Misty

The Thai elite card/visa is a tourist visa. Like other tourist visas, working isn't permitted (for either Thai company or foreign company). But unlike Thai elite, the new LTR visas are not tourist visas. They do allow the recipient to work. At least some categories allow working for a Thai company with a digital work permit that's good for 5+5 years, no Thai employees required. It's not clear to me how many of them (all? only some? ) may separately allow the LTR holder to work for a foreign company, or maybe be self-employed. At first it sounded like all of them would. Now it's not clear if only a couple do.

Has anyone made an appointment to receive the "digital work permit" yet? Or even better, received a digital work permit? What is the process for getting the work permit, what does it look like, and how long did it take to get?

Unfortunately don't know the answer to the first question. Agreed on the need for a name change. I'd asked a moderator to do this, but apparently only the person who started the topic can ask for a name change, and he hadn't asked for it.

Below is a screenshot where a spouse could register for an account and apply for the visa. Click on the LTR "O" button and it gives the list of documents:

That's hopeful - will see what I can arrange. Having worked in Thailand the past 30 years I don't have a US doctor so will need to find someone and explain.

I think spouses create their own separate account on the ltr.boi.go.th site . Once they login to the site, they can then start their own application for an LTR dependent visa, linked to your visa.

Thanks very much for the update. Yes, I can still see the notification screen that shows approval and the scheduling screen. I haven't tried to schedule an appointment as yet. Before moving forward with requesting a BoI letter to use for an LTR e-visa application from my consulate, I'm trying to get information for what other documents would be needed. The LTR option has disappeared off the Thailand E-visa site, so have asked my consulate for more information. If the e-visa application becomes too onerous, may consider entering Thailand visa exempt & then visiting the BoI in person to get the visa.

Congratulations, Mudcat that's some good news! After some delay from the IT glitch, we received approvals this morning as well. I'll have to see what additional documents may be required for the letter. The item that could cause problems is the medical certificate for the work permit. I'm outside of Thailand, and have no idea if I can get a medical certificate stating I have no 'tertiary syphilis' or any of the other highly unlikely diseases. So it would be good if the medical certificate can wait until after I get the LTR e-visa and return to Thailand where such medical certificates are easy to get.

QUOTATION "I explained that I would rather not have to go to immigration and explained that they were not "nice people to deal with", and to my surprise this Thai person said that more and more farangs were having problems in that regard, and in her opinion the I/O's were just looking for ways to be able to make life difficult so that an agent had to be used, and they would get a cut of the cost of the agent. So a Thai agent admitted that us poor farangs were getting a rough deal, and she quoted several other instances!" This is what I've suspected. It's hard to otherwise explain the increasing dysfunction while doing valid NonB extensions in recent years. It ussed to be straight forward. And if it's true that IOs are creating problems to increase their take, it's also why using an agent can create problems for others. Using agents unfortunately feeds a whole growing infrastructure that then demands further feeding. That said, I really can't criticize anyone who qualifies for using an agent, given the dysfunction otherwise. Life is really too short.

I'm experiences some of these issues as well. Unfortunately the BoI's explanation that there's a "system glitch" seems to understate whatever is going wrong. The Thailand E-Visa site used to have the LTR listed as a "Visa Category" for the e-visa but I see that's been removed now.

Let's hope so, although this was being reported pre-covid

As I think you know, I was discussing what appears to me to be the general impact of use of agents on others. The new requirements are based on my own experience with NonB extensions. But to your point, more than a few friends with retirement extensions have reported longer and longer wait times, while watching others with agents be in and out in short order. They've also wondered if this is an attempt to get them to use agents and pay VIP fees too. Love to hear what you think is going on.

I'd really like to believe that. But I can't explain why in recent years things became ever more difficult for those of us meeting all the requirements but not using agents. There have been new requirements added every year, old requirements being changed with no prior warning, cancelled appointments, and very long waits. Some of us have gotten the impression we only had to say "how can I make this easier" , find out what VIP service fee was required, and all the dysfunctional additional bureaucracy would go away. I've been getting NonB extensions successfully for nearly 30 years without agents. I can't explain this recent behavior. Do you have any idea what is going on?

There's huge volatility in forex markets right now, especially for GBP and EUR. I can imagine any Bt50k currency conversion done in August as the program was getting started will be fairly out of date now. I wonder how often the foreign currency prices will get updated.

E-visas are initiated at this general website (not the LA consulate's): https://www.thaievisa.go.th/ When I've applied for a NonB e-visa in the past, I received a pdf copy of the e-visa document by email. I printed out the copy and gave it to the IO at the airport when I entered, who then stamped my passport, writing "NonB e-visa" on the stamp.

Hi Pepper, congratulations on receiving approval. You can apply for an e-visa at this site: https://www.thaievisa.go.th/ You'll see the "Long-Term Resident Visa" listed as one of the options as you scoll down. I think the payment is done as with similar e-visas, by credit or debit card. Let us know what the LA consulate is charging. You're in new territory now and are our "eyes and ears" as we used to say. I don't think anyone else has done this yet! I plan to apply soon via the NY consulate. We all have lots of questions too, so please report back what you learn. In past experience, I learned that the best way to communicate with US consulates in either LA or NY was by FB DM. So if you have questions for them, try that. I did once talk to LA consulate after a very long wait on hold, but didn't get much info and don't recommend that approach. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/thaiconsulatela/ Cheers! Misty

For those applying for an LTR e-visa outside of Thailand, the acceptable forms of payment are probably the same as for any e-visa - either a credit or debit card. Don't know about people going to BoI to collect the visa though.

From the BoI's site, it looks like spouses/dependents who are eligible may have to create their own separate login on the BoI's site (https://visa.boi.go.th/login ) create a dependent visa application, and then submit documents themselves as a separate but related process. Presumably once the dependent's application is approved, they would then pay for their own separate visa.

Definitely understand why you would use an agent after the experiences you've had - sometimes life is just too short. And yet, there does seem to be a link between the increasing use of agents even when everything is in order, and the hassle the immigration people give to people who do not use agents. As TaoNow says above (paraphrasing a bit) - the use of agents makes it more difficult for those trying to do the process legally. I don't know the solution for this, and can understand why some would now opt for an agent despite having everything in order. After years of doing the process legally and having no issues, in recent times I've experienced that hassle more than once now. Almost like I was being invited to offer something to smooth a process that used to be quite smooth in the past with no agent or VIP service fee needed.

Yes, I had the same experience under One Stop Service Center. Apparently the BoI briefly required medical certificates with all bells and whistles between Aug - Oct 2019, after which apparently there was an uproar from BoI companies and the requirement was withdrawn. But in speaking to the BoI staff about the LTR program, they confirm a medical certificate is required for the digital work permit and it is the same one as required with a NonB visa/work permit combination. Thank heavens I haven't yet contracted Mental illness or mental infirmity; Leprosy, tuberculosis (at the infective stage), drug addiction, alcoholism, elephantiasis (at the symptomatic stage), or tertiary syphilis. at least to my knowledge thus far. And good news that the medical certificate should only be needed once every 5 years instead of annually. But remains to be seen if copies of a blood test will be required.

Too soon. Should start hearing about folks receiving approval letters this week. BoI said expect 20 working days from acceptance of applications. If someone had their application accepted on day 1 ( 1 Sep), that would be Wed, 28 Sep.

I think he's talking his own book.

Ah, those were the good old days. For many years I didn't need any medical certificate. Things changed moe recently as I moved from One Stop Service/Multinational employment to CW/Local Labor Dept & small business owner. And most recently I've had to provide blood test results along with the medical certificate. BoI said this wouldn't be the case with LTR. I hope that proves true.

Quote from above: "It occurs to me that they could have easily set up another PR scheme with investment criteria and no Thai language requirement to be administered by the BOI, as in the past, but make it functional. But I guess the current thinking is that it is better to sell residence as a short term lease than a freehold." It does seem like a PR scheme under the BoI would have been a good way to go. But hearing the background chatter about the difficulty in setting up the Long Term Residence (LTR) program, I’m not sure how easy the setting up would have been. It's clear the LTR is not perfect. However a 10 year visa/work permit, at a total cost of Bt50,000, isn’t really short-term. Several of the LTR options require no investment - just proof of income/assets - so it’s not exactly selling residence either. There are other real benefits that come with LTR. No “VIP service fees” is major, at least in my thinking. As a working small business owner, two five year work permits back-to-back is also major, and these without the outdated requirement of 4 Thai employees per LTR holder (in reality, small companies create Thai employment via outsourcing to Thai companies). LTR has no limit of 100 per year per country (or functionally fewer for many countries). Details of other useful perk are on the BoI website. And while I’m not particularly attracted by the lack of a Thai language requirement, other applicants may appreciate this. All in all, I say kudos to whoever was involved in getting LTR up and running. At this point I’ll take it over what was otherwise available.

Does anyone know what the BoI requirements are for the "Medical Certificate" for the work permit? In one of the calls, the BoI rep said they weren't going to ask for blood tests for things like tertiary syphilis that are currently required under the annual renewal system outside of One Stop service. That will be a welcome improvement. But what do they ask for? We're getting that strangely worded pop-up too. For clarity, it might be helpful if they could have a native English speaker review the google translation before sticking it in the system.