Be aware that the “SMART” visa is immediate DISQUALIFICATION for permanent residency (aka. Thai residence permit). So, do not consider applying for a SMART visa if you want to stay in Thailand long-term.
“Thailand introduced a new visa type for foreign experts, executives, startup entrepreneurs, and investors on 1 February 2018, known as the SMART Visa.” The (Gazetted) rules for a Thai residence permit were established ca. 1992 and did not take into account the SMART visa, or perhaps the SMART visa was purposefully designed to get the experts to leave when they had served their purpose? The first thing an immigration officer will ask you when applying for a Thai residence permit is “Where is your passport?” and they will look to see if you have been on a qualifying non-immigrant visa for the past 3 years (and you won’t have one because a SMART visa does not qualify for a residence permit). The second thing they will ask for (if applying in the working category) is your work permit, but you won’t have one either, or the work permit history will not qualify because a SMART visa does not require a work permit. This situation is unlikely to change because the government departments responsible can apparently not agree with each other sufficiently to change the rules (according to expert lawyers I consulted). The IO will not explain the reasons as such; but will ask if you can speak Thai (a discretionary factor), and if you are not fluent, will use this as an excuse to prevent eligibility on future applications unless your level of fluency changes substantially (in itself not qualifying).
After 7 years on a qualifying non-immigrant B visa and 3 years on a SMART-T visa, I applied for permanent residency and found I did not qualify; the experience at Chaeng wattana immigration was humiliating, to say the least. And I thought I was “SMART.” One of my life’s more stupid moves for not finding out in advance. I now hold a 10-year Long-Term Resident (LTR) visa for highly skilled professionals (gov. that is, working for a government-sponsored enterprise), which only requires an annual report if not leaving the country and requalification at 5 years. This visa avoids 90-day reports and the byzantine and drawn-out bureaucracy of applying for permanent residency. However, if the law changes and the LTR-HS(gov) becomes qualifying, I might consider that path, although I hold a legal “get out of jail free” card that I will not elaborate on here in this forum.
