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Government makes bold move to woo wealthy, highly skilled foreigners


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7 minutes ago, itsari said:

Good idea , Thailand need highly trained electricians and plumbers . That would be a good start . This would help the local labour to become more efficient at what they do .  

Yes - this would actually be fantastic.

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1 hour ago, kickstart said:

It is a Thai thing this degree, thay think you have a degree, you can do anything ,you are the best ,and that degree will carry you though life. 

I come to Thailand as a volunteer working with Thai dairy farmers ,the people that said to me  you must have a Batchers degree, no, I just have 2 years day release ,and a general agriculture certificate ,plus one year at Agriculture collage ,the fact I have 25 years practical experience  does not seem to count. 

And that degree must be in the subject that you are going to work in ,how many people now days that  are still doing they precent job , is related to the degree they did say 20 years ago. 

Multitasking is still a lot of years away from Thailand. 

Single tasking to 100% completion is also unusual.

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"Highly skilled professionals from overseas could impart training to Thais"

 

I was recruited to a major university to do just this

 

my reward has been having to do 90-day reports, yearly visa extensions/work permit renewals, pay taxes while experiencing the beloved dual pricing system here, and being accosted on the street by the cops more than a few times about what I was doing and going.

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1 hour ago, itsari said:

Good idea , Thailand need highly trained electricians and plumbers . That would be a good start . This would help the local labour to become more efficient at what they do .  

Well jollyhangman , it is not funny when you are visited by a well trained Thai electrician or plumber and things go wrong .

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1 hour ago, khunPer said:

Thanks, and yes - I fully agree - I was merely focusing on the aspect of the government's wishful thinking, where the nomad banging his/hers tent pegs or poles more permanently into Thai soil...????

There probably will be some "banging" and "pegging" from those digital nomads during their short stays in Thailand, but that's about as much as the government can expect from them. 

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19 minutes ago, Misterwhisper said:

There probably will be some "banging" and "pegging" from those digital nomads during their short stays in Thailand, but that's about as much as the government can expect from them. 

The Govt is expecting full Intellectual Property and knowhow transfer in return for being able to stay here without reporting every 90 days [like they would in the South of France or BVI or Bahamas etc], which it seems they expect to be achieved in 5-10 years after which the pupa is discarded.

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1 hour ago, The Cipher said:

You guys are focusing on semantics too much. Replace 'digital nomad' with 'remote worker' and you may start to see the appeal.

 

There are a lot of newly remote professionals due to Covid. And a lot of what Thailand has to offer is appealing to them, believe it or not. And I think I would know lol - I'm one of them, as are many of my friends.

 

To address some of your points so that you know how people will evaluate these:

  • Nothing in the known text stipulates a minimum amount of time that needs to be spent in Thailand. It's basically a free pass to come and go as you please. Effectively it turns Thailand into a regional base with extremely minimal required commitment on behalf of the visa holder (Group 3 applicants);
  • Groups 2-4 don't actually seem to require a land purchase or any investment in the country. Not 100% sure about this for Group 2 (the 'or $80,000' line is a bit unclear). But anyway, unlike the Elite visa these can be picked up for virtually zero liability. At worst you turn cash into some other asset on the balance sheet;
  • 17% flat tax is attractive. I could see some people changing their tax residences to take advantage of the offer, particularly given the low qualifying requirements relative to other lower-tax jurisdictions. I'm reasonably sure some bright people will actually find a way to declare tax residence in Thailand while earning abroad and end up paying effectively 0% income tax. Please message me if you figure out how to do this;
  • For HNWI looking to diversity RE holdings, the visa rights allow them market access while basically providing an additional residence perk for something they wanted to do anyway.

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Now that I've typed this I sorta want to delete before posting lest the authorities read it and decide they were too generous with the terms lmao. But otoh it might be educational for this audience so I'll post and hope for the best.

Sure, the first 3 items can be more easily had with an elite visa tho and there's nearly zero paperwork involved. The 90 day reporting is a non issue outside of Covid due to frequent travelling.

 

 

4th point is what would me make apply for these IF they offer unrestricted land access in a place that I choose without strings attache, this could even be limited to a max size of land a la 10 rai.

If this is only for approved building projects from Thai developers it's entirely useless, at least for me.

 

I can't see that last point happening, so I am not so hyped up about this at all - I hope I am wrong tho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, The Cipher said:

You know based on the criteria outlined in the article, this looks like a pretty good visa option. 10 year validity with no annoying reporting and revenue outside Thailand exempted from taxation? Nice! I really think I'll apply for this.

 

I still think that letting foreigners own land is a mistake, but if they insist then I guess it would be a shame not to oblige them.

They should at least put some limits on land size owned by foreigners - and perhaps they do. Say max 1 rai, maybe even less. Might also need to think of some inheritance ruling, maybe after foreigner dies and if descendants or significant other is not Thai, force them to sell to Thai people within 5 years.

 

Apart from the land ownership possibility, I think the deal is a bit crappy. Other countries give a permanent citizenship or even passport (valid for life) for this or less money: https://www.goldenvisas.com/country

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10 minutes ago, wolf81 said:

They should at least put some limits on land size owned by foreigners - and perhaps they do. Say max 1 rai, maybe even less. Might also need to think of some inheritance ruling, maybe after foreigner dies and if descendants or significant other is not Thai, force them to sell to Thai people within 5 years.

 

Apart from the land ownership possibility, I think the deal is a bit crappy. Other countries give a permanent citizenship or even passport (valid for life) for this or less money: https://www.goldenvisas.com/country

It strikes me as less than competitive. Thailand expecting to deal 100% on its terms as usual. They have been very lucky with that so far - starting with Thailand for a while being the cheapest labour option, cheapest "2week James Bond" option - they misguidedly expect to be able to dictate the terms going forward.

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Thailand has been beating this dead horse for some time now. They keep trying to put lipstick on a pig and shouting to the world, "Come invest in us! Don't look behind the curtain, just give us your money."

 

"If you build it, they will come." If you create a healthy environment that is apparent to all wise investors, you won't have to "scheme" or "lure" them in.

Hello? Is this thing on? Hello?

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Government makes bold move to woo wealthy, highly skilled foreigners . 

 

I think that most people that are Well off and have the funds that they require for this Visa  wouldn't be interested to waste their time and money in Los.

But then there are always some that Do.

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1 hour ago, digger70 said:

Government makes bold move to woo wealthy, highly skilled foreigners . 

 

I think that most people that are Well off and have the funds that they require for this Visa  wouldn't be interested to waste their time and money in Los.

But then there are always some that Do.

You're going to be filtering for 'well-off' riff raff unfortunately. Most well off respectable retirees/expats would likely settle somewhere else given resources to do so....unless...unless...they have questionable methods and means of acquiring that wealth/income. In the USA you're going to get lots of interest if and when you plunk large sums in a bank ...here not so much. For example, even renting a condo/apartment in the US requires a credit and security check as standard practice...here...just sign a lease and transfer a depost and you're in. Lots of folks from China and other areas of the world with the means to pay but can't risk using that loot in many places.

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6 hours ago, wolf81 said:

Apart from the land ownership possibility, I think the deal is a bit crappy. Other countries give a permanent citizenship or even passport (valid for life) for this or less money: https://www.goldenvisas.com/country

But that's not true tho. Based on the text in the original article, groups 3-4 definitely have a path to this visa for materially zero outlay. Group 2 might also have a path for zero investment, but the text is less clear. I agree that in general a passport is the gold star, but 10 years for minimal cost is pretty darn good.

 

Adding to that, every country at your Golden Visas link is outside Asia, which is fairly significant.

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As a general statement just reading the negative responses on this thread it's obvious that a lot of the pessimists don't understand how capital and/or talent will evaluate these options, or they are just finding reasons to vocalize that they want the program to fail.

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11 hours ago, The Cipher said:

I closed this thread but reopened it just to say that the more I think about it, the more I think that these visas are a good deal.

 

Groups 2 and 3 especially seem to offer great value. Group 1's not bad either.

 

If you guys genuinely don't think that there will be takers for these, I kinda think you just might not be the target demographic. Based on what's been revealed so far, these are pretty attractive.

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