Elite Easy Access vs Elite Family Alternative Visa

[Steve80]

I see that the Elite Easy Access is 5 years @ 600,000 baht and the Family Alternative Visa is 10 years @ 800,000 baht which is only 200,000 baht more for an extra 5 years.

 

Can anyone who is a single person also obtain the Family Alternative Visa as I do not see any requirements for this type of visa?

All I can see on the page is: *immediate family refers to member’s parents, legitimate spouse and children - but no real mention of what this relates to and the * is not shown anywhere.

 

I am also a bit confused by where it says: Membership Validity 10 years and five-year multiple entry visa with extendable one-year length of stay per each entry. Does this mean the first 5 years you can stay in Thailand without leaving, and then after that you would have to leave Thailand and re enter at least once a year for the next 5 years?

[BritTim]

What you probably want (if planning to stay indefinitely) is the Thailand Elite Superiority Extension which provides 20 years for a million baht.

 

When it refers to five year visas, this is just because of the way the law is worded. A maximum length visa for "temporary" stay is restricted to five years. Thus, the Thailand Elite memberships that are for longer than five years require a new visa to be inserted in your passport every five years. This has no meaningful impact on your rights under the Thailand Elite scheme.

 

At any time under your Thailand Elite membership, you are given a one-year permission to stay each time you enter Thailand and, if you choose not to leave and re-enter over a 12-month period, you can instead apply for a one-year extension of stay on payment of 1,900 baht at immigration.

[richard_smith237]

All of the ‘Family’ memberships are for more than 1 members, or as a supplementary membership alongside an existing member. 

 

i.e. IF a Husband holds Elite Privilege Assess membership (10 years 1 MB) his Wife can get the Elite Family Alternative for 800,000 baht and also get 10 years membership = 1.8 MB for a couple. 

 

 

If on your own - the Family options are of no use to you.

 

Your options are: 

 

Easy Access: 600,000 baht - 5 years (VIP Greet, Airport trx 24x year - no other perks) 

Privilege Access: 1,000,000 baht - 10 years (VIP Greet, Airport trx 24x year - no other perks) 

Superiority Extension: 1,000,000 baht - 20 years  (VIP Greet, no perks)

Ultimate Privilege: 2,000,000 baht - 20 years (VIP Gree, Airport Tax 24x +perks Golf, Spa etc 24x per year)

[PattayaKevin]

Elite easy access is 5 years but 1 year entry per coming into Thailand.  If you want to stay over 1 year without leaving pay 1900 baht at immigration to get another year. You can extend the Elite access to the 20 year for 400,000 extra. The Elite easy access is the only one I know that can be upgraded. So you would have 5 years to extend it so pay 600,000 now then 400,000 within the 5 years to upgrade it. Unless they raise the prices. From my understanding if they raise prices you will need to pay more for the upgrade. 

 

 

[Mike Teavee]

43 minutes ago, PattayaKevin said:

Elite easy access is 5 years but 1 year entry per coming into Thailand.  If you want to stay over 1 year without leaving pay 1900 baht at immigration to get another year. You can extend the Elite access to the 20 year for 400,000 extra. The Elite easy access is the only one I know that can be upgraded. So you would have 5 years to extend it so pay 600,000 now then 400,000 within the 5 years to upgrade it. Unless they raise the prices. From my understanding if they raise prices you will need to pay more for the upgrade. 

 

 

Wow, that's news to me... I knew you could extend the 5 year visa to the 2Million 20 year one but didn't know you could also extend to the 1Million one. 

 

That would seem to make the 1Million 20 year visa a bad choice as you could get the 600K 5 year one, use the free airport transports etc for 5 years then pay the remaining 400K (which hopefully has been making you more money) to get the extra 15 years... 

 

From https://www.thailandelite-direct.com/en/program-overview

 

 

 

    

[Steve80]

10 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

Wow, that's news to me... I knew you could extend the 5 year visa to the 2Million 20 year one but didn't know you could also extend to the 1Million one. 

 

That would seem to make the 1Million 20 year visa a bad choice as you could get the 600K 5 year one, use the free airport transports etc for 5 years then pay the remaining 400K (which hopefully has been making you more money) to get the extra 15 years... 

 

From https://www.thailandelite-direct.com/en/program-overview

 

 

 

    

 

Thank you all for replies. It is very helpful.

 

So if I was to buy the Elite Easy Access, would I have to upgrade this to the Elite Superiority Extension immediately at the same time as buying the Elite Easy Access, or would I be able to buy the Elite Superiority Extension during or towards the end of the Elite Easy Access 5 year period?

[BritTim]

12 hours ago, Steve80 said:

 

Thank you all for replies. It is very helpful.

 

So if I was to buy the Elite Easy Access, would I have to upgrade this to the Elite Superiority Extension immediately at the same time as buying the Elite Easy Access, or would I be able to buy the Elite Superiority Extension during or towards the end of the Elite Easy Access 5 year period?

 

My understanding of the current rules is that you can upgrade at any time before the expiry of the Elite Easy Access membership. However, I do not think there is anything to prevent Thailand Elite from eliminating the upgrade option at any time (and I would expect this to happen at some stage).

[JTXR]

On 5/1/2021 at 12:05 PM, BritTim said:

At any time under your Thailand Elite membership, you are given a one-year permission to stay each time you enter Thailand and, if you choose not to leave and re-enter over a 12-month period, you can instead apply for a one-year extension of stay on payment of 1,900 baht at immigration.

Does the elite visa holder him/herself need to go to immigration to do the one-year extension, or does Thailand Elite staff take care of it?  Also, do elite visa holders need to do 90-day reports?

[richard_smith237]

4 minutes ago, JTXR said:

Does the elite visa holder him/herself need to go to immigration to do the one-year extension, or does Thailand Elite staff take care of it?  Also, do elite visa holders need to do 90-day reports?

 

Extensions need to applied for in person.

 

Thai Elite can do the 90 day reports for you.

[PattayaKevin]

You can get the upgrade anytime during the 5 years. They told me that they recommend to do it around the 4 year mark.