LTR Visa is Now available for Long Term Residency

[Pib]

1 minute ago, stat said:

 

This info is however not (yet) reflected on the website.

 

So what would be the new requirement, 1M USD for wealthy pensioner?

No changes for the Wealthy Pensioner category.  Just the WGC, WFTP, and Dependent LTR visa categories are affected.

 

 

 

[stat]

6 minutes ago, Pib said:

No changes for the Wealthy Pensioner category.  Just the WGC, WFTP, and Dependent LTR visa categories are affected.

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply! For the WGC the website also still states 80K USD yearly income for 2 years.

 

On the WP category it now explicitly states 80K realised cap gains/dividends etc is acceptable which is great.

[Pib]

See the BOI Press Release

https://www.boi.go.th/index.php?page=press_releases_detail&topic_id=136393&_module=news&from_page=press_releases2

 

The Cabinet has given the green light to BOI to adjust the special visa criteria, LTR Visa, to accelerate the attraction of high-quality personnel and world-class investors to Thailand, and to unlock and facilitate foreigners who want to work and reside in the long term, elevating Thailand to the global talent hub after more than 6,000 foreigners, led by European, American, and Japanese groups, are interested in applying for LTR Visa continuously.

 

Mr. Narit Therdsteerasakdi, Secretary-General of the Board of Investment (BOI), revealed that on January 13, 2025, the Cabinet approved the amendment of the criteria for the special visa, Long-Term Resident Visa or LTR Visa, which is one of the country's important measures to attract high-potential foreign personnel to Thailand. This is in line with the global investment relocation trend due to geopolitical issues that are expected to intensify, coupled with more open business opportunities in various regions, resulting in the relocation of foreign personnel for work and long-term residence. Thailand is considered one of the important destinations for investors and high-quality personnel from around the world. Attracting personnel in this group is an opportunity to support the growth of the business sector, generate foreign spending money to be distributed to various sectors, transfer technology and knowledge, increase the country's competitiveness, and elevate Thailand to a global talent hub.

 

LTR Visa is a special visa that the government has assigned the BOI to be the main responsible for, in order to attract 4 groups of high-potential foreigners to Thailand : 1) Highly Skilled Professionals 2) Work-from-Thailand Professionals 3) Wealthy Global Citizens 4) Wealthy Pensioners and their dependents. They will be able to stay in Thailand for 10 years with no limit on the number of times they can enter and leave the country. They will also be allowed to work, with a personal income tax rate reduced to 17 percent for highly skilled professionals, and they will also be allowed to report to the Immigration Bureau from the usual 90 days to once a year.

 

This amendment to the LTR Visa criteria is the result of discussions with the Foreign Chamber of Commerce and has been approved by the Committee on Economic and Investment Stimulus Measures by Attracting High-Potential Foreigners to Thailand (NCSOM), chaired by Mr. Pichai Chunhavajira, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, before being presented to the Cabinet. The main points are as follows:

 

1) Expand the scope of target industries for groups of skilled professionals to include lecturers in higher education and vocational institutions in various fields to help improve the capabilities of Thai personnel.

 

2) Eliminate requirements on work experience for groups of highly skilled professionals and experts working from Thailand for employers abroad to reduce duplication with other qualifications that already well reflect the knowledge, skills and potential of both types of foreigners, such as minimum income, educational qualifications, work in target industries, and stability of employers abroad, in order to increase the attractiveness of the measure and be able to reach a larger group of talent.

 

3) Easing the income requirement for overseas employers of experts working in Thailand from the original minimum of US$150 million to US$50 million over the past three years, and including subsidiaries in which a parent company with a minimum income of not less than US$50 million holds all of its shares, in order to access highly skilled employees from both large multinationals and growing companies, most of whom are experts in digital technology, which Thailand still lacks.

 

4) Abolish the income requirement for the high-wealth group from the original personal income limit of 80,000 USD per year. Instead, the importance will be placed on the stable assets and long-term investment in Thailand (not less than 500,000 USD) of this group of foreigners rather than considering their annual income, which is in line with the goal of promoting more investment in the country.

 

5) Expand the rights for dependents from the original limit of only spouses and legitimate children to cover parents and dependents without limiting the number of dependents, similar to many other types of visas, to help increase the attractiveness of the measure for foreigners who want their families to reside in Thailand together and also help stimulate spending in the country of foreign family members.

 

Currently, BOI has approved LTR Visa for more than 6,000 high-potential foreign personnel from around the world, with the largest group being Europe (2,500 people), followed by the United States (1,080 people), Japan (610 people), China (340 people) and India (280 people), respectively.

More Informations
PR7_2568TH.pdf(Download)
PR8_2568EN.pdf(Download)
 

[JohnnyBD]

9 hours ago, stat said:

On the WP category it now explicitly states 80K realised cap gains/dividends etc is acceptable which is great.

Good news. It was in red below the list of requirements.

Retirees aged 50 years and older who have an annual pension or stable passive income

• Minimum unearned or passive income* of USD 80,000 / year at the time of application (Note that earned income and salaries WILL NOT be considered for the personal income requirement for wealthy pensioners

• In the case that unearned or passive income is lower than USD 80,000 but not lower than USD 40000, the applicant is required to make additional investments of USD 250,000 combined in Thai government bonds OR direct investment in companies registered in Thailand OR Thai property

• Insured under a health insurance covering a minimum of USD 50,000 OR currently receiving social security benefits in Thailand OR deposit and maintain at least USD 100,000 in bank account balance under the applicant’s name for no less than 12 months

• * unearned or passive income includes, but are not limited to pension, rental, realized capital gain, dividend, and interest payments

[BrandonJT]

10 hours ago, stat said:

Thanks for this great information!

 

This info is however not (yet) reflected on the website.

 

So what would be the new requirement, 1M USD for wealthy pensioner?

 

https://ltr.boi.go.th/

 

I was hoping for the 80K nonsense to be cut a long time ago. 1 M USD should be sufficient to cover all expenses for 5 years in Thailand 😉. They just demand 800K per year for the extension of stay so 1M USD should be enough.

 

Thanks again!

The 1 million in assets and the 500k investment in Thailand remain as requirements while the yearly income requirement is gone.

[Pib]

As FYI, the BOI LTR Office currently on the 18th floor of  the Chamchuri Square building will be part of below larger BOI organizational relocation to the 6th & 7th floors of the One Bangkok Building on Rama IV  which is a couple of kilometers away.  I asked a BOI LTR rep about this and the answer was Yes, they are part of the move but have not announced it on the BOI LTR website yet...it's just on the Headquarters BOI website.   Below snapshot/weblink is from the Headquarters BOI website and not the BOI LTR website. 

 

But I'm not sure about the Chamchuri Square Immigration Office which is currently on the same floor as the current BOI LTR office....sometimes people refer to the Chamchuri Sq Immigration Office as the BOI Immigration Office.    The Chamchuri Sq immigration as far as I know  is organizationally aligned under the Immigration Dept and not BOI.  

 

Time will tell as more details come out on the relocation/move. 

 

 

https://www.boi.go.th/en/index/

 

[Ben Zioner]

29 minutes ago, Pib said:

But I'm not sure about the Chamchuri Square Immigration Office which is currently on the same floor as the current BOI LTR office....s

I says "and One Stop Service Center and Work Permit (OSS)", it would therefore become TSS if immigration wasn't to follow... Unless they count stops like abbos count cattle: "one, two, many..", T.I.T.

[Pib]

I'm not sure if @JohnnyBD is saying/implying is saying in his quoted post below there has a been a change in LTR WP  "income requirements regarding cap gains" based on the very recent HQ BOI announcement about the hopefully soon to occur and Cabinet approved changes to the WGC, WFTP, and Dependent LTR visa categories.  

 

But where JohnnyBD provides a current snapshot/quote from the BOI LTR website regarding the "red text" talking cap gains for the WP category is really no different than what has been on the BOI LTR website for a long time....at least going back to mid 2024 where it also mentioned cag gains in red text. 

 

The 1st snapshot below taken from the BOI LTR website 31 May 2024 talks what kind of income is acceptable to meet the LTR WP visa category....it shows "cap gains" even back then.   However, since then the red text about cap gains was actually toughened-up a little to specify it must the "realized" cap gains vs just saying cap gains which a person could say that means even "unrealized" cap gains (a.k.a., gains on paper only which are unrealized...gains a person has never really realized by selling to actually realize the cap gains...gains that typically become taxable....get the gains sent to his bank account or maybe immediately reinvested like a lot of people do with mutual funds each year).    See 1st snapshot at bottom.

 

Additionally, when looking at the WP Required Docs "Income Evidence" checklist currently posted on the BOI LTR website as of 21 Jun 2025 it still the same checklist from 24 May 2024.  See 2nd snapshot for more details.

 

Summary: I don't see any changes to the WP category as maybe JohnnyDB is implying.   @JohnnyBD, if you were not implying such then please accept my apologies.  Cheers.

 

11 hours ago, stat said:

Thanks for your reply! For the WGC the website also still states 80K USD yearly income for 2 years.

 

On the WP category it now explicitly states 80K realised cap gains/dividends etc is acceptable which is great.

 

2 hours ago, JohnnyBD said:

Good news. It was in red below the list of requirements.

Retirees aged 50 years and older who have an annual pension or stable passive income

• Minimum unearned or passive income* of USD 80,000 / year at the time of application (Note that earned income and salaries WILL NOT be considered for the personal income requirement for wealthy pensioners

• In the case that unearned or passive income is lower than USD 80,000 but not lower than USD 40000, the applicant is required to make additional investments of USD 250,000 combined in Thai government bonds OR direct investment in companies registered in Thailand OR Thai property

• Insured under a health insurance covering a minimum of USD 50,000 OR currently receiving social security benefits in Thailand OR deposit and maintain at least USD 100,000 in bank account balance under the applicant’s name for no less than 12 months

• * unearned or passive income includes, but are not limited to pension, rental, realized capital gain, dividend, and interest payments

 

 

1st Snapshot...a snapshot from the BOI LTR website "31 May 2024" talking what kind of income is acceptable to meet the LTR WP visa category....it shows "cap gains" even then.   However, since then the red text about cap gains was actually toughened- up a little to specify it must the "realized" cap gains vs just saying cap gains which a person could say means even "unrealized" cap gains (a.k.a., gains on paper only...a person has never been realized by selling to actually realize the cap gains).   

 

 

 

2nd Snapshot from BOI LTR website 21 Jan 2025 regarding evidence of income for a LTR WP visa.  This is a snapshot of the BOI LTR document dated 24 May 2024 which is still currently used as of 21 June 2025. Heck, it don't even mention cap gains, realized or unrealized....but actually "realize cap gains are accepted.

 

 

 

[Pib]

15 minutes ago, Ben Zioner said:

I says "and One Stop Service Center and Work Permit (OSS)", it would therefore become TSS if immigration wasn't to follow... Unless they count stops like abbos count cattle: "one, two, many..", T.I.T.

Yea...I would agree as I saw that in the BOI announcements that implied to me at least at a minimum a part of the Chamchuri Sq Immigration Office should be collocated with the BOI one stop center.  It sure wouldn't be too convenient if a person really had to bounce between two building kilometers apart to accomplish certain tasks/get certain paperwork related to a person's BOI related visa.

 

But hey, the Chaeng Wattana (CW) Immigration split its operations between buildings kilometers apart for a year or two years but I realized that was driven by the COVID pandemic.   I guess all of CW Immigration are back into just the main CW building now, but don't really know or track such after I got my LTR visa issued 2 years ago and since then have only used the Chamchuri Sq Immigration Office to do my 1 year address reporting, getting Residence Certificates to renew my drivers license, buy a car, etc.  

[Pib]

53 minutes ago, Pib said:

Additionally, when looking at the WP Required Docs "Income Evidence" checklist currently posted on the BOI LTR website as of 21 Jun 2025 it still the same checklist from 24 May 2024.  See 2nd snapshot for more details.

 

 

Whoops...typo...too late to edit original post....I meant 21 "Jan" 2025; not 21 Jun 2025....

[Pib]

And regarding one other piece of  important red text regarding "maintaining" your LTR visa is ensuring you "continue" to meet the requirements thru the visa period.  See BOI LTR snapshot below. 

 

An applicant maybe shouldn't try to "short term peak" his LTR income for  a year or two just before applying for an LTR visa while "knowingly he can not maintain" the required level of income and other LTR requirements after the LTR visa is approved/issued. 

 

Maybe kinda like doing some large cap gain sale for a year or two just before applying for an LTR visa in order to meet the LTR income documentation requirements while knowingly can not maintain anything close to those couple of big sales in ensuring years; therefore, knowingly not being able to maintain the LTR requirements after it was issued.

 

Now when it comes time for the  LTR visa "mid-term" renewal/revalidation/whatever you want to call it., that is, time to get the 2nd 5 year period of stay issued for the 10 year LTR visa how and even if BOI will require documents to prove you "maintained" requirement throughout the 1st 5 year period is really unknown at this time.  Hopefully, they will just look at the previous one or two years just like when initially applying....basically be a streamlined repeat of when initially applying and of course with no fee since you already paid for the entire 10 year visa when first approved.   

 

But we probably won't know for sure what the mid-term review requirements will be until around mid 2027 just before the very first LTR visas were issued in Sep 2022 and are due their 2nd 5 year (mid term) issue period.    Time will tell.

 

 

[oldcpu]

18 minutes ago, Pib said:

And regarding one other piece of  important red text regarding "maintaining" your LTR visa is ensuring you "continue" to meet the requirements thru the visa period.  See BOI LTR snapshot below. 

 

An applicant maybe shouldn't try to "short term peak" his LTR income for  a year or two just before applying for an LTR visa while "knowingly he can not maintain" the required level of income and other LTR requirements after the LTR visa is approved/issued. 

 

Maybe kinda like doing some large cap gain sale for a year or two just before applying for an LTR visa in order to meet the LTR income documentation requirements while knowingly can not maintain anything close to those couple of big sales in ensuring years; therefore, knowingly not being able to maintain the LTR requirements after it was issued.

 

Now when it comes time for the  LTR visa "mid-term" renewal/revalidation/whatever you want to call it., that is, time to get the 2nd 5 year period of stay issued for the 10 year LTR visa how and even if BOI will require documents to prove you "maintained" requirement throughout the 1st 5 year period is really unknown at this time.  Hopefully, they will just look at the previous one or two years just like when initially applying....basically be a streamlined repeat of when initially applying and of course with no fee since you already paid for the entire 10 year visa when first approved.   

 

But we probably won't know for sure what the mid-term review requirements will be until around mid 2027 just before the very first LTR visas were issued in Sep 2022 and are due their 2nd 5 year (mid term) issue period.    Time will tell.

 

 

 

I qualified for the LTR-WP via the $40k US equiv income per year + $250k US equiv invest in Thailand.  To meet the $250k US equiv I needed about another 1.5-million THB of investment, so I purchased a 2-million THB , 7-year Thai government bond.

 

My plan for year 2028 on the LTR-WP, when I have to renew,  is to switch to the $80k US equiv income from the $40k US equiv income (and sell or let expire my 7 year Thai government bonds), and I am setting up (restructuring a bit) my finances to 'just' meet that income level (and not exceed by very much).  If I exceed the $80k US equiv income by even a bit too much I get hammered by Canadian taxes. 

 

However given changing exchange rates (between Cdn$ and US$), there is always a chance I miscalculate when restructuring and fall a bit short of the $80k US$ annual income.  So as I backup I also plan to have in reserve easily accessable funds to  buy another 2-million THB in Thai government bonds in case I miscalculate on the income amount prepared.

 

So in my case, I plan to do some financial restructuring in preparation for year 2028 for my LTR-WP renewal.

 

I also hope to switch to using my foreign (Cigna) European health insurance instead of keeping $100k US$ equivalent in a bank for self-health insurance (where for BoI at present I am using the self-health insurance route). 

 

I wish one of those who obtained a letter from their health insurance company, claiming they met the appropriate health insurance requirement (for the LTR visa) that they would post the EXACT WORDING of said letter (with any private aspects blocked/whited out). 

 

Thus far no one has done such - but rather only provided some rather vague descriptions of purported said health insurance letter's contents.

 

.

 

[JohnnyBD]

2 hours ago, Pib said:

I'm not sure if @JohnnyBD is saying/implying is saying in his quoted post below there has a been a change in LTR WP  "income requirements regarding cap gains" based on the very recent HQ BOI announcement about the hopefully soon to occur and Cabinet approved changes to the WGC, WFTP, and Dependent LTR visa categories.  

 

But where JohnnyBD provides a current snapshot/quote from the BOI LTR website regarding the "red text" talking cap gains for the WP category is really no different than what has been on the BOI LTR website for a long time....at least going back to mid 2024 where it also mentioned cag gains in red text. 

 

The 1st snapshot below taken from the BOI LTR website 31 May 2024 talks what kind of income is acceptable to meet the LTR WP visa category....it shows "cap gains" even back then.   However, since then the red text about cap gains was actually toughened-up a little to specify it must the "realized" cap gains vs just saying cap gains which a person could say that means even "unrealized" cap gains (a.k.a., gains on paper only which are unrealized...gains a person has never really realized by selling to actually realize the cap gains...gains that typically become taxable....get the gains sent to his bank account or maybe immediately reinvested like a lot of people do with mutual funds each year).    See 1st snapshot at bottom.

 

Additionally, when looking at the WP Required Docs "Income Evidence" checklist currently posted on the BOI LTR website as of 21 Jun 2025 it still the same checklist from 24 May 2024.  See 2nd snapshot for more details.

 

Summary: I don't see any changes to the WP category as maybe JohnnyDB is implying.   @JohnnyBD, if you were not implying such then please accept my apologies.  Cheers.

 

 

 

 

1st Snapshot...a snapshot from the BOI LTR website "31 May 2024" talking what kind of income is acceptable to meet the LTR WP visa category....it shows "cap gains" even then.   However, since then the red text about cap gains was actually toughened- up a little to specify it must the "realized" cap gains vs just saying cap gains which a person could say means even "unrealized" cap gains (a.k.a., gains on paper only...a person has never been realized by selling to actually realize the cap gains).   

 

 

 

2nd Snapshot from BOI LTR website 21 Jan 2025 regarding evidence of income for a LTR WP visa.  This is a snapshot of the BOI LTR document dated 24 May 2024 which is still currently used as of 21 June 2025. Heck, it don't even mention cap gains, realized or unrealized....but actually "realize cap gains are accepted.

 

 

 

I just meant it was good news for Mr. Stat, since he didn't realize he could use realized capital gains, dividends & interest to qualify. I qualified with my pension income only. I didn't need to use my other income streams. I think it may be difficult to convince BOI that realized cap gains are stable passive income.

[Pib]

16 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

 I think it may be difficult to convince BOI that realized cap gains are stable passive income.

Yea....agree.  I expect BOI would look at how much the cap gain was and if they thought it was not a fairly steady annual amount, just a "one time" BIG amount cap gain, etc., I expect they might ask for additional income proof/docs covering a longer period.

 

But hey, who really knows how BOi fully evaluates cap gain income as I expect they keep that internal procedure close-hold.

 

Bu I do feel BOI is fair "and flexible" for many applicants.