SMART Visa Detailed

[BritTim]

9 hours ago, djlest said:

As for the person saying elite visa costs 50k a year i believe its actually 100k a year, unless something has changed?

The cost depends on whether you go for the 5-year, 10-year or 20-year option. The 5-year option is 500k (apparently 100k a year) but you can likely get an additional year out of it which reduces the cost to about 83k per year.

[galt67]

The 20 year TE option IS 1mBht thus is 50,000/year.

 

It's 4x5 year 'visa renewals'.

 

After the initial 5-year period, you renew for another 5 years.

 

A lot of money, yes, BUT despite being 50y/o I'm very happy I chose it.

[Dmitry2222]

12 hours ago, galt67 said:

The 20 year TE option IS 1mBht thus is 50,000/year.

Does TE allow to live in Thailand or this option has some limit for amount days in the country?  Probably, "smart" option implies living in the country all over the year and TE for frequently visits.

 

[ubonjoe]

6 minutes ago, Dmitry2222 said:

Does TE allow to live in Thailand or this option has some limit for amount days in the country?  Probably, "smart" option implies living in the country all over the year and TE for frequently visits.

There is no limit for the number of days you can be in the country with a PE visa.

The visa allows unlimited 1 year entries. If you did not want to leave the country at end of a 1 year entry you can apply for a 1 year extension at immigration for a fee of 1900 baht.

[jackdd]

7 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

There is no limit for the number of days you can be in the country with a PE visa.

The visa allows unlimited 1 year entries. If you did not want to leave the country at end of a 1 year entry you can apply for a 1 year extension at immigration for a fee of 1900 baht.

So is it possible (if not married and under 50, because then would not need it) to get the Thai Elite Visa, enter the country, extend it for 3 years, and then get permanent residency?

[elviajero]

8 minutes ago, jackdd said:

So is it possible (if not married and under 50, because then would not need it) to get the Thai Elite Visa, enter the country, extend it for 3 years, and then get permanent residency?

No.

[jackdd]

4 minutes ago, elviajero said:

No.

A little bit more than "no" would be helpful

[ubonjoe]

16 minutes ago, jackdd said:

So is it possible (if not married and under 50, because then would not need it) to get the Thai Elite Visa, enter the country, extend it for 3 years, and then get permanent residency?

You have to be working with a work permit and paying taxes for 3 years to apply for permanent residency. So the answer is no.

[lkv]

1 hour ago, jackdd said:

So is it possible (if not married and under 50, because then would not need it) to get the Thai Elite Visa, enter the country, extend it for 3 years, and then get permanent residency?

You can only apply for PR after 3 years of consecutive non B extensions while you had a WP and sufficient tax has been milked from your minimum salary as a foreigner :)

 

What they advertise on the website using terminology such as "residence" and "live like a Thai citizen" is just that. Advertising. Don't take it literally. :)

[elviajero]

11 minutes ago, lkv said:

You can only apply for PR after 3 years of consecutive non B extensions while you had a WP and sufficient tax has been milked from your minimum salary as a foreigner :)

 

What they advertise on the website using terminology such as "residence" and "live like a Thai citizen" is just that. Advertising. Don't take it literally. :)

It doesn’t need to be a category ‘B’ non immigrant visa.

[lkv]

12 minutes ago, elviajero said:

It doesn’t need to be a category ‘B’ non immigrant visa.

Correct, any non Immigrant visa that is extended for 3 years minimum without interruption and allows you to work on (WP), with the minimum salary requirement, which is indeed lower in the case of marriage.

 

[eisfeld]

On 2/2/2018 at 4:48 AM, samran said:

yeah, the head of the BOI is aware of Iglu. She wasn't happy when told...

The BOI has vetted and approved Iglu and its business model. So I'm not sure why the head of the BOI would be unhappy when told about Iglu. Unless you are suggesting that Iglu misled the BOI about the intention to employ dozens/hundreds of foreigners.

[Felt 35]

20 hours ago, galt67 said:

The 20 year TE option IS 1mBht thus is 50,000/year.

 

It's 4x5 year 'visa renewals'.

 

After the initial 5-year period, you renew for another 5 years.

 

A lot of money, yes, BUT despite being 50y/o I'm very happy I chose it.

What about 90 days report and away from home address reporting when holding a elite visa?

[elviajero]

36 minutes ago, Felt 35 said:

What about 90 days report and away from home address reporting when holding a elite visa?

90 day reports need to be made to the office that cover the area of the address being reported.

 

If you permanently change your address from the last ‘90 day report’ you would probably need to submit a change of address to the new office before being able to make a 90 day report.

 

The owner, house-master, possessor, hotel/guesthouse manager should report that you’re staying at their address should you stay overnight.

[4evermaat]

On 2/2/2018 at 10:07 AM, lkv said:

I don't think so. Tax on 70K at 20% is 14K per month, so 168K per year.

 

Would not be so attractive cost wise compared to other options.

 

A company called Iglu does something similar, they will take care of your visa if you are willing to "run an income" through them of I believe 2K USD per month.

 

Btw, tax on 200K is 30% if I am not mistaken, incurring a cost of 720K per employee in tax.

 

I think the magic will happen in other places i.e. Singapore, Hong Kong etc where the minds actually do converge ?

 

You sure that's not 2K THB/month?  at 2k USD/mo, you could just save up for about 7-8 months and then get a 5 yr Elite Visa.

[lkv]

2 hours ago, 4evermaat said:

 

You sure that's not 2K THB/month?  at 2k USD/mo, you could just save up for about 7-8 months and then get a 5 yr Elite Visa.

I am sure. If you run 2 or 2.5 K USD per month through them they will do the nonB extensions and work permits etc.

 

2k baht per month is 65 dollars man. Who earns 65 dollars a month? :))

[BritTim]

3 hours ago, Felt 35 said:

What about 90 days report and away from home address reporting when holding a elite visa?

If all of the following are true,

• you are away from home for exactly the wrong three weeks (two weeks before the date the 90-day report is due and 7 days after; and
• you are away from home but still inside Thailand the whole time; and
• you have already previously made a 90-day report elsewhere; and
• online reporting fails; and
• the immigration office near where you are currently staying will not let you report there

then you will need to choose one of the following options

1. do your 90-day report by mail; or
2. temporarily return home at some point during the three week reporting period; or
3. do a border hop which will negate the need to do a report; or
4. just ignore the requirement, and pay the modest fine when your failure to report is discovered.

In my opinion, the situation that concerns you is not likely to be common, and the consequences far from disastrous in the unlikely event that it should ever occur.

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, 4evermaat said:

You sure that's not 2K THB/month?  at 2k USD/mo, you could just save up for about 7-8 months and then get a 5 yr Elite Visa.

In my opinion, digital nomads who are pretty sure they will stay a couple of years in Thailand are better off buying a Thailand Elite visa rather than using IGLU. However, many are under the delusion that using IGLU makes them 100% legal while working as a digital nomad without the IGLU fig leaf is illegal. The only times I think people should consider IGLU are

• when they are unsure of how long they want to stay in Thailand, and their nationality makes it difficult just to use tourist entries to stay; or
• they are interested in having Thai clients as part of their online activities, in which case IGLU probably provides them some protection (though debatable) while the Thailand Elite visa certainly does not; or
• for moral reasons, they wish to pay Thai taxes, in which case using IGLU is the easiest way of arranging this. 

[jackdd]

7 hours ago, 4evermaat said:

 

You sure that's not 2K THB/month?  at 2k USD/mo, you could just save up for about 7-8 months and then get a 5 yr Elite Visa.

It's 2k USD. You don't give the whole 2K to them, they keep a share of it and pass the rest of it to you as your salary

[eisfeld]

8 hours ago, BritTim said:

However, many are under the delusion that using IGLU makes them 100% legal while working as a digital nomad without the IGLU fig leaf is illegal.

Interesting. What laws would someone break that is using IGLU in order to obtain visa and work permit and perform said work in Thailand? Because working as a digital nomad without using something like Iglu or any other way to get a work permit is pretty certainly illegal (albeit tollerated in many cases).

[BritTim]

38 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

Interesting. What laws would someone break that is using IGLU in order to obtain visa and work permit and perform said work in Thailand? Because working as a digital nomad without using something like Iglu or any other way to get a work permit is pretty certainly illegal (albeit tollerated in many cases).

It is not unlikely that the activities described in the work permit will actually be different from those undertaken by most digital nomads. Recall that there are numerous occupations restricted to Thais. The fact that you are really working overseas on a computer in Thailand does not matter when using the fiction of being the employee of a Thai company. Thus, your work permit may be quite vague and general, but will not allow activities restricted to Thais. Yes, those activities are going to be tolerated, but the same goes for those on Thailand Elite visas without work permits.

[eisfeld]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

It is not unlikely that the activities described in the work permit will actually be different from those undertaken by most digital nomads. Recall that there are numerous occupations restricted to Thais. The fact that you are really working overseas on a computer in Thailand does not matter when using the fiction of being the employee of a Thai company. Thus, your work permit may be quite vague and general, but will not allow activities restricted to Thais. Yes, those activities are going to be tolerated, but the same goes for those on Thailand Elite visas without work permits.

I am not sure if I can agree with you. The following jobs are restricted to Thais: http://www.mol.go.th/en/content/page/6347

 

From this page, the only ones that I can see a digital nomad maybe doing are Auction, Accounting, Buddha Image Making (digital), Civil Engineering and Architectural work, Clerical/Secretarial Work, Legal services.

But I think that's a tiny part of what digital nomads would do. Usually those people are programming, designing, content editorial work etc.

 

So, imho, the vast majority of digital nomads working under Iglu should be legal. Sure, it is possible that they do something that is not covered by their work permit. But that's the case for any foreigner doing any work for any company.

[BritTim]

29 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

I am not sure if I can agree with you. The following jobs are restricted to Thais: http://www.mol.go.th/en/content/page/6347

 

From this page, the only ones that I can see a digital nomad maybe doing are Auction, Accounting, Buddha Image Making (digital), Civil Engineering and Architectural work, Clerical/Secretarial Work, Legal services.

But I think that's a tiny part of what digital nomads would do. Usually those people are programming, designing, content editorial work etc.

 

So, imho, the vast majority of digital nomads working under Iglu should be legal. Sure, it is possible that they do something that is not covered by their work permit. But that's the case for any foreigner doing any work for any company.

It is important not to forget occupations that require visas other than Non B. For example, those producing vlogs or teaching online will not be technically legal under the IGLU mechanism. That is not to say that some will not be within the rules provided their work permits are correctly worded.

[jackdd]

13 minutes ago, BritTim said:

It is important not to forget occupations that require visas other than Non B. For example, those producing vlogs or teaching online will not be technically legal under the IGLU mechanism. That is not to say that some will not be within the rules provided their work permits are correctly worded.

Why should those not be legal?

[BritTim]

Just now, jackdd said:

Why should those not be legal?

Producing vlogs is classed as film making , and you will not get a work permit for doing this without a Non M visa. Teaching has special requirements also, among other things usually requiring employment by an accredited school. As I stated in my earlier post, we are talking about what is technically legal, not what is certainly tolerated.

[jackdd]

8 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Producing vlogs is classed as film making , and you will not get a work permit for doing this without a Non M visa. Teaching has special requirements also, among other things usually requiring employment by an accredited school. As I stated in my earlier post, we are talking about what is technically legal, not what is certainly tolerated.

So you make videos (non-m) and also do some other work for client, let's say you also work as a designer (non-b) you need 2 visas? I think it's not possible to have multiple visas at the same time and a non-b is enough

[BritTim]

53 minutes ago, jackdd said:

So you make videos (non-m) and also do some other work for client, let's say you also work as a designer (non-b) you need 2 visas? I think it's not possible to have multiple visas at the same time and a non-b is enough

You would be allowed the regular activities on your work permit allowed on a Non B as well as the special activities that require a Non M. You would not need two visa, but you would need the Non M.

[lkv]

Any updates from people in the process of getting this?

[gk10002000]

I thought the idea sounded interesting at first.  I have a couple of degrees and decades of engineering and aerospace experience, but I am not interested in starting up or running a business in Thailand.  I would like to teach and maybe work there, but don't really see how this visa fits

[pearciderman]

On 2/26/2018 at 1:44 PM, BritTim said:

It is important not to forget occupations that require visas other than Non B. For example, those producing vlogs or teaching online will not be technically legal under the IGLU mechanism. That is not to say that some will not be within the rules provided their work permits are correctly worded.

 

IGLU does not accept vloggers or online teachers, so no problem there.