Transcript of the above video:

For those who watch this channel often, yeah the format is a little different, the background obviously is different. This is not the way I prefer to make these videos; I prefer to stand and do these but unfortunately right now I have the flu. I want to get the information out but bear with me, hopefully I will be back to doing things the way I usually do them next week.

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Foreigners in Phuket can now apply for 'Visa extensions' online. Quoting directly: "Foreigners in Phuket staying in Thailand on one of any 12 types of visas will be allowed to apply for extensions of stay via an online portal, Pol Lt Gen Itthiphon Itthisanronnachai, Commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, announced in Phuket yesterday." Quoting further: "According to a post online by Phuket Immigration yesterday, Lt Gen Itthiphon explained that "in addition to increasing service potential, such as Visa extensions for tourists, the Immigration Bureau has created the E-Extension Visa project, which provides visa extension services via the internet for tourists, who can submit documents and make an appointment before bringing your passport in to receive a stamp granting permission to extend your Visa." One thing that is notable here is the actual stamp is still conferred by Immigration. I am going to be really curious to see exactly how efficient this thing turns out to be because there's going to be like a digital, the actual interface and there's some disconnect there, let's leave it at that. 

That said, the question posed by this video is can retirees avail themselves of this, and to the best of my knowledge probably not. In fact quoting further from the same article: "However, Phuket Immigration has yet to announce any details of the 'E-Extension' service available for foreigners in Phuket, or post a notice announcing the new service on the Phuket Immigration official website."

Then on top of that it goes on to note:

"13 categories of foreigners who can apply online to extend their stay as follows:

• carry out duties for the government;
• tourism; 
• teacher; 
• study in government education institution; 
• Teaching practice;
• performing duties in the mass media;
• skilled laborer;
• Installation or repair of machines;
• family member of a Thai residence - that is a non-immigrant, so that is like a derivative spouse visa - only for a family member of a foreigner, (not Thai nationality) so again this isn't an O Marriage Visa or something like this;
• Used to have Thai nationality or whose parent is or was of Thai -so that is like an exemption;
• Necessity case; 
• Training case;
• Person in charge of conveyance or crew - that is like a maritime type Visa.

Again what is not mentioned here? Retirees. Retirement Visas are not part of this program, so that is the thing to take away from this video is yeah looks like moving forward the main sort of standard Non-Immigrant Visas are not covered by this online portal. So this is primarily it looks to me, something that is being created as a convenience if you will for tourists. But again, there is a digital analog overlap here where I wonder exactly how efficient it is going to be to do that for folks who undertake this. I expect there are going to be hiccups to this, to getting it implemented and it remains to be seen exactly what those look like but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.