K2938

So the low rate of applications has further slowed down, falling by nearly a quarter in the last weeks from the already very low earlier numbers. In The Nation it was stated that until 20 Oct 2022 there were 1 044 applications, implying 20.9 applications per day (https://www.nationmultimedia.com/thailand/40021449). Now in the new article by the Thai Examiner (https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/11/07/land-for-foreign-high-flyers-plan-to-be-axed/) it is stated that 1 300 applications were made until about 05 Nov 2022, implying that in the period from 20 Oct to 05 Nov only approximately 16.0 applications per day were made, i.e. a further fall of 23% from an already very low starting figure.

If this turns out to be a problem, you can just buy a temporary flight out of Thailand for $14 USD at https://onwardticket.com/ or buy a rail or bus ticket out of Thailand for even less. Much cheaper than the extra 10k or 15k THB for the local embassy/consulate

Depends on the specifics on the local legislation. In many countries, there is legislation giving residential tenants the right to terminate the contract by giving a certain amount of notice even if the contract is entirely silent on this and in some others even if the contract says exactly the opposite. So the question really is not what the situation is "anywhere in the world", but what the specific rules, regulations and court practices in Thailand are. So that is really what would be useful to discuss here

Would be interesting to know if for the people they reject they are told this immediately when when the BOT notices this or they are also only informed at the end of the about 20 business day period. I would assume the former, so in that case no news is good news.

Thanks for this very useful list. May I suggest that you maybe sort this by date as this would just make it a little easier to read. Thank you.

... which is why somebody somewhere will probably be under a lot of pressure because of the performance of this program. Even the pent up early adapter demand boom only led to about 1000 applications in a little less than two months and that is applications, not visas issued. This program is attractive to those with an interest in Thailand who happen to either fulfill the $80k income or fulfill the $40k income and already have $250k in real estate investments in Thailand, but this pool of people is very very limited. From all others who would have to buy Thai government bonds or make new investments into Thai real estate, demand is probably going to be quite limited and even an income of $40k is a very big number for most people. So the 1 million in 5 years will almost certainly be hugely hugely missed.

Just to confirm: You paid the 50k THB for the visa without problem IN CASH at the BOI office in Bangkok? I am asking because earlier on there were reports that they neither accept cash, nor credit cards but only the QR code payment with a Thai bank account (which of course people who have not lived in Thailand before probably will not have)

Who says that buying Thai government bonds in the secondary markets would not fulfill the LTR visa requirements?

Add the pre-screening time and it comes to about a month as well

Indeed. But you need to look at the opportunity cost of doing something else with your money instead of buying Thai government bonds. And in view of this, the non-O retirement is the better option for most pensioners who due to lack of sufficiently high income/sufficiently valuable Thai property would need to buy government bonds. But it is of course your choice what you do with your hard-earned money.

1) The BOI does not use current exchange rates, but the average rates published on its website with 0.85 EUR = 1 USD. Maybe worthwhile checking if this reduces your money gap. 2) Buying Thai government bonds is not really the best of all investments so maybe worthwhile thinking about if you really want/need the LTR visa or should not stay with Non-O.

Somebody either on this or another forum reported he was rejected when trying to submit wages as part of the $80k for the Wealthy Pensioner.

There was a thread on this just a few days ago. Please use the search function

Definitely do the application first. And do not worry about the details of the insurance at the time of application since you actually have an option there to submit later which you will see in the application form.

I would take this as a positive, not negative sign. If there were major immediately obvious fatal flaws with your application, they would have told you by now. So no news is good news at this point of time. They are doing whatever needs to be doing. No reason to worry.

Have a look at this thread as among others it covers this as well:

For highly-skilled professionals, the 17% flat tax rate is indeed a tax benefit under the LTR visa. For the non-working LTR visa groups including retirees, overseas income is not really taxed in Thailand anyway unless remitted in the year it was earned: "Highly skilled professional holding an LTR visa will be taxed at the flat rate of 17% and benefit from a tax exemption for overseas income. Thailand Elite does not have such incentives; however it is to note that Thai tax law already exempts taxation on overseas incomes as long as they are not transferred to Thailand within the same fiscal year as they have been generated." (https://thaielite-express.com/thailand-long-term-residence-visa/)

That is good, however Jeff Bezos would still be in trouble. Amazon.com Inc. does not pay any dividends. So his about $150 BN worth coming from his holdings in Amazon would still not make it

Not so sure about this because it very much depends on how the BOI actually applies the rules. Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet who both have a net worth above $100 BN for example generally pay no or only a very marginal amount of income tax as is widely known because they manage their affairs such that they basically do not have any taxable income. So if the BOI were to really stick to their income tax statement approach these people would not qualify. In any event, somebody who got approved recently stated here or on another similar forum that about 150 LTR visas have so far been approved according to what he was told, though I have no idea if this figure is correct or not. And if the Thai government wants to fulfill its goal of issuing 1 million LTR visas over 5 years, it would on average need to issue nearly 1000 visas each working day. So about 1000 applications within nearly two months is quite far below this and this is even applications and not visa approvals

Around 1,000 people applied for the LTR Visa from September 1 to October 20, according to the Board of Investment. Anucha said the visa would be given to four groups of people. He detailed the groups and the number of applicants so far: Wealthy individuals: 88 applicants Wealthy Pensioners: 430 Work from Thailand: 366 Highly skilled professionals: 160. Meanwhile, another 144 were applicants’ spouses and children. The top five countries from which these applicants hail are: United States: 232 China: 140 United Kingdom: 109 Germany: 68 Australia: 51 (https://www.nationmultimedia.com/thailand/policies/40021449)

The competition in Indonesia is not sleeping. New long-term Bali visa just announced for those having at least 130 000 USD in a bank account. Makes the conditions of the LTR visa look very onerous and the price of Thailand Elite extremely high in comparison https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-26/new-visa-to-let-tourists-with-130-000-live-in-bali-for-10-years https://www.imigrasi.go.id/en/2022/10/25/siaran-pers-ditjen-imigrasi-resmi-luncurkan-aturan-second-home-visa/

Glad to hear this because I thought maybe this is like the code of the secretary sending out the declined letters who does not have her own telephone number ????

Does anybody know how to identify and call the BoI staff handling the case if the StaffBoI number is only three-digit, not four-digit (i.e. e.g. "StaffBoI 002", not "StaffBoi 1102")? Since Bangkok phone numbers are 7-digits after the country and area code, it cannot be +66 2 209 xxx

If you can avoid it, it would probably be better not to finetune anything on the website, but actually only start entering/uploading things once you are absolutely fine with them. Even if not pressing submit, the website might well keep records of all the changes and then the BOI might wonder why initially maybe you presented some things entirely differently

Is a particular visa/residence status required for this or can anybody get the vaccination as long as they pay?