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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawWill Insurance Be Needed for Thailand Elite Visas?

Will Insurance Be Needed for Thailand Elite Visas?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thailand Elite Visa and we are discussing also the issue of insurance. 

For those who are unaware, we have many other videos on this channel where we discuss the recent announcements from the Thai Government and Authorities here in the Kingdom wherein they discuss the new regulation which is supposed to be promulgated on July 1st, 2019 wherein those who are retired in Thailand, need to be able to show insurance coverage in order to maintain their visa status. 

I won't go much further into that in detail as we have other videos that discuss that topic at length but I have gotten questions from various viewers and in various comments on this channel regarding whether or not I believe Thailand Elite or those who are using the Thailand Elite system will be required to have insurance in order to maintain their status. Let me state this. First off, again, as I have gone into in detail on the Retirement Visa front, the insurance rules have yet to be fully rolled out. We haven't seen what they look like. There is nothing to get down and read and analyze in terms of legal analysis so we don't know exactly how this is going to look. We have to go off of recent announcements from for example the Head of the Ministry of Public Health etc. to go ahead and understand where this is heading. 

That being said, I will provide my opinion on what I think will happen with regards to Thailand Elite and that is I don't think much of anything will happen. I do not think Thailand Elite Visa holders will need to get insurance to maintain their status here in the Kingdom and the reason I don't believe that that is the case is first of all, certain people that are on Thailand Elite are not over 50 years old and Ministry of Public Health has made it clear that the policy reason behind the insurance coverage requirement is that those who are on Retirement Visas tend to have ailments; they are more elderly people. Now the second reason I don't think that Thailand Elite is going to have an insurance component is it is a totally different category. It was essentially designed for what can only be described as “long staying tourists”. Yes they are tourists that have certain means and a desire to stay in the Kingdom far longer than most tourists usually stay. That being said, Thailand has taken a position that they want to encourage that type of tourist and for that reason, they have created this specific category. So I think that requiring anything of Thailand Elite Visa holders for example, people over a certain age would run contrary to the underlying policy of wanting to encourage those types of tourists.  

So the thing to take away from this video is although we do not know yet exactly what the insurance requirements will be in the context of Immigration moving forward, at least we don't as of the time of this video, I think it is pretty safe to presume that Thailand Elite, or the rules pertaining thereto, will not be changing anytime in the relatively near future.