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LTR Visa is Now available for Long Term Residency


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1 hour ago, Ben Zioner said:

Got it a  while  ago, pensioner.  

Ben, what month did you obtain the Visa? Pib has been trying to keep track of those folks and how long it took from application to approval.

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1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

Ben, what month did you obtain the Visa? Pib has been trying to keep track of those folks and how long it took from application to approval.

I didn't want the info for tracking purposes....I stopped updating that list.   If Ben had got the visa "recently" like over the last month or two I was interested in how long it took....see if BoI is getting faster in processing applications compared to 2022.  

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4 hours ago, Pib said:

@Misty

 Curiosity questions:

 

Were you issued a "5" year work permit simply because that's the standard/maximum length of a work permit under a LTR visa?   

 

Could a person ask for the work permit to be issued say only be for 1 or 2 years (i.e.., just something less than 5 years?   And if say a 1 year permit is requested then does than mean the fee is only Bt3K?  

 

Or maybe the length of the work permit is determined by the employment/employer paperwork submitted which might show planned employment length?

 

And do you have to do any "annual" report/filing related to your LTR work permit?

 

And no, I not planning on working/asking for a work permit under my LTR-P visa, I'm just curious as to if 5 year permit is the standard length issued for an LTR visa, if a shorter length is also available and a shorter length would cost less, maybe the info would be helpful to others wanting to get the work permit with their LTR visa, etc.   Just curious....hoping maybe you know off the top of your head....plus I'm too lazy to send these questions to BoI.????

 

Hi Pib, if there's a term work contract, then the work permit is issued for the term of the contract.  So it could be for 1 year, 2 years, etc.  And the price of the work permit is Bt3,000 per years the work permit is good for.

 

I own the company so have an indefinite time frame. Therefore I received the maximum allowable time period or 5 years.

 

There's no annual report filing specific to the work permit that I'm aware of, other than standard income tax filing.

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On 6/24/2023 at 6:02 PM, oldcpu said:

Thanks for that image of the entry/exit stamps.

 

My understanding is on an LTR visa, each time one re-enters Thailand their date for an annual report is restarted, starting from the date of their re-entry ... so based on that image,  if you were still in Thailand, you wouldn't need to do an annual report until 15-April-2024.

 

But I note you left Thailand on 15-June-2023 with no corresponding (yet) re-entry stamp. That has me puzzling a bit - are you then required to enter Thailand again by 15-April-2024 to do an annual report  (or possibly enter Thailand again by 15-June-2024  to do an annual report ?  )

 

I assume not (as I assume one does not have to live in Thailand to keep the LTR visa) , but I am curious to confirm my assumption is correct.

I really have zero idea, I just show up and leave. I did think you only need to report once you are in the country continually for a year as when you land you fill in the tm30.. Not sure tho

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Recent discussions raise one question in my mind that no one has yet encountered, and may not even have been considered by the BOI. What happens if you want to be outside Thailand at the end of the initial five-year period? Can you deal with all the paperwork and other requirements remotely without needing to be present in the country?

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22 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Recent discussions raise one question in my mind that no one has yet encountered, and may not even have been considered by the BOI. What happens if you want to be outside Thailand at the end of the initial five-year period? Can you deal with all the paperwork and other requirements remotely without needing to be present in the country?

It's an interesting question.  Not sure if this is an indication of the possible answer, but I dealt with all the paperwork and other LTR visa requirements remotely without being in the country for the initial application.  And the LTR visa itself has a 10 year date on it.

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Regarding what happens in 5 years I am saving tax forms and insurance certificates for the first 5 years with the expectation that they may ask whether I met the initial terms throughout the first 5 years. When I applied in Oct I only needed to supply my most recent tax return. My understanding is that applicants now have to supply the 2 previous year tax returns. In 5 years will they ask for the previous 5 years tax returns? I remember asking them if they will check whether I have insurance and they said no at the time but will they check to see if I maintained my insurance? I don't have to worry about my pension income. That won't change.

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On 6/26/2023 at 9:53 AM, Pib said:

Yeap, I expect it works just like the multiyear BoI SMART visa which has 1 year reporting.

That reference to SMART Visa reporting that Pib posted had reporting restricted to in-person (or by someone you designate) at OSS Center, Bangkok. But if you do a little more research on that SMART link, you'll see that you can also report by registered mail. This is probably the route they'll follow for LTR reporting -- and since I used to do all my 90 day reporting by mail, this certainly is no hassle, particularly if it's only required once a year -- a situation for us non-travelers.

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27 minutes ago, Ben Zioner said:

Got this today from friendly BOI (ignore if redundant):

 

LTR Visa holders staying in Thailand for a period longer than 1 year consecutively are required to report the current address to the Immigration at One Stop Service Center for Visa and Work Permit (OSS) either in person, or by authorizing someone to report for you on your behalf. This report must be done on a yearly basis counting from LTR Visa issuance date (15 days before or 7 days after the date specified on 1-year report notification card). However, in the case of re-entering the Kingdom, the report will be due in 1 year from the date of the latest arrival.

 

The documents required to be submitted to the immigration are as follows.

- TM.91 Form (completely filled out and signed) (Download here: https://smart-visa.boi.go.th/smart/document/related/คำสั่งสำนักงานตรวจคนเข้าเมือง_ที่_234-2561_ปรับปรงุแนวทางปฏิบัติ_smart_visa.pdf

- Passport

- T.M. 6 Card (arrival/departure card)

- 1-Year report notification card (if any)

- T.M. 61 Form (For authorized person reporting on behalf of LTR visa holder who lives in Bangkok) (Download here: https://smart-visa.boi.go.th/smart/document/related/Report_of_residence_TM61.pdf

 

*T.M. 61 Form (For authorized person reporting on behalf of smart visa holder who lives in Bangkok)

BOI is basically quoting from paragraph 4.1 of below BoI SMART visa webpage.   But there is also an alternate method which is the "report by mail option" also spelled out in paragraph 4.1 just below where they talk reporting in person/authorized rep.

 

https://smart-visa.boi.go.th/smart/pages/how-to-manage.html

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On 6/24/2023 at 4:45 PM, TerraplaneGuy said:

Very helpful report, thanks.  Two questions about the bonds:  Do they have to have a term of at least 5 years?  And roughly what interest rate were you able to get (I'm seeing a 5-year Thai rate of 2.35% online this week, compared to around 4% for U.S. treasuries - is that about right?)

Further to this ...

 

An update on a bit about the Thai Government bonds and one's Thai tax number (in case any are interested). 

 

Recall I purchased 2-million Thai Baht worth of Thai government bonds as part of my $250K US$ equivalent investment in Thailand, to successfully obtain the 10-year LTR Wealthy Pensioner visa.  

 

Tax ID number:

 

When applying to purchase the bond, Bangkok Bank requested my Thailand tax ID number, where I had no such number.  So I gave Bangkok Bank my "pink ID card" number which they entered in the tax field.  The bond purchase then successfully continued.  (I note also this same number from my "pink ID card" is on my "Yellow Book" for my Thailand foreign freehold condo that I own).

 

Today I received in the postal mail a notification from the "Bank of Thailand" stating the interest I had received to date and also the amount of withholding tax they kept.  In addition, on the notification was listed (translated to English by me with Google) my "Citizen ID number/Tax ID number", which was the same number as the number on my Pink-ID that I had provided.

 

Further, there was an additional field in this "Bank of Thailand" notification, which (after translating by Google from Thai to English) called my "tax payer identification number".  This is a new number and it does not correspond to any number on my "Yellow Book" nor on my "Pink ID" number.  So it appears I now have a Thailand taxpayer identification number ???? which my wife thought was funny that I now have a Thai taxper ID #.  I was less amused.  ???? However given I don't nominally earn much money in Thailand (nor, relatively speaking, do I have much else in Thailand in regards to money gaining interest), having a Thai taxpayer ID# is not an issue for myself at present time (... noting that currently I do pay taxes in Canada (file income tax return to Canada every year) and Germany (money kept by Germany as withholding tax)).

 

Interest rate

 

As I have noted elsewhere, I don't see purchasing these Thai government bonds as much of an "investment" for myself (given my money is nominally invested elsewhere), where I suspect buying 2-million THB of bonds is VERY IMPORTANT to those who barely meet the Wealthy Pensioner requirements.   Fortunately for me, the BoI do see this as an investment (in Thailand).

 

Myself - for this amount, I really could not care less about the interest rate (as long the interest rate is not a large negative amount) for I plan to hold these bonds to maturity (and I have other investments outside of Thailand that are more important to me). 

 

Still - I note the bond interest rate for 2-million THB is VERY important to others.

 

SO for those who do care about this small bond purchase amount, in case curious, some details:
* The Thai government bond purchase was for 2-million baht, maturity 7 years, interest rate 3%
* The Bank of Thailand notification noted that (for 92-days) the bond gave 15,123.28 THB interest, of which 2,268.49 was withholding tax, and hence I received 12,854.79 THB in interest.  That's about only a very small 15% withholding taxation rate.  I wish my Canadian and German withholding tax rates were that low.

 

Perhaps a mute point, but if I had purchased an equivalent amount of bonds in Canada instead, I would be paying >35% tax (for my case) to Canada (ie I would pay more than the 25% Canadian withholding tax after I filed my tax return to Canada).  So to make the same (after tax) interest from bonds in Canada (given my Canadian tax rate) I would have to buy equivalent amount of Canadian bonds with an interest rate of about 4% (instead of Thailand at 3%).  OK - a mute point for me as I don't care about the interest, but I did the calculation as I thought others may be interested.

 

Edited by oldcpu
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16 hours ago, oldcpu said:

* The Bank of Thailand notification noted that (for 92-days) the bond gave 15,123.28 THB interest, of which 2,268.49 was withholding tax, and hence I received 12,854.79 THB in interest.  That's about only a very small 15% withholding taxation rate.  I wish my Canadian and German withholding tax rates were that low.

I wish my US marginal tax rate were that low too.  The only silver lining is that the 15% Thai withholding tax can be used as a foreign tax credit against US tax owed.

 

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16 minutes ago, Misty said:

I wish my US marginal tax rate were that low too.  The only silver lining is that the 15% Thai withholding tax can be used as a foreign tax credit against US tax owed.

 

Actually you can not take the credit if you do not exercise available remedies to reduce the amount "like filing a Thai tax return where you claim and receive a refund of the tax withheld.  See below IRS info.

 

https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1116

image.png.7d79901a0db14689ac2732a3bb518b8c.png

 

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2 hours ago, Pib said:

Actually you can not take the credit if you do not exercise available remedies to reduce the amount "like filing a Thai tax return where you claim and receive a refund of the tax withheld.  See below IRS info.

 

https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1116

image.png.7d79901a0db14689ac2732a3bb518b8c.png

 

Good point for those it applies too.  Sadly I do file a Thai tax return, but am not due a Thai tax refund.

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9 minutes ago, Misty said:

Good point for those it applies too.  Sadly I do file a Thai tax return, but am not due a Thai tax refund.

Cool...then you can indeed file for the U.S. tax return credit since you did attempt a remedy.

 

But I've seen posts from some U.S. folks over the years who have tax withheld from Thai savings accts who don't file a Thai tax return/refund request (i.e., make no attempt to recover the withholding tax) say they just file for a credit/deduction on their U.S. tax return which is not allowed per IRS instructions as posted earlier. 

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8 hours ago, tai4de2 said:

Submitted my application for WGS today.

 

Compared to the eVisa application site I used a few months ago for a different kind of visa, the LTR site is pretty easy to deal with. No need to coalesce PDFs because multiple documents are accepted, and I didn't encounter any size limits on the documents either.

 

...and now I wait!

Good luck.   By WGS I guess you meant Wealthy Global Citizen....if so, if you don't mind me asking how are you meeting the $500K investment in Thailand requirement?  Maybe a Thai residence you have bought in the past and still own, etc.

 

Regardless of which LTR type you are applying for, be sure to check your email inbox, the LTR online acct "Notifications" box, "AND" your online acct Check Status, Action View, Step 4 Upload area for messages/comments/requests for additional docs.   

 

Check all three locations as based on my personal experience last year communications from the BoI in the processing of your application can appear in one to all three areas.   For me there was one time that a request for additional docs only appeared in the Check Status, Active View, Step 4 Upload area in the form of very brief Comments in red text relating to income and health insurance....I did not get any email or Notification that the request had been made or more detailed comments. 

 

Yea, watch above mentioned three areas closely....and again, good luck.

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On 7/8/2023 at 9:52 AM, JimGant said:

Now, to call LMG insurance and cancel that worthless requirement for OA extensions. The renewal premium I’ll save more than covers the cost of the LTR visa. And the cost of the five star hotel, air fare, gourmet dinners, and limos to and from airport.

Jim, does this sentence mean that no health insurance policy is needed once you get the LTR visa? Thanks.

 

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