raptorea Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 I have a friend who is over 65 and wants to move to Thailand and retire on a non o-a visa and is from USA. He is getting social security from the USA government and more than meets the income requirement. He only has Medicare part A and part B as far as health insurance, Will this be accepted by immigration to qualify for a retirement visa? If not what are his choices? Not married and no Thai family. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Absolutely will not be accepted. And also can't be used in Thailand. So aside from meeting visa requirements as discussed below he needs to factor medical costs into his financial planning. For the initial visa he can use a foreign (i.e. non-Thai) based insurance IF the insurer will sign the foreign insurance certificate shown on the tgia website http://www.longstay.tgia.org/ But for incountry extensions of stay he must have a policy from one of the 13 companies listed there. As long as he is under 75 and has no major pre existing conditions, fairly easy to purchase online. If over 75 impossible. If pre existing conditions like diabetes, heart disease etc may also be impissible but can try. Unfortunately these are poor value for the premium cost (compared to a good international expat policy) so in addition to one of these will still need to get "real" insurance. What some people do is get the cheapest option for the visa (LMG with a 200k deductible so essentially mo real cover) and then separately take out a real policy. For the real policy needs at least 3 mill baht cover preferrably more but does not need outpatient. So quite diffetent from the 400/40k visa requirement. Anither option is to come in visa exempt or on a tourist visa then change to a non-O visa in country. The O unlike the O-A carries no insurance requirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedhump Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 23 hours ago, Sheryl said: Absolutely will not be accepted. And also can't be used in Thailand. So aside from meeting visa requirements as discussed below he needs to factor medical costs into his financial planning. For the initial visa he can use a foreign (i.e. non-Thai) based insurance IF the insurer will sign the foreign insurance certificate shown on the tgia website http://www.longstay.tgia.org/ But for incountry extensions of stay he must have a policy from one of the 13 companies listed there. As long as he is under 75 and has no major pre existing conditions, fairly easy to purchase online. If over 75 impossible. If pre existing conditions like diabetes, heart disease etc may also be impissible but can try. Unfortunately these are poor value for the premium cost (compared to a good international expat policy) so in addition to one of these will still need to get "real" insurance. What some people do is get the cheapest option for the visa (LMG with a 200k deductible so essentially mo real cover) and then separately take out a real policy. For the real policy needs at least 3 mill baht cover preferrably more but does not need outpatient. So quite diffetent from the 400/40k visa requirement. Anither option is to come in visa exempt or on a tourist visa then change to a non-O visa in country. The O unlike the O-A carries no insurance requirement. The comment about poor value is certainly not true. April Insurance via local partner LMG give very good value for far, far less premium than companies like AXA or BUPA or William Russell, and cover for millions of Baht basis inpatient only is very affordable. If you want to place a small deductible on the policy (say 30.000 Baht) it comes down even more. Rather than ask on a forum why not talk to a good Hua Hin insurance broker and get several quotes from insurers asking different premiums, with you COMPARING THE ACTUAL COVER yourself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimn Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 On 1/30/2021 at 9:39 PM, raptorea said: I have a friend who is over 65 and wants to move to Thailand and retire on a non o-a visa and is from USA. He is getting social security from the USA government and more than meets the income requirement. He only has Medicare part A and part B as far as health insurance, Will this be accepted by immigration to qualify for a retirement visa? If not what are his choices? Not married and no Thai family. Thank you This insurance will not be accepted. Contact Arawan Namak on the attached. She has helped 100's of people on the Facebook help groups Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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