Thailand facing tough competition in retirement visa "race." But does it matter?
Thailand has a lot of retired people in it from other countries. This is something you will quickly notice when you stick around here for just a little while. Most of the people that hang out at my local pub are retired and are from USA, Canada, UK, and Australia with a few Scandinavians mixed in as well. They come from a lot of different places but one thing they always have in common is frequent complaining about how the retirement visa rules are constantly changing and according to them, are a pain in the butt to get.
Also, with a retirement visa comes almost zero additional benefits other than just being able to stay here longer. They can still not legally acquire a house or land and this is unlikely to change.
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one no nonsense visa plan which to me just seems like a pay-to-play scheme involves the Elite Visa that has been not so popular in the 10 years or so that it has existed. For anywhere from 10-30 thousand USD, you can get visas that range from 5 to 20 years with almost no strings attached. There is no lengthy paperwork involved or at least, none that you, the person getting the visa actually sees. This is all handled by agents. So just like everywhere else in the world, if you are rich, you can do whatever you want. I know a ton of people that have been here for a long time that are older, I only know one person with an Elite visa.
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It does come with some benefits such as your own immigration line where I presume they are a lot nicer to you than they are in the other lines... but there are rumors of this being cut off. That would suck for all the people that paid all of this money for that privilege, that's for sure. The constant changing of the rules is part of the reason why many of the older folks that I know don't get involved with this visa. The standard retirement visa in Thailand requires a cash deposit into a Thai bank and having it remain there but if you decide that the hassles of the visas are too much for you, you can withdraw it. With the Elite Visa, once you pay for it the money is gone forever. Should you ask for a refund, well, good luck with that as Thailand is not known terribly well for giving money back to people.
So other countries are trying to offer incentives for people to relocate and retire in their country instead... but is anyone really going to do this?
For example, I recently found out that people can retire in Malaysia if they simply purchase a home above a certain price threshold and it isn't really even that much. Plus, the person 100% owns the home and the land and Malaysia will issue visas for 5-20 years as well as offer visas to family members of the house owner that are dependents under 34 years of age. This is really attractive to people that would actually like to own property over here because there is no such option for any foreigner to do this in Thailand. Also, Malaysia doesn't try to tax people on money that they bring into the country via their retirement funds whereas Thailand is constantly talking about doing exactly that.
The only stipulation that Malaysia has is that you must remain in the country at least 3 months a year - which wouldn't be much of a problem for most of the retirees I know here since ideally, they would like to remain in the country for 12 months of a year.
So this Malaysian retirement visa is much more attractive than what is offered in Thailand... so why do very few people actually do it?
I think it has to do with the lifestyle here in Thailand. Even for the retirees this country is a bit of a never-ending party whereas Malaysia is more like the real world and also, since it is a Muslim country, many of the party oriented things that exist here in Thailand do not exist there or if they do, they cost a great deal more. I have only been to Malaysia a couple of times but I do recall being a bit astounded at how expensive it was to go out and have a few beers. I would say it is at least double the price.
Also, the bar girl scene here in Thailand, although it is not something I engage in, is quite popular and even though the retired men will not admit to it, they like it too and it is a big part of the reason why they are here. Malaysia doesn't really have things like this and while I am sure it exists on some level, I recall seeing that even massage parlors in Malaysia have to be performed by the same sex. I am not really a guy that gets massages often either but if I was going to have it done I wouldn't want it to be done by a dude.
Cambodia and Philippines also have more attractive retirement programs than Thailand but those places come with a bunch of different lifestyles as well and since I am not familiar with them I will not comment on them. However, I do know there is a reason why most of the retirees still stay in Thailand even though they constantly complain about it.
I guess I just don't understand why Thailand advertises this country as a great place to retire and then hassles people all the time when they actually go and do it? Seems like a bait and switch to me!