Misty

That's great, best wishes to you. Not sure if you can draw a direct comparison, but my NY consulate LTR e-visa was turned around in one day last October. I'm not sure what happens to your existing visa, as I didn't have an existing visa at that point, had let my former NonB e-visa expire. I do own and work for my own Amity treaty company. The type of work I do requires Thai licensing, so I definitely need a Thai company. However, there is a huge and increasing amount of bureaucracy involved, not to mention specialized US tax filing (my form 5471 filing runs 50+ pages). If I didn't need it for my line of work, I'd look into working for an entity established outside of Thailand - perhaps in the US (although self-employment tax may kick in then).

Yes, all that, and as I understand it even more: for example, if you have an LTR visa you can be a so-called "digital nomad". You can work without a work permit. The digital work permit only comes into play if you want to work for a Thai company. That is my understanding, at least.

That's correct, the digital work permit is for a specific job. If the job is only a two year contract, the work permit will be issued for just two years. If it's for an ongoing position, it will be issued for up to 5 years.

Yes, the digital work permit requires you to work for a Thai company. And if you get a job at a Thai company, then you will need to get the digital work permit. But as BOI staff explained to me, an LTR visa holder can work for any company - their own overseas company for example, and a digital work permit is not needed.

Not 'all Democrat" at all. A case of horseshoe theory? Amazingly, Dennis Kucinich is his campaign manager. Cleveland famously went bankrupt when Kucinich was its mayor.

How Thailand doesn't tax offshore investment income, for one.

I did too. More than met every requirement and spent a considerable amount of time and effort making sure my application was complete. Language was not an issue, had 3 hour conversation in Thai with the Immigration desk. They could find no issue with the application. But still, they wouldn't accept it. Some clues: they tried to shake down my accountant in a back room (I'd brought her in case they had any detailed questions on our accounts) - had mistaken her for an "agent". In the end, they wouldn't accept my application because I did not use an agent and had not paid the required "VIP service fees." Thank heavens for the BOI and the LTR visa. Even comes with a 5 year digital work permit.

From your 'competent lawyers firm' link: "Using these criteria, aren’t most Digital Nomads in Thailand effectively working here illegally? Yes, in a strict sense."

Yes, I've also been told by law firms that the BOI has "magical powers" : )

Hi Gaccha, I would have been very interested in this online extension option previously. However, I switched to the LTR visa/digital work permit option when it became available last year. You may be one of the first forum members to try this option. If you get a chance, post details of how it goes here. There are certainly other forum members this who will be interested. Some may not know the option exists. I've found other forum members' comments invaluable in the past. I've tried to list direct experience with things like NonB e-visas and the LTR visa to try to help others who may not be retired, tourists, etc.

Good point for those it applies too. Sadly I do file a Thai tax return, but am not due a Thai tax refund.

It's boom or bust then. Could a plan for sustainable tourism be in order? Oh wait, TIT.

I wish my US marginal tax rate were that low too. The only silver lining is that the 15% Thai withholding tax can be used as a foreign tax credit against US tax owed.

Just reading this thread and wondering what Samui residents would advise people considering a vacation there? Postpone or don't go?

The Senator from South Carolina's phone call to Georgia's Secretary of State sounds like it crossed more than state lines: "Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will look into the call Graham made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 10 days after the Nov. 3 election, the Post reported, citing an unnamed person familiar with the probe. Graham, a Republican and a close Trump ally, asked Raffensperger whether he had the power to toss out all mail ballots in certain counties, Raffensperger has told the Post." https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-georgia-graham-idUSKBN2AD046

Any charges expected for Senator Lindsey Graham?

ITV appears to be just a defunct shell company, and has been for 15+ years. It's not a media company. Its station has been closed since early 2008 and frequency reassigned to Thai PBS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_(Thailand) "ITV was a television station in Thailand that was owned by iTV Public Company Limited, a unit of Shin Corporation. As Thailand's first UHF channel, the station was started in 1995 when the company was granted a 30-year concession by the Office of the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office to operate a free-to-air television station in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum at 510-790 MHz (from Channel 26 to 60). After a lengthy dispute over unpaid concession fees to the Prime Minister's Office, the government's Public Relations Department took over the station in 2007. Its name was changed to Thailand Independent Television (TITV). Following a previously unannounced order of Thailand's Public Relations Department delivered the same day, the station closed on January 15, 2008. In accordance with the Public Broadcasting Service Act B.E.2551(2008), the channel's frequency was assigned to the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS)."

Yes, I have experience in this area. Do you already own a small Thai company? To me, Bt30k for help in applying for a NonB visa/work permit only sounds very reasonable. As BritTim notes if you're setting up a new company, normally this would be part of the overall start-up legal fees. In my case the initial NonB Visa / work permit were handled by the law firm that set up my company. After the initial set-up I hired my book keeping firm to handle the NonB visa and work permit extensions. There's tons of paperwork involved and the requirements change from year to year. Bt30k for handling all of this sounds incredibly reasonable. One year I had to apply for a new NonB e-visa from the Thai consulate in my home country. My work permit had already been extended. I applied myself and it was reasonably straight forward.

It's an interesting question. Not sure if this is an indication of the possible answer, but I dealt with all the paperwork and other LTR visa requirements remotely without being in the country for the initial application. And the LTR visa itself has a 10 year date on it.

Hi Pib, if there's a term work contract, then the work permit is issued for the term of the contract. So it could be for 1 year, 2 years, etc. And the price of the work permit is Bt3,000 per years the work permit is good for. I own the company so have an indefinite time frame. Therefore I received the maximum allowable time period or 5 years. There's no annual report filing specific to the work permit that I'm aware of, other than standard income tax filing.

Do you already have an LTR-O application started for your spouse? If not, this would be your next step. Your spouse needs their own BoI account and login, separate from yours. Unfortunately I don't think anything happens until they make their own, separate account and application. If you've already done this but aren't getting anywhere, yes, definitely contact the BoI. The online application system had many many glitches last year, and maybe some of these have still not been identified. When I was doing applications, part of the separate LTR-O application required entering the main applicant's "DOC number". After doing that, the main applicant received a notification on their BoI account, which required the main applicant to acknowledge/approve the addition of the qualified LTR-O applicant.

From my experience dependents (spouse, kids) are not listed on the endorsement letter for the main applicant. Nor is the main applicant listed on the endorsement letter for dependents. If you haven't already, start a new BOI LTR-O application for any dependents (spouse, kids) that you want covered by the main applicant. As part of that process, there will be a section that asks for information regarding the main applicant. The main applicant will also have to acknowledge the dependents on their own BoI login in.

You could also work on an LTR visa with a digital work permit.

There certainly are areas that Thailand has a competitive advantage in, and could strengthen and make more tourist friendly. Ex: more international standard training courses - ex: motorcycle, muay thai, Thai language, Thai cooking, hospitality, herb and flower farming Reinvest in some of the museums. The Thailand national museum in Bangkok is amazing. Although tours are offered in a few foreign languages they are limited and conducted by volunteers. Expand and promote this type of program, charge ticket prices and pay the volunteers. Offer evening programs and transportation options to avoid taxi scams.

Very true! However, this was stated in March/April 2022, so well before the program was even launched. If you think about it, the LTR program could never have been approved if they said we may only get a small number initially. But the government official speaking at the chamber was well aware of the crying need for better programs than were available at the time. Years of trying to improve on the existing system met in failure. The best way forward seemed to be to do a runner around the existing system. Now that there is the new LTR program under BoI oversight, it can be expanded.