Will Thailand’s Long Term Resident Visa work for you?

[ThailandRyan]

13 minutes ago, JackGats said:

I meet the requirements as a pensioner, but as with covid, the requirements regarding heath insurance are childish. I have worldwide coverage until I pass away, but I don't see my health insurance certifying my coverage is "at least 50k USD". Do the Thais understand how health insurance policies work? I get a percentage refund which differs according to the nature of the expense (dental, medications, vaccines, doctors fees, hospital, operation, ...).  The percentage may be as high as 100% and the total refund in one year may be turn out above 50 USD should I be seriously ill or have an accident. But there's no way my insurance is going to certify "we shall pay 50k USD on demand to any Thai hospital that needs the money". It simply doesn't work that way.

 

Does it say whether you recoup the application fee if you get rejected?

You don't pay the fee until the application is approved 

[sqwakvfr]

38 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

No liquid assets required for the Wealthy Pensioner...just your 80K USD annual pension and a insurance policy nothing more.

I stand corrected, This is the complete list of requirements. 

I make almost $70,000 and looked into it and this where i got the $250K from.  The chances of me investing $250,000 in Thailand are about zero. 

1. For High-income Foreign Retirees:
   • Must present a health insurance policy covering medical expenses in Thailand no less than USD 50,000. The remaining coverage period shall not be less than 10 months on the date of the application, OR provide evidence of savings of at least USD 100,000 held in a Thai or overseas bank account for no less than 12 months before the date of application.
   • High earners must have proof of personal income of at least USD 80,000 annually at the time of application
   • In case of having personal income only between USD 40,000 to USD 80,000/ year, the applicant must invest at least USD 250,000 in Thai government bonds, foreign direct invest or Thai property

[ThailandRyan]

6 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

I stand corrected, This is the complete list of requirements. 

I make almost $70,000 and looked into it and this where i got the $250K from.  The chances of me investing $250,000 in Thailand are about zero. 

1. For High-income Foreign Retirees:
   • Must present a health insurance policy covering medical expenses in Thailand no less than USD 50,000. The remaining coverage period shall not be less than 10 months on the date of the application, OR provide evidence of savings of at least USD 100,000 held in a Thai or overseas bank account for no less than 12 months before the date of application.
   • High earners must have proof of personal income of at least USD 80,000 annually at the time of application
   • In case of having personal income only between USD 40,000 to USD 80,000/ year, the applicant must invest at least USD 250,000 in Thai government bonds, foreign direct invest or Thai property

Yes if between 40k USD and 80K USD you need to show an investment, if just short of the 80k USD you can use an IRA portfolio which has an annual amount you take as a eequired minimum distribution draw if approved by BOI to get to the 80k.  If you own a Condo or a house you can use that Chanote with the Land departments valuation as long as its in your name alone. If not the full 250k then you can buy bonds. A few have done this already.

 

It obviously needs to make sense to the applicant not the many naysayers who claim the program is BS and wealthy folks would he elsewhere not here.  People's views are skewed it appears.  I am here and I have the LTR-P Visa.....not right here but comfortable and own homes elsewhere which are rented out for additional income.

[Iron Tongue]

That 18-month processing time was likely estimated with 1,000,000 applicants to keep their offices busy.

With under 3,000 who have actually applied, I'm sure even Thai bureaucrats can't stretch-out the processing time. 

[Enzian]

I got talking with a fellow American and his wife watching the passing scene on Sukhumvit the other day and turned out he was in the process of an application and told me something to the effect that "lots of people are doing it, it's all the rage". Sounds more like he's a rara avis. Solid guy though.

I don't see how I for one could commit to this country for 5-10 years (even if I thought I would live that much longer). Too many things can change, including the terms of this visa itself. A year at a time is fine.

[wensiensheng]

4 hours ago, gk10012001 said:

Sorry but looking into the details it seems like a possible money grab.  50,000 baht application fee to start with.    Various Thai health insurance requirements.

 

For High-income Foreign Retirees:

Must present a health insurance policy covering medical expenses in Thailand no less than USD 50,000. The remaining coverage period shall not be less than 10 months on the date of the application, OR provide evidence of savings of at least USD 100,000 held in a Thai or overseas bank account for no less than 12 months before the date of application.

High earners must have proof of personal income of at least USD 80,000 annually at the time of application

In case of having personal income only between USD 40,000 to USD 80,000/ year, the applicant must invest at least USD 250,000 in Thai government bonds, foreign direct invest or Thai property

 

https://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand-visa/thailand-long-term-resident-ltr-visa

For those who prove to the satisfaction of the authorities that they are very wealthy and/or have a high income, why the need for insurance? They can clearly afford to pay for their medical expenses 

[mudcat]

Like many successful applicants my application to approval was ~4-weeks and another 2-weeks to arrange travel to Bangkok for my stamp (and Halloween and our 10-year anniversary). 

 

I renewed my U.S. passport for another 10-years to cover the entire LTR period prior to applying so the timeline looks like this:

 

Passport date 09/01/2022, received 09/15/2022

Off to Immigration to transfer stamps - 09/16/22

Application submitted 09/17/2022

Back and forth with BOI re use of Roth IRA as substitute for insurance

Approval notice 10/16/2022

Appointment for receiving visa in passport 10/31/2022

 

Some notes

I have read that BOI is getting sticky about insurance substitution accounts - YMMV

 

There were problems with adding documents after initial application - this may be fixed by now.

 

I did delete my application support documents after approval - not a bad idea with any Thai site.

 

I substituted my Roth IRA for my Pacific Cross policy as they required 10-months validity - this has changed, but as my Roth is part of my estate planning it is likely to be usable at five-years and at ten-years (if I live to 84-years old and the program is still available).

 

Since I got my visa stamp I have missed two 90-day reports and one Non-O extension - I did not miss the IO or the office.

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

The article contains a good amount of incorrect, flat-out wrong info.   Don't know if the visa company giving the briefing intentionally wanted to make it sound like a long & administrative nightmare to get an LTR visa "and/or" the author of the article simply got it wrong.

 

First of all the LTR program officially kicked off 1 Sep 2022; not 1 Nov 2022 as in the article. And it does "not" take around 18 months to get an LTR visa if you are qualified.....it typically takes 1 to 2 months with some people getting it in less than a month.   BoI officially states it takes around 20 "working/business days" which is approx one calendar month. 

 

I got a LTR-Pensioner visa in late 2022....my approval took a little less than 2 months....would have been less but the BoI asked me for some additional documentation plus in the early days of the LTR program it seemed BoI was slow in processing many applications.  But once again, it does "not" take anything close to 18 months like incorrectly stated in the article. 

 

My gosh, since the program officially started 1 Sep 2022, if it was taking 18 months "no one, repeat, no one" would have received an LTR visa approval yet.....wouldn't be until around Feb 2024 (next year) until the first approval would be seen.  

 

If you want to read more from AseanNow posters who have applied for/received LTR visa, go to the main thread in AseanNow talking the LTR visa: LTR Visa is Now available for Long Term Residency   It's now a long thread of over 1,800 posts.... and keep in mind the early days of the program/thread were like the Wild West days, plenty of misinformation or lack of information, plenty of questions, frequent/major problems with the BoI online application system (and it still has some problems like frequently going down on weekends or even on workdays), etc.....but in late 2022 things seemed to settle down...get better.

 

 

 

[thailand49]

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

Hey the old (worn out) brown envelope joke. Give it a rest won't ya? It's not even funny and I've heard it 50000 times at lYbeast.

Then wake up and smell the coffee get you head out of the anal canal.

First hand,  a family member last year through a lawyer in BKK,  got his through this channel.

So stop with your denial and so call patriotic stand for Thailand 

" the more patriotic the more stupid "

 

[Misty]

28 minutes ago, Enzian said:

I got talking with a fellow American and his wife watching the passing scene on Sukhumvit the other day and turned out he was in the process of an application and told me something to the effect that "lots of people are doing it, it's all the rage". Sounds more like he's a rara avis. Solid guy though.

I don't see how I for one could commit to this country for 5-10 years (even if I thought I would live that much longer). Too many things can change, including the terms of this visa itself. A year at a time is fine.

Rare though LTR visas may be, even in the program's initial stages last year, many more Americans received LTR visas than received Permanent Residency (PR) for the entire year. 

 

PR should, in theory, be a good program.  However, having prepared applications for both PR and LTR (and now having an LTR visa and work permit), I think the LTR is a much better program than PR.  Not to mention that having the BoI oversee it removes a lot of the games that go on at Immigration with PR.

[Thjames]

DONT BOTHER:  I have applied and let me tell you my experience, 

 

I applied and BOI would not accept my "pension income"  they think its salary even thou its pension income, anyways I moved onto plan B.   so I asked (via email) if I can use a lump sum amount within my "pension plan" and they said yes, 

But when I submitted, they ignore it, and will not tell me yes or no.  (its been 3 months!!)

 

Communicated with BOI is VERY difficult, and thus I would not recommend it.  (that's me, I'm sure others managed easily)

 

I have begged to call and speak to someone to get clarification and they ignore my request. (They don't read your emails)

 

Oh and the system issues!!!   now I can't log into my BOI account, I've told them about the issues and no help.  Just see the link they have provided, normally it does NOT work.

 

[DaveInSukhumvit]

3 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

The 50k Thb is the fee for the entire 10 year visa, nothing more to be paid. Of course you need health insurance but your home health insurance does meet the requirements  much like Tri-care for those Vets from the US. 

 

Folks, there are no extra fees needed unless you want a work permit and then that's 3k a year.

The health insurance requirement was 10 months left on policy in the early days (in case that has changed).  The easy alternative was demonstrating $100K USD in some financial institution over a few years.  So you don't/didn't really need insurance.  BTW you don't need any money in a TH bank if you qualify under Wealthy Pensioner with $80k/year income.

[realfunster]

5 hours ago, ExpatInCM said:

Going to the "Official Website: https://ltr.boi.go.th/" link to learn more yields this message:

 

HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.

Got the same and googled the 503 error.  I was informed thus :

 

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 503 Service Unavailable server error response code indicates that the server is not ready to handle the request. Common causes are a server that is down for maintenance or that is overloaded.

 

So, there we have it.

Now from the two presented options, it obviously couldn't be a poorly maintained government website, so it must be that there is just so much overwhelming interest in the LTR, that the server can't handle the demand and has crashed !!

 

TAT/BOI etc - take note, I am available on a freelance basis for all your spinning needs.

 

[ThailandRyan]

33 minutes ago, thailand49 said:

Then wake up and smell the coffee get you head out of the anal canal.

First hand,  a family member last year through a lawyer in BKK,  got his through this channel.

So stop with your denial and so call patriotic stand for Thailand 

" the more patriotic the more stupid "

 

Please tell me how through a Lawyer a family friend obtained his LTR Visa.  There are no agents currently certified and no one other than the applicant can upload the documents and so on.  Unless the Lawyer was acting as if he was the actual applicant and had access to all of the applicants bank records, taxes, passport paperwork and their insurance documents.  If the Lawyer had this much information, then if I was the applicant I would want to ensure my personal identifying information had been redacted, and double check my finances to ensure I had not had money and so on taken.  Talk about the potential to be fraudulently scammed and loose your shirt and shorts to someone who gets themselves in financial straights and then uses your identity and funds to bail themselves out.

[Pib]

4 hours ago, gk10012001 said:

Sorry but looking into the details it seems like a possible money grab.  50,000 baht application fee to start with.    Various Thai health insurance requirements.

 

For High-income Foreign Retirees:

Must present a health insurance policy covering medical expenses in Thailand no less than USD 50,000. The remaining coverage period shall not be less than 10 months on the date of the application, OR provide evidence of savings of at least USD 100,000 held in a Thai or overseas bank account for no less than 12 months before the date of application.

High earners must have proof of personal income of at least USD 80,000 annually at the time of application

In case of having personal income only between USD 40,000 to USD 80,000/ year, the applicant must invest at least USD 250,000 in Thai government bonds, foreign direct invest or Thai property

 

https://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand-visa/thailand-long-term-resident-ltr-visa

There is no fee to apply...repeat, no fee to apply....no upfront fee.   Now, after applying and if your LTR application is approved you will then have 60 days to take the final steps to pay the Bt50K fee and have the LTR visa issued to your passport.   If you don't take those final steps within 60 days like paying the fee then the visa approval is cancelled....you must reapply if later actually wanting a LTR visa. 

 

Regarding health insurance, yes there is the requirement to have a 50K USD insurance policy (foreign or Thai).....Thai social security health coverage.....OR, self-insure with 100K USD in a foreign or Thai bank acct. 

 

If using a foreign insurance policy the policy just needs to confirm it provides coverage in Thailand like saying worldwide coverage is provided.....no need to have multiple directors of the insurance company sign some Thai govt form stating such like Thai Immigration requires when applying/extending a 1 year Non-OA visa and wanting to use a foreign insurance policy.   Heck, if you are a U.S. military retiree you can even use Tricare to meet the LTR medical insurance requirement....just provide the DMDC/DEERS Tricare benefits letter.   And if self-insuring the 100K USD can be in any bank acct....in any country like your home country....just show a bank statement(s) the acct has had the required balance amount for at least the last 12 months.   The LTR visa medical coverage requirements are much more flexible than the medical coverage requirements for a Non-OA/OX visa.

 

 

[ThailandRyan]

20 minutes ago, Thjames said:

DONT BOTHER:  I have applied and let me tell you my experience, 

 

I applied and BOI would not accept my "pension income"  they think its salary even thou its pension income, anyways I moved onto plan B.   so I asked (via email) if I can use a lump sum amount within my "pension plan" and they said yes, 

But when I submitted, they ignore it, and will not tell me yes or no.  (its been 3 months!!)

 

Communicated with BOI is VERY difficult, and thus I would not recommend it.  (that's me, I'm sure others managed easily)

 

I have begged to call and speak to someone to get clarification and they ignore my request. (They don't read your emails)

 

Oh and the system issues!!!   now I can't log into my BOI account, I've told them about the issues and no help.  Just see the link they have provided, normally it does NOT work.

 

Wow, your e-mails have gone unanswered and calls to the BOI unit also never answered. That is very hard to believe as I have been in constant contact with the BOI LTR unit as far as e-mails and calls as the system still shows certain things that have been completed and I am trying to add a dependent after the fact.

 

The link works fine for me, best to check and see if your using a VPN or such that's blocking access.

 

https://visa.boi.go.th/

 

The main link is having service issues for a Monday that's not unexpected as they work on updating the system.  It does still have glitches in it, but it is a young program.

 

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

 

I have been successful today in opening the below link.

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20230223113952/https://ltr.boi.go.th/

 

[Pib]

1 hour ago, thailand49 said:

Then wake up and smell the coffee get you head out of the anal canal.

First hand,  a family member last year through a lawyer in BKK,  got his through this channel.

So stop with your denial and so call patriotic stand for Thailand 

" the more patriotic the more stupid "

 

Either this is untrue or you meant to say your family member allowed a lawyer to use the family member's BoI online acct credentials to submit/upload the necessary docs.  Application for an LTR visa is all done online up until the point of actually having the visa inked into your passport after receiving the online approval notice. 

 

And as of today/13 Mar 2023 BoI has not approved any "Certified Agents" to act as go-betweens between an agent and the applicant (i.e., kinda like a visa agent).   The BoI website even stresses that as shown in the snapshot below from the BoI LTR website.   But the BoI did put-out a request to interested parties in Dec 2022 to companies interested in becoming a LTR CA....interested parties needed to submit a package/respond by 31 Jan 2023....then BoI was going to evaluate any parties interested in providing CA services and at some point announce BoI CA's which to the best of my knowledge has not happened yet.  

 

[Pib]

26 minutes ago, Thjames said:

DONT BOTHER:  I have applied and let me tell you my experience, 

 

I applied and BOI would not accept my "pension income"  they think its salary even thou its pension income, anyways I moved onto plan B.   so I asked (via email) if I can use a lump sum amount within my "pension plan" and they said yes, 

But when I submitted, they ignore it, and will not tell me yes or no.  (its been 3 months!!)

 

Communicated with BOI is VERY difficult, and thus I would not recommend it.  (that's me, I'm sure others managed easily)

 

I have begged to call and speak to someone to get clarification and they ignore my request. (They don't read your emails)

 

Oh and the system issues!!!   now I can't log into my BOI account, I've told them about the issues and no help.  Just see the link they have provided, normally it does NOT work.

 

During my application in late 2022 I had little problem in calling/talking to a rep at BoI (but I was calling from within Thailand)...and it usually required around 5 to 10 minutes listening to elevator music before a human came online.   I called around 10 times during the 1 to 2 month period my application was processing.  Yea, after the first month when my application didn't seem to be moving along I started calling at least a couple times each week to see what the hold-up was.  But as mentioned in an earlier post my application was approved in a little less than 2 months. 

 

Now getting an email response from BoI could have been better.....for me a response usually took a couple of weeks but on a few occasions I did get an email response within 2 to 3 business days.   I think the response time depended on what the question/issue was.  

[Srikcir]

2 hours ago, JackGats said:

I meet the requirements as a pensioner, but as with covid, the requirements regarding heath insurance are childish. I have worldwide coverage until I pass away, but I don't see my health insurance certifying my coverage is "at least 50k USD". Do the Thais understand how health insurance policies work? I get a percentage refund which differs according to the nature of the expense (dental, medications, vaccines, doctors fees, hospital, operation, ...).  The percentage may be as high as 100% and the total refund in one year may be turn out above 50 USD should I be seriously ill or have an accident. But there's no way my insurance is going to certify "we shall pay 50k USD on demand to any Thai hospital that needs the money". It simply doesn't work that way.

 

Does it say whether you recoup the application fee if you get rejected?

Application is free. You invest only your time. When you qualify, then you pay. I hold the Pensioner LTR since November 2022. I had delayed two months to obtain a new passport to cover the 10 year visa term. 

 

When I had a question about the application, there were two BOI phone numbers to call and always had someone answer who was helpful. When you submit your completed application but have missing or incorrect information, incorrectly redacted information, or clarifications required, got an email in English of what was required to complete for submittal.

 

In the past I had non O-A and even though I had unlimited coverage, nonexpiring international foreign insurance, had to buy throw-away (make a claim and premiums increase)Thai healthcare insurance. But LTR application accepts foreign healthcare insurance with proper specified documentation and original signatures from the insurance provider to fulfill requirements. 

 

I used the annual minimum (gross) income method documented by government-signed benefit letters, tax returns, etc. No foreign minimum transfers nor aged untouched minimum balance savings accounts required. I assume at the five-year point Immigration/BOI will want an update on income documentation. Maybe cover current year and previous year.

 

When you are notified as qualified, you walk in to the BOI office in Bangkok without appointment, a representative will assist you through the entire process with Immigration in the same building floor that concludes with your visa. Includes your next report date in one year. I also got a free Certificate of Residence required to update my Thai driver's license when changing passport number.

[Spilornis]

Seems to be a reasonable scheme. The health insurance is a pain. In Malaysia no requirement for health insurance over 60 where they recognise local insurers simply don't offer cover

[thailand49]

2 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Please tell me how through a Lawyer a family friend obtained his LTR Visa.  There are no agents currently certified and no one other than the applicant can upload the documents and so on.  Unless the Lawyer was acting as if he was the actual applicant and had access to all of the applicants bank records, taxes, passport paperwork and their insurance documents.  If the Lawyer had this much information, then if I was the applicant I would want to ensure my personal identifying information had been redacted, and double check my finances to ensure I had not had money and so on taken.  Talk about the potential to be fraudulently scammed and loose your shirt and shorts to someone who gets themselves in financial straights and then uses your identity and funds to bail themselves out.

Your question is valid I don't know the actual details personally it isn't a route I would chose what my family or friends chose to do with their money is up to them.  

What I do know this lawyer has done a lot of stuff for me and my family particular for the guy who I'm mentioning basically if you have the money which he does not in good health doesn't want to bother with immigration I can see why the guy doesn't even want to lift a finger to make reservations for a flight.

Lots of talk lately as to how the Chinese get their visa, grey business. Triads in 32 )plus provinces you actually think because Big Joke is involved he is going to change enough. 

[ThailandRyan]

20 minutes ago, thailand49 said:

Your question is valid I don't know the actual details personally it isn't a route I would chose what my family or friends chose to do with their money is up to them.  

What I do know this lawyer has done a lot of stuff for me and my family particular for the guy who I'm mentioning basically if you have the money which he does not in good health doesn't want to bother with immigration I can see why the guy doesn't even want to lift a finger to make reservations for a flight.

Lots of talk lately as to how the Chinese get their visa, grey business. Triads in 32 )plus provinces you actually think because Big Joke is involved he is going to change enough. 

This is a Visa issued by BOI and is not anything that Big Joke or the Chinese grey markets are involved in.  This is not a Thai Elite Visa and an agent or lawyer can not, I repeat can not walk your application through the door and into the BOI offices and then over to the immigration side to get the Visa stamped into it.  You must be confusing this visa class with another visa type/scheme as I stated above..  Your friend would have to appear himself for his photo with Immigration and to have the visa placed into his passport as well as paying the 50K Thb. Nothing a lawyer can do......not yet

 

[Pib]

4 hours ago, wensiensheng said:

For those who prove to the satisfaction of the authorities that they are very wealthy and/or have a high income, why the need for insurance? They can clearly afford to pay for their medical expenses 

A "self insure" option is available when a person does not have acceptable insurance.  The self insure option requires the applicant to show 100K USD equivalent in a bank acct (foreign or Thailand) for at least 12 months....no additional/special approval needed....only standard bank statements from the foreign/Thai bank.  Some LTR applicants have also been able to use their 401K/Retirement Acct type investment/savings as substitute to a cash bank acct.

[Hummin]

9 hours ago, Pdib said:

“It will take time, typically not less than 18 months, to prove the requirements are met, submit the necessary documentation and the go through a final review before an approval is obtained.”

 

In my case (LTR-P) the entire process took all of three weeks from the date of submission of my application and all the documents until I had the 10 year LTR visa stamp in my passport.

Good to know, thanks, and I guess we can stay during the process time in Thailand?

[thailand49]

7 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

I think your posting in the wrong OP.  This is the OP for:  This OP has nothing to do with the Immigration investigation.

 

Will Thailand’s Long Term Resident Visa work for you?

In your straight and narrow world it is all connected.  You got a people getting Education Visa,  retirements,  a triad dragon head marries Miss Piggy get a What?  Thai citizenship! 

You think anyone got online went through any process come on you a small guy not naive to actually think there isn't a price for any kind of visa for things to be overlook and expedited.  Come on what is a brown envelope for?

[Rimmer]

Off topic post and reply has been removed

[phitsanulokjohn]

They want all the wealthy and highly skilled farangs in here,but appear to do as much as they can to dissuade them,and they wonder why the elite visa is such an ill conceived failure,and not receiving the number of applicants

 forecast.

Does the consumption of rice or noodles affect the decision making part of the brain?

 

 

[Gknrd]

That one million mark is right around the corner. 

[Bim Smith]

9 hours ago, Freddy42OZ said:

Not a waste of time for some people.  In 8 years my step-daughter won't be able to stay in Thailand as my dependent because she'll be 21.  At that point I would happily invest 1 million USD for her to be able to stay (assuming she was). 

The rule that kids cannot be dependents after they turn 21 is terrible as it means kids who've grown up here and no know other country have to leave not only Thailand but their home and their parents!

The elite vise would be way cheaper. 1 million baht would give her 20 years.

[redwood1]

Its simple really.......

 

If your 65 years or older and you want a upgraded less hassle visa, than the 1 year O visa.....

The 20 year Elite visa would absolutly be the way to go.....

The Elite would have you covered for a most of if not all the rest of your life.....With a lot lot lot less bureaucratic nonsense and requiremets to meet........

 

I really dont see why this visa has any cheerleaders at all....Or why anyone would want it...