Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Business Visas and we are discussing the possibility of converting to a Retirement Visa.

Now this is something that in a paradigm sense is a more feasible fact pattern for lack of a better term. What I am saying is generally speaking Thai Immigration and under normal circumstances when we don't have this response to COVID that is warping the overall system, under normal circumstances the presumption is if a non-Immigrant wishes to obtain a different category visa, they need to leave the Kingdom and come back in on that new category. So if you were wanting to convert from a Business Visa to a Retirement Visa, there is something of a rebuttable presumption, I think it under these circumstances it is safe to call it a rebuttable presumption, that one should leave the Kingdom and come back in in retiree status.

That said, in terms of a narrative, it makes logical sense that one were working in Thailand and looked to cease working in Thailand but continue living here, that retirement in country and conversion from one status to the other makes some sense. So we see as a practical matter that unlike other types of categorical conversions from one Non-immigrant category to another, with Business to Retirement, depending on the circumstances, depending on the facts of the case, Thai Immigration is much more amenable to that type of scenario compared to the reverse where you go from Retirement to Business. That can be rather tricky and in fact it has been my experience Thai Immigration Officers will tell you straight to your face they don't like that and they need to see compelling reasons why that is occurring.  Again under non-COVID shutdown times, it is likely they will just say "you need to leave the country and get a Business Visa and come back in". But to convert from an employment authorized B Visa, let's say one retires and then they say "hey I want to go get my Retirement Visa", we have found again it is factually dependent, but we have found that that is a much more feasible option for folks here compared to other types of categorical conversions here in the Kingdom of Thailand.