Thailand Elite Membership/Card - The low down

[ukrules]

Nice logic there but did you really need to go to Europe for your visa needs. Mulitple double entrys would have suited you just fine for a lot less. I'm not anti TE at all, I want one, but this is a BS justification. So maybe instead you are just saving time, but money, no way.

I don't really need to do anything but what I do costs money and there are savings to be made based over what I would normally do. In my opinion life is not about 'getting by' by spending as little as possible. To put it bluntly : for me it's all about my convenience, how much effort I have to exert to get what I want. In this case it's about staying within the Thai immigration departments rules and regulations with as little hassle and red tape for me as possible. There are many ways to do this and the way I do it won't be for everyone.

I've been using an assortment of methods to keep myself legal within the immigration regulations in Thailand for the last 5 years or so. Every trip out of the country was a real pain so earlier this year I decided to make things a little easier for myself. This was my plan prior to purchasing my TE Easy Access membership :

+0 months - Fly to Europe. Go to the UK for about a week and pick up a triple entry tourist visa from a consulate. This is in July when it's supposed to be warm.

+3 months - activate entry 2 on the triple entry visa by flying to Phnom Penh - quick turnaround - fly out / back with no overnight stay in Phnom Penh

+6 months - activate entry 3 on the triple entry visa by flying to Phnom Penh - quick turnaround - fly out / back with no overnight stay in Phnom Penh

+9 months - Get a single entry tourist visa from Phnom Penh. Easily done via an agent with 24 hour service. Requires 2 night stop due to late arrival.

I live in Hua Hin so each of the above trips involves me first travelling to Bangkok which takes about 3 hours each way. Normally I would stay in Bangkok for a few nights (4 or 5 nights) on a trip like this and make a long weekend out of it, especially the ones where I'm just activating another entry on a double or triple entry visa. I've been doing this for the last 2 years while living in Hua Hin.

I travel to Phom Penh because it's not far away, if I need to stay there I know the good places to go, the location of the good and reliable visa agent and the flights are regular and mutiple airlines service the route. This way you can make very quick trips (like 1-2 hours transit time if you're lucky) if needed by purchasing one way tickets from different airlines. It might cost more to do it this way but for me this is about my convenience. I don't like the sound of some of the other places in Asia so I'll stick with what I know.

Then I would repeat this ad nauseam over the following years. This is a lot of hassle but I could live with it and it's what I was going to do as there was no other way which could be relied upon over a long period of time. I will never go and stand in line with 500 other people to get a visa - that's where I draw the line.

In about March this year after my previous visa run I told my relatives I was coming to the UK in July for a week but hadn't booked the flight yet. For a run of the mill business class flight you don't need to book way ahead as the prices are kind of static in my experience - they don't fluctuate as much as the economy seats apart from the occasional 'special sale' some airlines have. The flight would cost about 100,000 Baht. Again - this is for my convenience. I place a lot of value on convenience.

Then I heard about the TE Easy Access 5 year membership.

I phoned my relateives, told them I'm not coming - they should book holidays and come to Thailand instead. Some of them are coming here within the next year, my mothers coming for about 7 weeks in December.

So you're right, I didn't have to go to Europe but it suited me at the time and was a solid long term plan which I would have stuck to had I not stumbled across the Easy Access membership and visa scheme.

Now I do nothing, Since June I'm stamped in for 1 year, I've done my first 90 day report and I'll do another in December.

I didn't bother going to the UK and believe me - that trip I cancelled would have cost me more than 150,000 Baht just for the flight and hotel. Multiply this by 5 years and add in the cost of the other tri monthly flights and associated hotel, taxi and other transportation costs and you will find that this visa actually more than pays for itself - it pays for itself entirely in a little over 2 years and that's just in money, never mind the travel time and inconvenience of it all.

I did a rough cost calculation on this over 5 years using the above plan and I believe the travel plan for 5 years would have cost me about 1.25 Million Baht and a huge amount of hassle but I was prepared to do it, I know a few people who do a similar thing and they spend a similar amount if not more on the travel. Some of them go back to Europe or the US multiple times every year. That's definitely not for me.

TE Easy Access costs 500k Baht.

So for me it's a no brainer, I would have spent 1.25 Million on visa related travel over this period, there is no doubt about that. I've been doing something similar in the past for years at a time. This might not be the case for others though. I don't like to travel these days - it's a real pain in the ass, especially flying to Europe. I even considered going to Australia for triple entry visas at one point as you can't get them in Asia, at least a trip 'down under' would be something new for me.

The plan with the European travel and triple entry visas is the only one that I could see as being reliable for 5 years as I know there are various limits on the visas issued at different embassies / consulates and the rules are changing all the time. With this TE visa i my passport now I know I'm good for 5 years. I don't need to leave at all if I don't want to.

So I got the TE Easy Access visa and didn't bother going to Europe, I also didn't do a visa run last month and I won't need to even think about doing another one until 2019.

That's convenience over cost with built in savings.

Still not understanding why you NEEDED to have the triple entry (and this all the long haul expensive trips), despite what you say getting dual entries in LAOS is reported to still be quite easy and not in any danger of going away. I understand it's great, and it saves time and a lot of hassle but it's not a fair comparison because you don't really need to go back to US,UK,AU to accomplish the goals. How old are you btw? Are you eligible for the retirement visa?

I'm glad you had a good reason to get it, I wish I could justify it as a cost saving measure too.

At the when time I wanted the triple entry and didn't want to continue getting double entries at places which may eventually stop issuing them based on the number issued back to back over the coming years. I'm going to stay in Thailand for at least the next 5 years, maybe much longer. So when I heard about this 5 year plan with no messing around getting regionally issued visas it sounded like the 'missing visa' for those under 50 who want to stay long term without flying all over the place every 90 days.

I'm very much against the whole 'visa run' concept - it's a complete waste of everyone's time and money but it's the only way for a lot of people to stay legal under the current ruleset. I would like to see more long term visas made easily available for people but I suspect change in this direction may take a long time to happen. Until then a lot of people will be stuck on visa runs.

In my opinion a one year visa made available to anyone would seem to be reasonable thing to offer, even if it was priced quite highly, I'm sure people would buy it.

I'm 42 right now. I was 41 when I signed up to this TE thing so I'll be 46 when it expires. It might be worth renewing it on expiration in 2019, who knows. 5 years is a long time and there's no telling what the future holds.

I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of change before we hit 2020.

[JThai]

I agree, I would surely pay a premium for a 1 year in/out visa with no extra benefits. In the Philippines you can now extend 6 months at a time instead of every 60 days like before (up to 3 years).

Or hell just bring the retirement age down a bit, maybe 35 with B1.5 mill in the bank or invested in property and charge renewal fees yearly.

[NanLaew]

...

When individuals shop for a new car there are many cars in different price ranges. A cheap and reliable $25,000 car will get the job done but some opt for the $70,000+ car with a few more options. Keep in mind I do not what TV to go nuts on the pros and cons of car buys I am just citing a nearly parallel example.

Great analogy. There's those that can afford to buy a new car cash down and there's those that can afford to buy the same car on a note (installments). Then there are the ones that don't have a pot to p!ss in (but claim otherwise) with their faces pressed up against the window, outside looking in... and always angry.

We already know TV's regular digital pikeys, elite haters and trolls that are in the last category.

[Sharp]

For me it's simple like flying business class or economy both get there in the end but the extra money makes the journey and experience more comfortable

[paz]

For me it's simple like flying business class or economy both get there in the end but the extra money makes the journey and experience more comfortable

And allows airlines to low price economy class, so thank you very much indeed!

[gerry1011]

For me it's simple like flying business class or economy both get there in the end but the extra money makes the journey and experience more comfortable

And allows airlines to low price economy class, so thank you very much indeed!

Also very happy to contribute to the low economy class fares

With pleasure

[Sharp]

For me it's simple like flying business class or economy both get there in the end but the extra money makes the journey and experience more comfortable

And allows airlines to low price economy class, so thank you very much indeed!

Also very happy to contribute to the low economy class fares

With pleasure

Well there you go all the more reason for people to love the idea of TE

Edited October 30, 2014 by Sharp

[jspill]

Just thinking out loud with some Math

Direct flight to Vientiane - 3k, in flight wifi

Agent to secure double entry with higher degree of success and deliver to your hotel - 5k

Hotels - 2k

Each extension - 1.9k

Total with taxis / misc call it 15k

Repeat 3 - 4 times maybe with a single entry or visa waiver mixed in, call it 60k / year

Fresh passport by post to UK from BKK - 5k

100k - 65k = 35k of aab op nuad's to soothe the pain

It's a close call. Save a fair bit more flying via Udon and skipping the agents, just taking a tablet and headphones along and queuing up with the great unwashed

Then there's keeping 500k liquid to work for you, rather than handing it over to Thailand as a lump sum sunken cost, and the freedom to leave if the country suddenly collapses into anarchy

Seems for me TE is twice the price of tourist visas per year doing them cheaply, or 33% more doing them with the most comfort

[HidyHo]

.... sigh ...

[Sharp]

Nice work jspill.... Personally I think of its advantages to me and the value i attach to it..

[falang07]

Just thinking out loud with some Math

Direct flight to Vientiane - 3k, in flight wifi

Agent to secure double entry with higher degree of success and deliver to your hotel - 5k

c'mon, your math has serious flaws:

Agent to secure double entry with higher degree of success and deliver to your hotel - 5k? 5000 baht for agent in Vientianne where everyone gets it anyway?

My math: ED visa 2000 Baht, school 15k per year, 4 * extension @ 1900, trip to Vientiane (flight to Udon Thani 2 x 690 Baht via Airasia) + bus to Vientiane a few hundred Baht, total not over 30k. Hotels are cheap there, make a trip from this and you get added value, too.

EDIT: PS: with the tourist visa it would be even cheaper

Edited October 30, 2014 by falang07

[Robert24]

I'm considering the Elite Visa as well but I will try to stay a bit longer on my ED visa as I'm 43 years old now and hope to get a 5 year Elite Visa to get to the age when I can stay on retirement visas in Thailand. I agree with the comments from ukrules and others on here. The Elite visa sounds like by far the easiest way to stay in Thailand if you are below 50.

[falang07]

...and multiply this by the number of years you plan to use TE (5 or 20) and you will see the big difference. I admit, though, that it is suitable for people who are lazy or unable to do it themselves, and prefer everything served, even though for exaggerated prices.

[falang07]

Also do not forget that you can put 500k in a bank @ 4% for 5 years and after 5 years you get 608326 Baht, i.e over 100k more. And 2M after 20 years is 4.38M!!!

This means that paying upfront for many years instead of year by year is much more expensive than it would seem by simply dividing the price by the number of years.

Edited October 30, 2014 by falang07

[Robert24]

@falang07: you are right, the cost of staying in Thailand on an ED visa is certainly much below 100k. Probably not 30k, more so between 40-45k. (My school is 20k and a multi entry ED visa extension is 3800 baht every 3 months). But it's less about the money, more about the hassle and the worry. Every 3 months you need to go with a whole stack of docs to Immigration, hope the officer doesn't test you too much about your Thai language skills and every year you have to go to Laos to get a new visa. It's that hassle and worry that gets to me. I've seen Vientiane, really not looking forward to going again next year.

[falang07]

Yes, but I doubt this will stay long (having to go every year to get new visa), TE card sales were very low (much, much lower than estimated) and it seems they needed this crack down to stimulate the sell. and next year with ASEAN, I expect more options, too.

PS: ED visa extension 3800 baht every 3 months? Standard price is 1900. Re-entry is 1000 (if you need to leave Thailand).

[Robert24]

@falang 07: I hope you are right with regards to more options when ASEAN starts but it is only a hope. Let's see. My plan B is the Elite visa.

[NanLaew]

... TE card sales were very low (much, much lower than estimated) and it seems they needed this crack down to stimulate the sell. ...

So the recent efforts by Thai Immigration to flush out the ED cockroaches, overstayers and other visa abusers was just to stimulate Thai Elite membership?

[ldnguy]

Just thinking out loud with some Math

Direct flight to Vientiane - 3k, in flight wifi

Agent to secure double entry with higher degree of success and deliver to your hotel - 5k

Hotels - 2k

Each extension - 1.9k

Total with taxis / misc call it 15k

Repeat 3 - 4 times maybe with a single entry or visa waiver mixed in, call it 60k / year

Fresh passport by post to UK from BKK - 5k

100k - 65k = 35k of aab op nuad's to soothe the pain

It's a close call. Save a fair bit more flying via Udon and skipping the agents, just taking a tablet and headphones along and queuing up with the great unwashed

Then there's keeping 500k liquid to work for you, rather than handing it over to Thailand as a lump sum sunken cost, and the freedom to leave if the country suddenly collapses into anarchy

Seems for me TE is twice the price of tourist visas per year doing them cheaply, or 33% more doing them with the most comfort

But if people have 500K to spare, why wouldn't they use the Elite option? Life isn't all about saving money. We will all be dead one day, so what's the point of hoarding your money. Better to spend it and have a better life.

I'd rather pay 100K a year for an Elite visa than have the hassle of what you described. All that just to save 35K? I think it's bonkers to go through so much for the sake of saving so little. Don't you value your time at all?

[ldnguy]

@falang 07: I hope you are right with regards to more options when ASEAN starts but it is only a hope. Let's see. My plan B is the Elite visa.

ASEAN started in 1967, so already 47 years old.

[gerry1011]

Just thinking out loud with some Math

Direct flight to Vientiane - 3k, in flight wifi

Agent to secure double entry with higher degree of success and deliver to your hotel - 5k

Hotels - 2k

Each extension - 1.9k

Total with taxis / misc call it 15k

Repeat 3 - 4 times maybe with a single entry or visa waiver mixed in, call it 60k / year

Fresh passport by post to UK from BKK - 5k

100k - 65k = 35k of aab op nuad's to soothe the pain

It's a close call. Save a fair bit more flying via Udon and skipping the agents, just taking a tablet and headphones along and queuing up with the great unwashed

Then there's keeping 500k liquid to work for you, rather than handing it over to Thailand as a lump sum sunken cost, and the freedom to leave if the country suddenly collapses into anarchy

Seems for me TE is twice the price of tourist visas per year doing them cheaply, or 33% more doing them with the most comfort

But if people have 500K to spare, why wouldn't they use the Elite option? Life isn't all about saving money. We will all be dead one day, so what's the point of hoarding your money. Better to spend it and have a better life.

I'd rather pay 100K a year for an Elite visa than have the hassle of what you described. All that just to save 35K? I think it's bonkers to go through so much for the sake of saving so little. Don't you value your time at all?

You're arguing with posters for whom 35,000 baht is a lot of money, and for whom 500,000 baht for 5 years of trouble free stays in the country is an outrageously high price, and a "fortune" they don't even own...

They don't live in the same world.

Those who consider the Thailand Elite card have a very different perspective, very different way of life,and very different financial means...

[ukrules]

The fact is 100k Baht over a year is pocket change and it saves a lot of hassle and in certain circumstances money. It's worth paying this amount of money just to avoid the trips out of the country never mind the wasted time. If this isn't a fact for you then this visa isn't for you.

What we have here are differing sets of values. Some people don't mind jumping through hoops and sitting on a bus for days at a time to save a few Baht, others will pay more to keep their time as their own.

You can do it much cheaper if you want to, there's no denying that. As with many things in life there's a trade off between price paid and ease of use / level of comfort.

I bought one of those Herman Miller Aeron desk chairs late last year, it cost about 40k Baht. It's just a desk chair with wheels. I've had many other chairs which cost 3-5k Baht but they were all complete crap. This one is much more comfortable than any of the others. Again, different sets of values. I could sit on a couple of upturned plastic bottle crates with a cushion if I really wanted to save some money.

I bought some ceramic knives and a peeler for use in the kitchen, they're really good. They cost about 10 times as much as a cheap one but there's no comparison. These make light work of anything I use them for : cost vs convenience again.

You get what you pay for.

Edited October 30, 2014 by ukrules

[Sharp]

Gerry1011 & ukrules I concur..

[Soutpeel]

Gerry1011 & ukrules I concur..

For the TE'er or ones in the know, can one of these memberships be sold on to another person and it transferred ?

Not that I need one myself, but keep seeing arguments against the 500k TE card by people saying they don't want to commit to 5 years in case they don't stay in Thailand, if you can sell it on, it kinda makes that argument kinda moot, as if one was leaving Thailand and had a TE card they could sell on the remaining years on the card.

[ubonjoe]

Gerry1011 & ukrules I concur..

For the TE'er or ones in the know, can one of these memberships be sold on to another person and it transferred ?

Not that I need one myself, but keep seeing arguments against the 500k TE card by people saying they don't want to commit to 5 years in case they don't stay in Thailand, if you can sell it on, it kinda makes that argument kinda moot, as if one was leaving Thailand and had a TE card they could sell on the remaining years on the card.

From info here the the 5 year membership is not transferable. http://www.thailandelite.com/downloadable_form_file/downloadable_form_file11.pdf

[falang07]

Do not get me wrong, I spend over 1M baht a year in here so the money is not the biggest issue for me. I just do not like to feel like an <deleted> paying them 500k for a few temporary visa stamps without any guarantee for the future. I can fly (1 hour flight is no hassle at all) to get such stamps myself and enjoy the trips, too. I have better ways for spending my money than for this.

[Sharp]

Pretty much my situation and thoughts 'disambiguated'....

[DrTuner]

You can only get citizenship if you have a work permit, working and paying taxes for 3 years to apply and then you must keep working until it is approved.

So not as easy as you make it sound.

Why on Earth would a Westerner want Thai citizenship?

Many nationalities, mine included, allow dual citizenships. Everyone else in my family has Thai citizenship, including my son. I wonder why I'd like to have one ?

[JThai]

You can only get citizenship if you have a work permit, working and paying taxes for 3 years to apply and then you must keep working until it is approved.

So not as easy as you make it sound.

Why on Earth would a Westerner want Thai citizenship?

The PE visa is all I need. I'll be over 50 when mine expires, so I'll make a decision about renewing the PE visa or doing a retirement visa at that time.

Avoid all the visa bullshit, able to own land, no visa required for some Asian countries. You don't have to give up your old citizenship unless your home country forbids it. US allows it. So why not have both if you can. So why not?

I hope that answers your question.

[gerry1011]

You can only get citizenship if you have a work permit, working and paying taxes for 3 years to apply and then you must keep working until it is approved.

So not as easy as you make it sound.

Why on Earth would a Westerner want Thai citizenship?

The PE visa is all I need. I'll be over 50 when mine expires, so I'll make a decision about renewing the PE visa or doing a retirement visa at that time.

Avoid all the visa bullshit, able to own land, no visa required for some Asian countries. You don't have to give up your old citizenship unless your home country forbids it. US allows it. So why not have both if you can. So why not?

I hope that answers your question.

For those who want to be Thai, there is the citizenship. Good luck for the (long long long)(long) process.

For those who want to enjoy Thailand in the best conditions with a trouble free long term visa, there is Thailand Elite. Quick and easy.

Two totally different things.

I wonder how the Thai citizenship comes into this Thailand Elite thread. It has nothing to do with the subject...