there. Also, our playlist of "Retire in Thailand", a lot of information there. Some of this for our more avid viewers and we certainly appreciate you as well as all of our subscribers, but for some of our more long-term viewers, some of this stuff is going to be a little redundant in this video but it has come to my attention here recently, especially from a number of inquiries from new folks watching the channel that there does seem to be still some misconceptions on insurance and O Retirement Visas and Retirement Visas generally with respect to Thai Immigration and Certificates of Entry so I am going to make this video. It is going to be a little redundant for our longer-term viewers but hopefully this will provide some insight for some of our new viewers and we are glad to have you here.

A recent article sums up a lot of what we have already talked about on this channel for some time. I like quoting articles. People ask me: "Why don't you just do things extemporaneously? I do a lot extemporaneously on these videos and candidly it is tiring. It takes a lot to talk about how this stuff works from video to video and so when I find an article that really clearly elucidates a policy or a situation or how the law works with respect to a given Visa or a given situation, I like to quote that article because it is useful and I like to shed some light on the folks that are writing about this stuff that provide this useful information. 

In a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is thepattayamail.com, the article is titled: Double Whammy Insurance Requirements Face More Expats Abroad. Quoting directly: "Thousands of expats aged over 50 face additional hurdles if they leave Thailand and wish to return. Thai Embassy websites worldwide have confirmed that foreigners requesting a non-O Visa abroad based on retirement will need two kinds of insurance before the Certificate of Entry can be granted." This is me speaking now. There are two kinds of insurance they are talking about: there is COVID insurance, specific COVID Insurance, and then Retirement Insurance. We have discussed Retirement Visa Insurance or insurance in a Retirement Visa context on this channel at length. Go ahead and just click in the search function, click Insurance, you will get a whole lot of information there. Quoting further: "The latest ruling also applies to expats who have a one-year retirement extension granted by Thai Immigration and based on a non- O Visa and wish to return to Thailand using a valid re-entry permit." The point they are trying to make is notwithstanding the fact that you might have gotten an extension in Thailand without the need to show insurance which can happen in the O context with a Retirement Visa, if you are looking to leave and come back into Thailand specifically to get a Certificate of Entry which is a document that has been existence for almost a year now, since back to the promulgation of the Emergency Decree on March 26th, 2020 when we saw Certificates of Entry pop up out of the ground like mushrooms; they just sprang into existence, before that you didn't really have to deal with this insurance stuff. Now even Thai O retirees have to deal with the insurance if they are looking to come back because if they don't deal with the insurance requirement, they can't get a Certificate of Entry and if they can't get a Certificate of Entry, they can't get a visa to come to Thailand.

Long story short, there is a lot going on with this but for those retirees who already have retirement status or have it, looking to come back to Thailand, there are a number of additional requirements compared to a year ago for those folks especially with respect to Certificates of Entry and insurance.