Misty

Seen this happen - in this case the house was used as collateral against a bank loan made to the home owner's daughter. Daughter refused to pay for years, and didn't think there would be consequences. By the time I heard of it the bank had taken legal action through the courts and was taking possession of the home. The process apparently took years. So the borrower had plenty of time to do something, but chose not to.

A friend with an elite visa said the same, I think Thailand Elite was his source. Anyone interested in doing this could check with them for confirmation. I need the ability to work but am not tempted by getting an elite card. The LTR is a better fit than the annual hassle of Non B & work permit extensions.

Thank you BritTim for your responses. I visit this forum to get up to date information, and really appreciate complete, useful answers such as yours.

How about Silicon Valley's own Galvin B?

Yes, that was what both the LA and NY consulates told me by phone when I applied. Each of the 3 US consulates (also DC) has a territory. So LA handles west cost only, etc. Question #15 for the NonB e-visas application under NY consulate spelled it out (screenshot below)

Bless your heart

Me too - have been spending some time helping my folks out in small town USA. I was really heartened to interact with the folks living there. Given the sensationalism on cable news and the internet, I was expecting something very different. The reality was that people - even the kids! - were polite, courtesy, friendly. Yes, there was the one guy at the gym who was pretty loud about his political views, but everyone just kind of steered clear. It became apparent that he was tolerated as sort of the village idiot. Other than that, I was often surprised about how little people's good manners had changed from when I lived there 40 years ago. (Just to bring it back to this thread, you can purchase 9 acres there for c. Bt40m - a community with clean air and water, little corruption or crime, close by two national forests)

First, I definitely see how the existing system works in your situation. And I hope the current Retirement Non O annual visa extension requirements do not change. I don't see any reason they should. Separate from retirement visa extensions, unfortunately there are significant problems with the annual work permit/visa extension process. Never ideal, in recent years that system has grown increasingly dysfunctional and messy (these are euphemisms). From discussions at foreign chambers, the Thai gov't has had ongoing plans to revamp this system for years (ex: NESDB's "Regulatory Guillotine," etc). But these plans seem to have gone nowhere. The legal and human infrastructure supporting the existing system is apparently nearly impossible to shift. Based on what I've heard, there's no illusion that the new LTR system will really generate millions of $$ immediately/initially. That's just marketing. But as new options, these long term working visas can be a huge first step in the right direction, both for the working folk themselves, and a country that would benefit from their experience and knowledge.

From foreign chamber meetings and various interactions with BOI (direct and indirect), the plan was that the original visa could be applied for as an e-visa from a foreign consulate. Any further processing/linking of work permit would take place at a specific BOI LTR one-stop service department, to include any yearly reporting. If that's in fact the way it will work, the ability of an IO to come up with any corny requirement might be limited.

So is the issue that 100s of millions are being laundered in illegal activities? Or that no Thais (including Mr. Chuwit) are benefiting?

No need to wait or fly to Thailand. You can contact the BOI directly about this now. They've been answering specific questions by email since at least May.

Yup, I'd agree. Yet some will.

Congratulations, it sounds like things have worked out well for you! : ) Some of the attractions of this new program for me include that the visa and work permit will be combined, that there is no need for 4 Thai employees (most small companies outsource already), no annual renewal, and no more being forced to deal with the existing bureaucracy which (and I am understating) is a mess. Avoiding the dysfunction of the current system would be huge. Right now each year visa/work permit renewal consists of processes separated by over 2 months, mountains of different paperwork, and a bureaucratic mess & exercise of petty power. If its true that BOI will have a one stop service center and the combined visa/work permit is good for 5-10 years, that's a vast improvement.

Agreed, especially for those who applied for PR 24 years ago and who don't work. Being a working professional with recent experience with the mess that PR application has become, I think this new program may be big improvement. Of course, we'll have to wait until after applications start being taken to be sure.

Unless they wish to work

I can see why retirees may not find this program very interesting, since they have other options. And many people may not qualify, making the program unusable for them. However for working professionals who qualify, this program looks much more sensible than the existing one. I would agree with the article's title if it read "10 year LTR visa to make living and working in Thailand easier and less bureaucratic for those who qualify"

Hi BKKrunaway, sorry can't help with METV - no experience with that unfortunately. Been following LTR developments this past year.

By the many comments and suggestions on these boards to ‘just use an agent’ to circumnavigate the rules it would seem there are lots of folks willing to do so. The question is how well will that work in this case. It looks like some thought was put into setting this new program up to improve on many of the problems with the existing system.

Unfortunately valid, qualified PR applications were simply not being accepted during very recent years unless an agent was used. This was an open topic among law firms helping applicants, and was confirmed via direct experience as well as in discussion with others at foreign chambers of commerce. That's why it's heartening to hear Anthony's experience from Dec 2021 that perhaps that trend has been rolled back. Editing for clarity: The applications that I know of personally were definitely not border line cases.

Thanks so much for your recent insight, and for the detailed post of your experience. There's a lot of very useful posts in this thread, but many applied years ago and times have changed. It sounds like maybe things have even improved since just 1-3 years ago.

This program is going through BOI. Does BOI deal with agents in this way?

When you say "no issue" do you mean that it's legal to work in Thailand, or that you're unlikely to encounter a problem or get caught?

From several people's experience within the past two years, if you use an agent and pay "VIP service fees" you won't be interviewed until later. But for those applying directly themselves, a several hour informal interview in Thai about the application, at the time of application, is likely. Would be happy to hear that this has changed this past year, if someone has very recent experience of applying without paying "VIP service fees."

Thai elite seems to work well if you're really retired. But if not, you can't legally work in Thailand using Thai elite.

With the LTR visa/work permit option, the so-called millionaire "shows up" whereever in the world they please. Now they can do this legally in Thailand. Not so much with retirement visas or elite cards, and opening a Thai company with the old NonB/work permit system is unwieldly to put it mildly.