LTR Visa is Now available for Long Term Residency

[K2938]

1 hour ago, at92uk said:

I meet all the criteria except the nonsense about the public company or company revenue ????

The social media are full of people complaining they were rejected for not meeting this.  So this very much does not appear to be optional.  The only exception from this as per the published terms would be if your employer is publicly listed.  And the triangle next to the audited financials item is not defined as optional, but as "if applicable" which perfectly fits with "unless your employer is publicly listed". 

The LTR Work-from-Thailand visa is not for the typical digital nomad, but only for people working for large established organisations unfortunately. 

Edited December 11, 2022 by K2938

[anotherexpat4444]

MY LTRWFT application status is changed to Qualification Approved

Please upload the remaining documents and update additional information in order to proceed with the visa issuance

 

Can we get e-Visa  for this  ?

[khunjeff]

20 minutes ago, anotherexpat4444 said:

MY LTRWFT application status is changed to Qualification Approved

Please upload the remaining documents and update additional information in order to proceed with the visa issuance

 

Can we get e-Visa  for this  ?

Congratulations! Others in this thread have reported getting an LTR e-visa, so it should be possible if the Thai embassy in your country is part of the e-visa program. 

[khunjeff]

On 12/7/2022 at 1:58 PM, anotherexpat4444 said:

On 12/7/2022 at 11:48 AM, Pib said:

So what changed with your insurance?  Did you buy a new policy over the last few days, self insure, etc.  Before you were saying your application was hung up due to insurance.

I  sent them my 401 k  details before 3 week .  so I called them thinking give it a last try to see if i can get  any alternative choice with my 401 k  . and the officer was so nice she immediately look into the past emails and told that she will check it and work on approving my application

This is interesting, because a friend of mine received a request for insurance info last week, despite having already uploaded it with his initial application. 

 

He submitted a letter explaining further that his group health insurance as a retired US Government employee has unlimited coverage and is valid for life - something that BoI could easily verify with a simple internet search - along with brokerage statements showing over $800k in liquid investments. Almost immediately, they sent back the exact same request, but with the additional sentence "Please note investment account could not considered instead of health insurance document."

[anotherexpat4444]

30 minutes ago, khunjeff said:

Congratulations! Others in this thread have reported getting an LTR e-visa, so it should be possible if the Thai embassy in your country is part of the e-visa program. 

Thank you . my nearest consulate (not very near) is Los Angeles.  but I see on the vissa issuance page . it only shows 2 option

1- overseas Thai embassy or consulate 

2- Thailand.

 

I dont see a e-Visa option here.  any  thoughts

[night_rider]

15 minutes ago, anotherexpat4444 said:

Thank you . my nearest consulate (not very near) is Los Angeles.  but I see on the vissa issuance page . it only shows 2 option

1- overseas Thai embassy or consulate 

2- Thailand.

 

I dont see a e-Visa option here.  any  thoughts

https://www.thaievisa.go.th/

 

Scroll down to Visa Categories and it's the last one listed.

 

[Misty]

3 hours ago, anotherexpat4444 said:

Thank you . my nearest consulate (not very near) is Los Angeles.  but I see on the vissa issuance page . it only shows 2 option

1- overseas Thai embassy or consulate 

2- Thailand.

 

I dont see a e-Visa option here.  any  thoughts

It sounds like you've received the final approval and are on the BoI site now.  Congratulations!

 

Choose 1 - this is the selection for telling the BoI that you wish to receive the visa outside of Thailand. (2 is if you're in Thailand and will go in person to the BoI's Bangkok office.)  If you are in a place where e-visas are issued (such as the US), then it will automatically be an e-visa.  If not, then you would need to apply in person at the consulate.

 

After making this selection, you'll receive the Notification Letter from the BoI addressed to the overseas consulate.  You'll need this letter to apply for the e-visa.  Once you have the Notification Letter, you then go to https://www.thaievisa.go.th/   to start the e-visa application process.

[mudcat]

15 hours ago, khunjeff said:

This is interesting, because a friend of mine received a request for insurance info last week, despite having already uploaded it with his initial application. 

 

He submitted a letter explaining further that his group health insurance as a retired US Government employee has unlimited coverage and is valid for life - something that BoI could easily verify with a simple internet search - along with brokerage statements showing over $800k in liquid investments. Almost immediately, they sent back the exact same request, but with the additional sentence "Please note investment account could not considered instead of health insurance document."

Not seeing the actual application your friend submitted it may be that they selected 'Option 1' which requires health insurance with the 10-month validity 'gotcha' or 'Option 2'  that requires a form of Social Security that includes health care (not sure if anyone has gotten BOI to accept TriCare or the civilian version of Tricare).   

To have one's liquid assets considered (not sure what form their assets take - mine were in U.S. IRAs).  To have the BOI consider assets, one needs to select 'Option 3' and leave 'Option 1' and/or 'Option 2' unselected.

Wealthy-Pensioner p 3.pdf

Edited December 14, 2022 by mudcat
typos

[K2938]

16 hours ago, khunjeff said:

Almost immediately, they sent back the exact same request, but with the additional sentence "Please note investment account could not considered instead of health insurance document."

Earlier on in this thread there was also at least one other person where they accepted investment accounts.  So seems to depend on the mood of the screener. 

But if your screener did not like the investment account, then you could just sell 100k USD of your investments, show them you have 100k USD in cash and done.  So easy to circumvent.  Or you could even take a margin loan for a day which would spare you from having to temporarily sell part of your investments.

[pablo el sueco]

23 minutes ago, K2938 said:

But if your screener did not like the investment account, then you could just sell 100k USD of your investments, show them you have 100k USD in cash and done.

It is my understanding that the 100k must have been on deposit for a year.

[K2938]

37 minutes ago, pablo el sueco said:

It is my understanding that the 100k must have been on deposit for a year.

The number of people who invested 100k or more in cash at least a year ago when the corresponding interest rates in many Western countries where most applicants come from were negative or zero must be extremely limited. 

There seems to be a certain lack of understanding of market realities by whoever defined these criteria. 

So one can only hope that in view of the hugely underwhelming demand for this visa, the BOI changes this.  Maybe the people who were approved based on investments also benefited from this.

Edited December 14, 2022 by K2938

[Pib]

Yea....it seems it's a roll of the dice if BoI will accept financial investment/IRA/401K type accounts....or maybe they did initially for early application but no longer do.  

 

The BoI requirement says it needs to be money in a bank acct of no less than 12 months which means plusing-up an acct for a short term, say a few days or months, may not work.  Nor may it work if the name of an account is obviously an investment acct vs a bank acct even if a person can covert stocks/shares to immediately withdrawal cash in seconds.    

 

 

 

BoI Health Insurance Requirement

[anotherexpat4444]

14 hours ago, Misty said:

It sounds like you've received the final approval and are on the BoI site now.  Congratulations!

 

Choose 1 - this is the selection for telling the BoI that you wish to receive the visa outside of Thailand. (2 is if you're in Thailand and will go in person to the BoI's Bangkok office.)  If you are in a place where e-visas are issued (such as the US), then it will automatically be an e-visa.  If not, then you would need to apply in person at the consulate.

 

After making this selection, you'll receive the Notification Letter from the BoI addressed to the overseas consulate.  You'll need this letter to apply for the e-visa.  Once you have the Notification Letter, you then go to https://www.thaievisa.go.th/   to start the e-visa application process.

applied for evisa . made the payment 1600$ . 

Now how long does it normally it take to get the actual eVisa .   Hoping to travel before christmas holiday starts .. 

[Pib]

1 hour ago, K2938 said:

So one can only hope that in view of the hugely underwhelming demand for this visa, the BOI changes this.  Maybe the people who were approved based on investments also benefited from this.

Based on the govt's target of 1 million approved applications over 5 years (which is 200K applications per year or 16.7K per month)  in comparison to the actual number of applications being received (apparently less than 2K in approx 3 months with maybe only 25% being approved) even the "hugely underwhelming" description does not seem to accurately describe how not-popular this new visa has been so far.   Even "....attracted a rather measly amount of applications..." from a very recent news article (at bottom) seems to fall short.

 

The govt is definitely going to have to make changes, add flexibility, etc., if they want this new visa to take off versus just very slowly taxing around on the runway right now.  But I really don't see any significant requirement changes occurring soon due to "save face" thinking and an upcoming election early next year.  

 

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/visa/thailands-10-year-ltr-visa-most-popular-among-americans-and-chinese

Quote

 

In three months, the LTR visa has attracted a rather measly amount of applications…

 

“Since the launch on September 1, up until the present, over 1,600 applicants have submitted applications,” said Narit during an interview in Tokyo, Japan, this week.

 

 

[K2938]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Based on the govt's target of 1 million approved applications over 5 years (which is 200K applications per year or 16.7K per month)  in comparison to the actual number of applications being received (apparently less than 2K in approx 3 months with maybe only 25% being approved) even the "hugely underwhelming" description does not seem to accurately describe how not-popular this new visa has been so far.   Even "....attracted a rather measly amount of applications..." from a very recent news article (at bottom) seems to fall short.

... and just imagine what would have happened to the processing speed of applications which already now is very far below the promised 20 business days if the expected application rate had materialised

Edited December 14, 2022 by K2938

[Misty]

7 hours ago, anotherexpat4444 said:

applied for evisa . made the payment 1600$ . 

Now how long does it normally it take to get the actual eVisa .   Hoping to travel before christmas holiday starts .. 

Unfortunately not sure we have many data points yet.  For me, the NY consulate said up to "15 working days" via FB message, but then they ended up approving and emailing it the same day I made the LTR e-visa application. 

 

Maybe shoot LA consulate a FB message and let them know you've applied.  Ask if they might be able to approve in time for holiday travel.

[ThailandRyan]

So checking my screen again to see what has changed as far as the status goes it now says Return Pre-approved....what exactly are they indicating.  I still can not add my dependent using another application as it keeps giving me a pop up.  I am in BKK now and will head over to BOI in the morning to see what is going on.  I already have my LTRWP visa and my status screen should show completed.  Whatever the glitch is is will not let me create the second account.  Weird.

 

 

 

 

Going back into my application I have 4 new document request notifications, for which I do not need and did not apply for a work permit

 

 

These just appeared today on my app on the 4th and final page for uploading documents. As you all know I received my actual LTR visa and was stamped into the country on October 7th.

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by ThailandRyan

[Pib]

8 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

So checking my screen again to see what has changed as far as the status goes it now says Return Pre-approved....what exactly are the indicating.  I still can not add my dependent using another application as it keeps giving me a pop up.  I am in BKK now and will head over to BOI in the morning to see what is going on.  I already have my LTRWP visa and my status screen should show completed.  Whatever the glitch is is will not let me create the second account.  Weird.

 

 

 

 

Going back into my application I have 3 new notifications, of which I do not and did not apply for a work permit

 

 

These just appeared today on my app on the 4th and final page for uploading documents.

 

I started seeing those red text notifications/links o/a 8-10 Dec when apparently BoI did another software update which is also when those folks who were showing "Pending" status started showing "Consideration by Govt Agencies."  Basically a "renaming" of status.  My application is still under consideration just like it been for 1.5 months. 

 

Expect what you are seeing is all part of that recent software update and we are all noticing these changes at different times depending on how often a person looks and/or how thoroughly the person looks at the various screens associated with a person's application.

 

 

 

[ThailandRyan]

13 minutes ago, Pib said:

I started seeing those red text notifications/links o/a 8-10 Dec when apparently BoI did another software update which is also when those folks who were showing "Pending" status started showing "Consideration by Govt Agencies."  Basically a "renaming" of status.  My application is still under consideration just like it been for 1.5 months. 

 

Expect what you are seeing is all part of that recent software update and we are all noticing these changes at different times depending on how often a person looks and/or how thoroughly the person looks at the various screens associated with a person's application.

 

 

 

My concern is that the program may see my application as still not being completed and until it is the system will not allow me to add my dependent.  All of the previous 2 screens, obviously not Step1, will not let me add any information or delete anything. This box was checked "No" at first and I declined a work permit, Now its marked "Yes" so I wonder if that is the glitch and will take a programmer to release my application so it can be adjusted.

 

[Pib]

36 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

My concern is that the program may see my application as still not being completed and until it is the system will not allow me to add my dependent.  

I expect this is indeed the problem.  And visiting BoI is the only way to get it resolved anytime soon.

[Misty]

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

So checking my screen again to see what has changed as far as the status goes it now says Return Pre-approved....what exactly are they indicating.  I still can not add my dependent using another application as it keeps giving me a pop up.  I am in BKK now and will head over to BOI in the morning to see what is going on.  I already have my LTRWP visa and my status screen should show completed.  Whatever the glitch is is will not let me create the second account.  Weird.

 

 

 

 

Going back into my application I have 4 new document request notifications, for which I do not need and did not apply for a work permit

 

 

These just appeared today on my app on the 4th and final page for uploading documents. As you all know I received my actual LTR visa and was stamped into the country on October 7th.

 

Not sure what is happening with your account in the above screens, but in terms of getting an LTR-O visa for your dependent, have you already started a brand new, separate account for them?  You'd be creating an entirely different login and LTR-O application.  It would not be inside your account. 

[ThailandRyan]

Just now, Misty said:

Not sure what is happening with your account in the above screens, but in terms of getting an LTR-O visa for your dependent, have you already started a brand new, separate account for them?  You'd be creating an entirely different login and LTR-O application.  It would not be inside your account. 

I created the account but when I list my LTRWP number it gives me the pop up I showed above....

[Misty]

22 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

I created the account but when I list my LTRWP number it gives me the pop up I showed above....

Okay, it's just that the pop-up looks like the Visa Type in the screenshot is for "Wealthy Pensioner" , not the Visa Type "Application For Qualification Endorsement For Dependent"  .  Not sure what's going on there, but hopefully the BoI can help you out.

[anotherexpat4444]

6 hours ago, Misty said:

Unfortunately not sure we have many data points yet.  For me, the NY consulate said up to "15 working days" via FB message, but then they ended up approving and emailing it the same day I made the LTR e-visa application. 

 

Maybe shoot LA consulate a FB message and let them know you've applied.  Ask if they might be able to approve in time for holiday travel.

I sent them an email with exactly as you suggested .  Thank you as always 

[pepper402]

Just wanted to provide another status update: 

 

Sept 01 - Submitted application with all required documents including insurance information

Sept 27 - Received approval for LTR  (there were several requests for additional documents.  I mostly just re-uploaded the same documents)

Oct  20 - Received new Passport and tried (unsuccessfully) to delete old passport and upload new one.  

Oct 21 -  Had a friend in Thailand call BOI to ask them to change the passport number on my approval letter.   BOI agent said that due to technical difficulties, they couldn't do that and suggested I submit a new application

Oct 22 - Submitted new application with exact same documents that were previously approved and new Passport information. 

Nov 27 - Still waiting...  Status shows pending.  Sent four emails explaining situation and my friend called them to expedite.  BOI agent said that he will get right on this and it should be approved ASAP.

Dec 14 - Still waiting...  Status shows Consideration by Government agencies (whatever that means). 

 

[Pib]

I called BoI today regarding the status of my application and asked what "Consideration by Govt Agencies" status meant as before it showed "Pending" until the BoI apparently did a software update last weekend.  The rep said "Consideration by Govt Agencies" just means BoI as a govt agency is still reviewing the application.   So, it appears "Consideration by Govt Agencies" status just replaced "Pending."   Different wording but still means the same.

  

[Pib]

6 hours ago, pepper402 said:

Nov 27 - Still waiting...  Status shows pending.  Sent four emails explaining situation and my friend called them to expedite.  BOI agent said that he will get right on this and it should be approved ASAP.

Dec 14 - Still waiting...  Status shows Consideration by Government agencies (whatever that means). 

 

Don't feel like you are alone in being told things like "...he will get right on it and it should be approved ASAP." 

 

Over the last three weeks or so I been told similar things like "your application will get looked at within 2 days, my staff will process your application today, your application will be looked at very soon, etc."  The BoI folks are always nice and polite on the phone but unfortunately processing of applications since around early October appear to have slowed down greatly for whatever reasons.   Seems folks who applied in early/mid September got priority treatment maybe because the BoI was better staffed to handle LTR applications at that time, maybe IT system problems has really bogged down their application processing capability, etc....I don't know....just appears applications are taking much longer now to reach either an answer of,  "sorry, you do not meet requirements" OR "congrats you have been approved."

[Boomer6969]

22 minutes ago, Pib said:

Don't feel like you are alone in being told things like "...he will get right on it and it should be approved ASAP." 

 

Over the last three weeks or so I been told similar things like "your application will get looked at within 2 days, my staff will process your application today, your application will be looked at very soon, etc."  The BoI folks are always nice and polite on the phone but unfortunately processing of applications since around early October appear to have slowed down greatly for whatever reasons.   Seems folks who applied in early/mid September got priority treatment maybe because the BoI was better staffed to handle LTR applications at that time, maybe IT system problems has really bogged down their application processing capability, etc....I don't know....just appears applications are taking much longer now to reach either an answer of,  "sorry, you do not meet requirements" OR "congrats you have been approved."

Maybe something like 737 MAX syndrome. Worrying for those who have already gotten their visas. I'd wait another 6 months at least and get a Non O, or new extension if I was in the queue right now. Could save you a bit of money.

[Pib]

3 hours ago, Boomer6969 said:

Maybe something like 737 MAX syndrome. Worrying for those who have already gotten their visas. I'd wait another 6 months at least and get a Non O, or new extension if I was in the queue right now. Could save you a bit of money.

Well, I've been doing annual retirement/marriage extensions for almost a decade and a half now.   Based on the speed my LTR application is crawling thru the process looks like I'll be continuing these annual extensions.   I'm sure others are in a similar situation.   Just a shame the LTR application process has gotten slow.   Seems many applications submitted up until early-mid Oct moved thru the process within 3-6 weeks....but now it's taking significantly longer.    Will just have to wait and see what happens....still time for a Christmas surprise but I'm not holding my breath.

[Paul3456]

I picked up my LTRWP Visa in Bangkok yesterday.  My timeline:

 

November 12 - Applied for Visa

November 30 - Notified of approval

December 7 - Made appointment for December 14

December 14 - Travelled from Hua Hin to Bangkok and obtained Visa.

 

I was surprised at how fast this went, but to clarify some things, my application was pretty straightforward.  I am American.  My income was a mix of two pensions, Social Security, and farmland that is cash rented.  I also used a cash position in a high yield savings account at a bank in lieu of a health insurance policy.

 

So, I think it was easy for the analyst at BOI to verify everything, thus the reason for the speedy approval.

 

I did ask about the annual reporting that has to be done and I wouldn't be optimistic that anything will change, thus a annual trip to Bangkok will be necessary if you don't leave the country during the year.