Transcript of the above video: 

So in a prior video we did, we talked about, I talked to a person actually on the phone, and they had said look yeah I just recently had a spot inspection. I have got an O Retirement Visa. They called me on a Saturday, wanted to come by my house, see me. They wanted witnesses; they asked for a lot of things. And I thought it was worth making a video because that is pretty new to me. I was talking to one of the gals in the Retirement Visa section of our firm, and I said even before I made that video, I didn't comment on that in the video, but I think it's worth noting here, is that common? And she said it is not common, but it is not unheard of. It can happen but it's pretty rare, like it was worth making a video on.

In the aftermath of that video, I have got all kinds of correspondence and there were comments in the video where there are a lot of other people that were talking about this. So I got a recent email, and I think it is worth pointing out. I said in that prior video and I’m not exactly correcting myself but I think this needs to be added for further context, further edification for the viewer. I said at the time I thought this could be and I didn't want to panic anybody, but this could be confined to the rural areas, maybe not. I've gotten a number of other emails and pieces of correspondence where people have said this happened to me Bangkok, this happened to me in Pattaya, Hua Hin, and I'll just read one of these I got by email. Quote: "Hi, I always watch your channel and appreciate the news and information you deliver." Thank you, very much. I do appreciate that. Quoting further: "Your recent episode regarding Non-O Retirement Visa, I was also subjected to a house check in Pattaya as I also have had my Non-O for 10 years and the officer contacted me also on a Saturday to arrange for a Monday inspection, whereby he took photos of myself and him at my condo which I have owned for nearly 20 years." So this is somebody who is alone. In the prior one I was talking about; I kept reiterating and asking the guy "hey are you sure this wasn't because of marriage?" He said no, I'm not on a Marriage Visa, I am on an O Retirement Visa. So this is somebody else who the issue of marriage doesn't even sort of muddy up if you will, or sort of make the analysis a little bit more murky. Quoting further: "I keep 820,000 baht locked in my account. I do the visa myself and I do not know or have I ever used an agent. On lodging my renewal I was given a card with the name of the Immigration Officer and told he would contact me in the following days to arrange the inspection. So it would seem this is not restricted to rural locations. I thought this info would be handy for you to know. Thank you." Thank you, sir. I'm not going to name you but thank you very much. 

A couple of things here. First of all, we assist with a number of different visas, and we also assist folks in dealing with inspection matters. Now oftentimes, we are doing this in a Business Visa context which is a very different thing, but we, by dealing with immigration so often are able to sort of forestall - not get rid of,  they are going to do what they are going to do - but we are able to make that whole process much more smooth insofar as we can just front load a lot of it when we are dealing with the renewal itself. So there's that side of it. So the fact that this person wasn't using anybody, call it an agent, call it whatever, a law firm, that I think should colour the analysis, as depending on who you use. Now the problem is there are a lot of Fly by Night people out there that don't know what they are doing. They'll tell you anything, and they'll tell, "oh we've got special contacts, you'll never have to worry." Be very cautious with somebody like that. Like I said, with us we deal with a lot of inspections especially as it pertains to Business Visas, so we are kind of hip to how inspections work, and we kind of know what they are looking for. There are ways to file the documentation in such a way that whatever information they might be looking for is already provided, so again front loading that can forestall even needing an inspection to begin with.

That being said, I thought it was worth pointing out that in making this video, because in my prior video, I kind of made it seem like, "hey this may be confined to rural areas". Well I am getting other data points now which suggest that no this is country wide, I think policy shift we are seeing, where we are going to see more inspections associated with O Retirement Visas or Retirement Visas generally. This is a change from what we have seen in the past where Retirement Visas, they had much more of a hands-off attitude. As I discussed in other videos, Marriage Visas have been heavily scrutinized for nearly a decade now after a scandal that we reported on this channel involving, I think it was Indian nationals being fraudulently married on paper to Thai nationals, and then using the marriages as a basis for a Marriage Visa. The upshot of all that was not only some people in Immigration and the Civil Registrar apparatus were fired, but also the upshot was there was a lot more heightened scrutiny on O Marriage Visa holders. There has been no major scandal or anything but it does look like Immigration is increasingly concerned regarding the details of those who hold a Retirement Visa here in Thailand. 

For those who are a bit concerned about this, especially with all these transitions and changes, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.