Permanent residency salary requirements & timing

[SymS]

I'm doing some planning about permanent residency, and I have some questions about salary and timing since I can't find those from the official source: http://bangkok.immigration.go.th/en/base.php?page=residence

 

But first some background. I've been staying in Thailand on a non-O "thai spouse" visa since November 2010, and started working in June 2018 with a BOI approved company (first salary in July if that matters). I had to switch to non-B in December working for the same company, and my new work permit is dated December 25th although I collected it on January 4th, the same date of my first one year extension of stay. My wife and I plan to divorce in Feb 2019.

 

I understand I have to get at least 80,000 Baht per month in gross salary for the last two years, and hold a work permit for at least 3 years at the time of the application which usually happens in the last two or three months of the year.

 

So I plan to arrange my salary as follow:

July - Dec 2018 - 50k
Jan - Dec 2019 - 50k
Jan - Dec 2020 - 80k
Jan - Dec 2021 - 80k
Jan - Dec 2022 - 80k plus application at the end of that year.

Would that work? Alternatively, if I pay myself a salary of 50k between Jan-Aug 2019 and then 80k between Sep-Dec 2019, would I be able to apply by the end of 2021, or that would not work because I don't have PND 91 for year 2021 yet.

Another website (http://immigrationbangkok.com/thai-permanent-residence-visa/) implies an income of 1 million baht per year (they wrote 100,000 Baht by mistake I believe) would also work, is that correct even if I don't get 80,000 Baht every month? Thank you.

[SymS]

14 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

The amount you get would receive a certain number of points. There are other things you receive points for, like whether you're married to a Thai, whether your work is a benefit to Thai society, how good is your Thai language, then recommendation letters from important people, your education level reached, personality, and several more... The immigration officers wouldn't tell me how many points each gets, but there is a threshold that you need to pass to be considered.

5

Thanks for the answer.

About the point system you'll find something below for Thai nationality, but it may be similar for permanent residency.

 

I did the test and get about 83 points with a 80,000 Baht salary.

 

The reason I specifically asked about salary is because there are significant costs associated with my salary. For example, with a 50,000 Baht salary I pay around 22,000 Baht in extra fees, 80,000 Bht salary I pay over 34,000 Baht in extra fees. So I'd like to optimize this until I find a more cost effective solution.

 

[SteveB2]

I woudn't apply as a normal 'nothing special' PR applicant with a salary at the minimum 80K level...

 

A salary of 80K will def be scurled at (I got a curled lip and failed PR application result when I tried the minimum salary approach a few years ago)... nevermind, lets try again next year I thought.

A salary somewhere just north of 100K is apparently 'OK'

A salary somewhere North of 200K with tax paymens to prove it, is smiled at.

A salary north of 300K and everything else OK, the the PR team will encourage your application.  These are the foreigners The PR team consider as being their desired PR applicants, not folks who are struggling to meet the minimum application criteria.

 

It's a pitty you are getting divorced - you'd get extra points for being married - the more years you have been married, the more points you would get.

You'll also get additional points for having biologically/DNA related kids. Nevermind na' ???? 

 

Anyway, Check out the following ThaiVisa link - lots of useful info for your here...

 

[SymS]

Thanks for the insight SteveB2. If I was still married I'd go for the Thai nationality directly since that's the ultimate goal.

My actual question was more like do I need to 80k/100k minimum salary for 3 years or 2 years. I've read you need a work permit for 3 years, but the salary requirement is just checked for the last two years. Then this year, I could do 50k, and the next years 100k+.