Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, is it a visa maze for retirees here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thaiger, that is The Thaiger, thethaiger.com, the article is titled: Retiree's Paradise or Visa maze? Thailand's options but no land grabs. Quoting directly: "Thailand is a popular choice for foreign retirees offering several visa types including annual extensions, a 5 to 20 year Elite Visa and a 10-year Long-term Residence Visa. However, none of these options allow direct land ownership, nor do they guarantee a pathway to Permanent Residency or citizenship." Now I find it interesting that they point all that stuff out but they don't point out just the standard Retirement Visa.

Quite honestly, to all you retirees out there, I can't state this any clearer, it is pretty straightforward. Now a lot of folks aren't going to be able to necessarily, especially on their first time in they are going to have problems maybe navigating the process for themselves. That said if you can do it, I meet a ton of people over time that will say, 'oh, you make too big of a deal out of this stuff. I got such and such done for myself.'  Great, good for you. I'm not talking to you then, I'm talking to people that don't know how the system works.  

Long story short, very much in my opinion the standard Retirement Visa is generally probably the best bet for foreign retirees that meet the criteria. Most notably, over 50 and are able to meet the financial criteria of 800,000 baht in a Thai Bank Account or 65,000 baht per month in pension. The Long Term Residence Visa, it's not even a Residence Visa although it's called that, it's basically a really long Non-Immigrant Visa, I've got my issues with it. I have spelled that out in other videos, most notably tax stipulation makes me uneasy. Also I'm not convinced that it can do what they say it can do. For example they have said 'oh you don't need to do 90-day reporting on this Visa'. Well how does that comport with the Immigration Act of 1979, which says that anyone that's in Non-Immigrant status has to do 90 day reporting? The short answer is it doesn't, so basically that's a misnomer. Meanwhile there's all this talk about 'oh it's work authorized.' Again where is the authority for work authorization? Again I think there's a misnomer there. That being said, it may be useful for certain retirees. However, and this is worth noting, there is an audit in the middle of it and then meanwhile we're seeing all this possible changes to Thai Tax laws. None of it pertains to the standard Retirement Visa.

In many ways, I don't see where retirement in Thailand is such a "visa maze". It's just a matter of understanding what's out there and ascertaining what's best for you. For that reason, it may not be a bad idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.