@Ed *******

Insurance is not legally required for a non-O retirement visa obtained in-country, but it’s a real gamble if you don’t buy some here. I strongly suggest gritting your teeth and buying whatever you can afford once your visa is sorted.

Comparing the probability of facing serious problems without insurance, compared to the risk of problems if you use an agent for your visa, you’re literally taking several orders of magnitude more risk by staying long term without local health insurance.

@Ed Childs

Check your messenger inbox- just sent you some info.

I sold everything and moved here from the US several years ago. Had never visited Thailand before. Couldn’t be happier.

@Ed *******

This forum is a southern baptist church. Agents are a Buddhist temple. Why are you expecting Baptists to help you be a Buddhist?

Because all good Baptists know for certain that Buddhists are destined to burn in hell for all eternity.

As an American passport holder, you are eligible for a visa exempt status on arrival.



Once here I recommend you go to Pattaya and yak with a handful of expats about the rewards, risks and prevelance of using a Visa Agent for people in your particular financial situation.

You will find that many use Maneerats agent to assist in setting up your “non-o” retirement visa and extension, found in Soi 13-2 just up from beach road. And there are others. Might as well use the agent to open your Thai bank account as well.

Keep a good solid US bank account, and open a Wise account and get it all set up before leaving the US.

Buy health insurance from a Thai company as soon as you can. Stuff happens here - 600,000baht hospital bills will ruin your whole day without insurance.

Finally if you let the baptists here scare you out of doing something that hundred of thousands do trouble-free on the regular, consider getting your retirement visa in Cambodia instead. Cheaper and easier than Thailand.

Sandeep Kumar Not at all. The fact that he knows about corruption but has not yet taken steps (yet) to end it does not lead to a conclusion that he is himself on the take.

@Sandeep ******

Because he has no idea of the elaborate infrastructure in place inside immigration to support agents. Please. You can’t possibly be that naïve.

@Arnold *********

Huge wealth stacked high in a few houses is far less useful than wealth spread more equally across the population, but neither Thailand nor Cambodia could be accused of accomplishing that happy situation.

This is not the place to discuss the pros and cons of agents. You literally might as well discuss Buddhism vs. Taoism with your cat.

@Bhavin *********

And one overly alarmist fish can scare away the rest of the fish

@Jim **********

The operative words are MAYBE and PERHAPS SOMEDAY.

The Youtubers were extremely careful to point out that this is all pure speculation right now.

Given the context of a crackdown on motorcycle gangs, it’s not yet time to panic.

@Graham *****

In every category of products and services, there are higher cost options for those craving a little more convenience. Why do feel you must obnoxiously confront everyone who chooses to avail themselves of options you personally wouldn’t choose?