Pib

As to the OP's question of "Can a Non O be changed to a Non OX within Thailand" I'm not aware of any provision that allows that just like you can't change from a Non OA to a Non O visa (or visa versa) within Thailand. It needs to be done outside the country at a Thai embassy.

I think the Thai Embassy Sydney website is misleading/incomplete regarding the deposit/income requirements as it "implies" the funds could be in a Australian bank and doesn't talk other deposit requirements. Maybe Syndey is the different (rogue) when it comes to the requirements or maybe their site is just lacking. However, all other OX visa related websites I went to like the Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thai Embassy Camberra, and Thai Embassy Washington D.C. are very clear the funds need to be deposited in a "Thai bank" and there are rules as to when and how much it can dropped below the required Bt3M.

Yes, the LTR visa is a 5 + 5 visa = 10 year visa. When approved you pay Bt50K for a 10 year LTR visa and a 5 year permit to stay/multi entry permit is granted. Note: Same for the Elite visa....even though you might buy a 20 year Elite visa it's only issued in 5 year increments which is the max increment immigration will issue....when that 5 years is almost up you submit a request to the Elite Visa Company for another 5 years and it's issued. Summary: immigration only issues out a maximum 5 year permit to stay even though the visa is issued for a long term like 10 years for LTR visa, 5 to 20 years for an Elite visa. Back to the LTR visa. Just before the 1st 5 years expires you apply for the 2nd 5 years which is basically confirming you still meet the LTR requirements for income, health insurance, etc. Assuming you still meet the requirements the 2nd 5 years of the 10 year LTR visa is issued "fee-free" as the initial Bt50K fee also covered the mid term extension/2nd 5 years.

Influencers: the picture/video vs reality https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7212595/Mock-influencer-goes-viral-hilarious-parody-account-documenting-reality.html

No doubt the Elite Visa company paid this influencer.....basically a sponsored video.

Incorrect....review below tax article from BELaws for details. https://www.belaws.com/thailand/pit-for-thai-and-foreign-sourced-income/

This article from Siam Legal discusses the digital nomad in Thailand issue and gives quite a few examples of when a specific visa/work permit would be needed or not needed....but at the same time a person will probably still feel the issue "is clear as mud" after reading the article. https://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand/thailand-digital-nomad-visa-and-work-permit

When I read your comment that I bolded above, it reminded me of a comment made by one of the Elite Visa Sales Agents here in Thailand which very recently (30 July) said the "new" Elite packages may not be as suitable for the majority their Western clients who live in Thailand. It was the Sales Agent in my 30 Jul/Sunday post above which included the Youtube video made by that Sales Agent. Now such a statement can be taken several different ways but since the agent mentioned "new" packages it implied to me the new packages may offer new benefits which will be less desirable than current Elite benefits. We'll just have to wait and see until the govt Thailand Elite company makes official info public versus the leaks/bits-and-pieces/rumors/opinions/etc., that are currently floating around which this thread fits into. Comment of the Elite Sales Agent

Thank you, Sir.

Whoops....brain fart....typos....too late to correct....for the LTR requirements I wrote Bt/Baht where I meant to write $/USD.

Yea....brain fart....I should have said dollars vs baht where I was talking LTR requirements.

According to the Thai Embassy in Washington D.C. and Thai E-visa Official website an Education visa (ED) is a type of Non Immigrant visa just like type O or OA is an non-immigrant visa type. Thai Embassy Washington DC website https://thaiembdc.org/visas/# Official Thai E-visa website https://thaievisa.go.th/non-immigrant-ed

I wouldn't say the LTR program is "flawed for retirees" just because it does not include an option to substitute a large bank deposit in place of monthly passive income like for a Non-O retirement visa where a person can use Bt800K large deposit to substitute for a Bt65K/month flow. Yes, it can be easily understood that the LTR Pensioner passive income requirement of US$80K/year without any investment required....or passive income US$40K-80K/year with US$250K investment can be considered significantly more than what many average retirees receive and/or willing to investment in Thailand. But I'm sure the Thai govt made the conscious decision to "not" include a large bank deposit option to substitute for passive income/investment. None of the various LTR visas offer a "large bank deposit method" to completely bypass annual income requirements. But the Pensioner visa does allow a retiree with US$40K but less than US$80K/year passive income to add-in a US$250K "investment" in Thai govt bonds, property purchase like a condo, or foreign direct investment to meet Pensioner visa income requirement. Plus, the govt knew they already offered other retirement visa options like a Non O/OA retirement visa that offer the large bank deposit method...and of course the 10 year Non OX visa that offers a Bt3M large deposit method. And to the best of my knowledge the 10 year Non-OX visa scheme went over like a lead balloon due to the BIG Bt3M bank deposit requirement. So, actually the Thai govt offers several retirement type visas.....Non O, Non OA, Non OX, and LTR Pensioner although meeting the some of requirements for some folks can be challenging like the OA medical insurance requirement or not being at least 50 years old. And then we have the Elite Visa program where a retiree (over or under 50) with low monthly income "but" who has enough to pay the Elite visa fee from savings, by borrowing the money from a bank/family/friends/loan shark/etc., selling some owned real estate, selling their car/family jewels, etc. As others have already said getting an Elite visa just boils down to passing an immigration police check and paying the Elite visa fee...basically, if you got the fee money then you'll get a Elite visa. Yeap, various retiree visa choices with some of the visas being a good fit for some while not-so-good for others....but thank goodness there are various choices. And yea, lowering the requirements/fees on all of the various retirement type visas (to include the Elite visas) would get more foreigners retiring to Thailand, but I'm a firm believer Thailand does not want too many foreigners and/or just any foreigner settling in Thailand.

Log onto your LTR acct, click Check Status, under the Status column click on Print and a window will pop up offering two documents...each document is a one page memo with a one page attachment. See snapshot at bottom. Although they have different titles in the popup menu they are both the same document "except" the first one listed is in English and the 2nd one listed is in Thai. That 2nd one is titled Report to Immigration Bureau which is probably what that #10 document is.....but take along the English version also. These documents are the all important Endorsement Letter....one in Thai and one in English....the foundation your LTR visa house was built on. Save them to your computer....print them out and store them in a safe place....you never know if they will still be online in the future if you get locked out of your acct, the LTR server gets run over by a truck, etc. Yeap....important LTR docs they are.

Around 18 and counting according to this news article. Guess he keeps forgetting to catch the flight. https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40027470

I think #10 is not something provided by a person's home country embassy but the Endorsement Letter a person receives when BoI approves your LTR application. A very important letter anyone with a LTR visa needs to keep in a safe place even after getting the LTR stamp/evisa LTR approval.....that Endorsement Letter is like the foundation to your LTR house and will be needed in the future for other LTR related things. It can also be downloaded from a person's LTR online acct. Now "maybe" when a "Thai Embassy" approves a person's evisa application based on an LTR visa they provide something like #10....I don't know....but I think #10 is just the BoI Endorsement Letter. 10. Notification letter of qualification endorsement which is addressed to the Immigration Bureau But a lot of these "how to do something" instructions are written in a generic, trying to cover many scenarios which ends up with steps/docs that do not apply to every person.

Are you implying your example shows approx a 20 fold increase in the number of people having Elite membership over 3 years.... or just an approx 20 fold increase in the number of Elite members having problems with the online reporting or simply just not wanting to use the online reporting & instead let Elite workers do the reporting?

We can thank the Thai insurance companies mafia for getting Immigration to set the requirement for a specific form signed by three directors of a foreign insurance company to effectively kill the option of using foreign insurance to renew an OA visa. Immigration can brag clearly they give the option to use foreign insurance but they only mumble unintelligently about the fine print of requiring a form foreign insurance companies will not complete/sign.

I've weighted the envelope with enclosed form 7162 with a cheapo scale I bought off Ebay years ago.....I think it weighs up to 1 pound...it reads out in grams, seems pretty accurate since it made to measure light items like envelopes for mailing purposes, etc. When I use that scale to weigh the 7162 mailing package it gives me 18.3 grams. However in the past when mailing at the Thai post office when they throw it on their scale they use to weigh envelopes "and much heavier packages" some times they have charged me for only 12 grams which cost Bt52 and other times around 25 grams which cost Bt59. I expect the issue it totally with the accuracy of their scale when weighing "light" items as I expect the accuracy of the scale is less for very light items like envelopes. The scale they use seems more suited for weighing heavier items like small boxes/packages. Anyway, you can use the Thai postal system calculator to determine mailing costs....just enter the country you are sending to and the weight in grams. If entering USA then anything less than 20 grams costs Bt52....but 21 to 30 grams is Bt59....etc....etc....etc. Yeap, all depends on how many grams the particular Thai post office scale says you envelope weights and if you included anything additional in the 7162 mailing envelope other than the 7162 form itself....and we are dealing with a very light item weighed on scales more geared to weight small packages. And I don't know how often the post office has it's scale officially calibrated. With that in mind a 7162 mailed back via regular airmail will cost either Bt52 or Bt59. https://www.thailandpost.co.th/index.php?page=rate_result_nrs3

Yes....you can get a refund....I did it each and every year from around 3 years when I was into using fixed saving accts to maintain my Bt800K deposit used to renewal my retirement visa extension. I would get the tax refund in 4-6 weeks. Just follow the guidance given in freeworld's post above. You'll can get the tax number issued when applying for the refund and then use that same tax number for ensuring years. Now, as long as the interest earned does not exceed Bt20K per year on a "regular" savings acct if you provide your Thai bank(s) your Thai tax number they will stop withholding any tax until you exceed Bt20K interest earned per year. However, for "fixed" savings acct they will withhold interest regardless of tax number on file or not. Several years ago when the govt started withholding tax on regular savings accts if exceeding Bt20K interest per year I provided Bangkok Bank and Krungsri Bank my tax number and they stopped withholding tax....no tax has been withheld since.

What's a durn shame is no announcement/details has appeared on the official govt Thailand Elite website as of today/30 July 2023. Now apparently Thailand Elite has leaked (cross fed) certain info to news agencies and Thailand Elite Sales Agents, but apparently those leaks/that cross-feed is skimpy on key details. In that Thailand Elite Youtube video post I made above (about 10 hours ago) the Sales Agent for that video states in the video comments section that Thailand Elite Sales Agents were only notified 27 July/Thursday by the govt just before the 6 day holiday period we are now in....and maybe the official govt Thailand Elite website will post something official on their website after the holidays end on 2 Aug. It seems the official govt Thailand Elite company is letting news media and sales agents initially release the news....maybe to take the initial blowback...test the waters...see what reaction current and potential Thal Elite members provide. If the reaction is overwhelming negative blowback then the govt could backtrack before making an official announcement to implement the new visas and just say the earlier cross-feed provided was premature/not finalized. Snapshot from the youtube video comment section....note the Sales Agent comment

Maybe due to whatever new benefits will come with the new 20 year visa. Maybe it will include X-amount of free bar fines per year. ????

Below weblink/partial quote is from a Thailand Elite "look-alike" website and is "not" from the official Thailand Privilege Card (TPC) govt website (https://www.thailandelite.com/) Notice the official govt website ends with a .com and below look-alike website ends with a .net. Lots of Thailand Elite Sales Agent websites with website names very similar to the official website. But also note the look-alike website is an official Thailand Elite sales agent based in Japan (i.e., Daimaru Trading based in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture in Japan as an authorized General Sales and Services Agent (GSSA) for Thailand Elite). So, with above in mind here's what below website expects price structure-wise for the new & improve PE visas.....but keep in mind the website does state the new pricing structure has "not" been officially confirmed or announced yet. https://www.thailandelite.net/2023/06/14/thailand-elite-new-programs/

Here are some 2014-2022 PE stats by "fiscal" year (i.e., 1 Oct XX - 30 Sep XX)....so the stats shown run thru 30 Sep 2022. For the last three fiscal years growth has been approx 5,000/year new PE visas issued but pre-2020 the growth level was much lower. 2020, 2021, and 2022 were the three big growth years probably driven by certain nationalities (i.e., mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, Russian, etc), COVID impacts, etc. Can the Elite visa program growth continue at approx 5K new members per year or fall back to pre-2020 levels of just a couple thousand per year? Time will tell. https://www.imidaily.com/datacenter/thai-elite-visa-statistics/

I bet the BoI Immigration is fully aware as they are probably smarter than the average bear immigration office....but then again, maybe not. Anyway, a U.S. passport person can download from the U.S. Embassy - Bangkok a letter with letterhead in English and Thai that explains the situation. https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/adult-passport-renew/