Thailand Residency

If you plan to travel during your visa period, you should ask for a re-entry visa before leaving Thailand. This will impact your obligation to report every 90 days: While you are not in the kingdom you will have to do the reporting as soon as you re-enter Thailand (within 48 hours actually). The Immigration Office will stamp your passport and fix the next 90-day reporting date.

Although they look quite the same, they differ. The Non Immigrant OA Visa Retirement requires a health insurance, the Non Immigrant O Visa Retirement does not.
The Health insurance must be valid for the duration of the visa with a minimum of THB40,000 inpatient cover and THB400,000 inpatient cover.

Alternatively, if you have a monthly income of not less than THB65,000 per month, this would be acceptable. A copy of an entire year’s bank statement showing the regular income entries into your account should suffice.
You can also show a combination of savings held in a Thai bank account and an incoming with the total being not less than THB800,000 per annum.

No, if you are above age 50 and can show not less than 800,000 baht on your Thailand’s bank account for at least 3 months before your application, that is sufficient for the funds requirements.

Your 1-year renewal retirement visa requires that you submit this application one month before your current visa expires. If you miss that deadline, you will have to start the whole process from scratch (the same as you did for your first application). This means that you will need to get the 3 months initial visa and then apply for the extension of 12 months.
Note: each application must be done one month before expiration of any current visa. Many emigrants miss that critical point and find themselves in trouble when extending their visa. With Staatenlos, we keep record of your deadlines (if you wish so) and remind you about related extension’s obligations.

No, you are not allowed to work in Thailand with a Retirement visa, or an Education visa or even an Elite visa.

Working in Thailand is very regulated. Compliance with the Thai rules are essential if you want to enjoy your stay in the country.
To obtain a work permit, you must be hired by a Thai company, or setup your company and apply for a work permit as one of the 4 other Thai staff employed by your company.

The 4 key criteria to decide for which visa to go with in Thailand depend on:
- your objective (retirement, study, work, company set-up, …)
- your age (above age 50 or below)
- your funds
- the length of period you wish to stay in the country

The Retirement visa is among the most popular because it requires little funds to start with. Choosing this visa allows you to use your minimum deposit for your daily expenses, provided that you respect the strict rule of having not less than 400,000 baht left in your bank during the first 4 months and during the 4 last months of your Retirement visa.

The Education visa does not require a bank account but restricts your travels abroad. You may find difficulties entering Thailand if you did not stay the whole year of your visa, implying that you may have to re-start the visa application from scratch with even risks of not obtaining it.

Here, you don’t have to report every 90 days at the Immigration Office, since you must extend your visa every 90 days.

In terms of paperwork, it’s the easiest visa but it is not less expensive than the retirement visa (which allows you to travel provided that you do the necessary for re-entry permit).

The Elite visa is the best offer if you have sufficient funds to ‘buy’ this visa. It is the most expensive visa (because the price that you pay is not a fund available for your living in Thailand – as opposed to the retirement visa funds), but also the most suitable for staying long-term in Thailand. It allows you to stay for minimum 5 years and up to 20 years (based on the Elite category that you buy), and you can add your family if you choose the right category.

With an Elite visa, you still must do the 90-day reporting at the Immigration Office.

Although you have the right for a stay of 5 to 20 years in Thailand, you still must get an annual stamp in your passport during the whole period of your visa.

The 90 days reporting (TM47) applies to all foreigners living in Thailand, including Thailand Elite Visa holders, who stay in Thailand more than 90 days.
If your visa allows you to travel but you find yourself abroad at the time of reporting, you must do it upon re-entry (within 48 hours).

The Immigration Office allows a little margin. 90-day Reporting can be completed 14 days before or up to 7 days after the reporting date. However, failure to report after this period will result in a THB2,000 penalty and should you be arrested, the fine will increase to THB4,000 and could result in jail time and be added to the Immigration “blacklist” which could hinder visa applications in the future.
We strongly advise to pay careful attention to the dates (our staff can do the 90-days report on your behalf).

Yes. This report only needs to present your passport at the Immigration Office and fill-in the appropriate documentation as regards your current address in Thailand. A stamp for the next 90-days report date will be put in your passport. Our staff in Thailand can do this on your behalf (with your passport of course).

Yes you can, provided that you meet all the requirements for the new visa. Beware that, in doing so, the remaining time of your current visa will be lost. For example, if you have 2 years remaining in your Elite visa, and you decide to apply for a Non Immigrant O Visa for marriage reasons, you will lose your Elite visa.

The Retirement visa allows you to stay in the country up to 15 months the first time. If you stay in the kingdom more than 180 days in any calendar year, you become taxable in Thailand. This is also true if you have a Retirement visa.
As a retirement visa holder, you are not allowed to work in Thailand (therefore, you may not have local income). As per the new tax rules 2024, your foreign-sourced income shall be subject to personal taxes in Thailand if such income is remitted into the Kingdom from now on.
However, if you can justify that your foreign income was earned before 2024, you will not be imposed on those revenues if you bring them to Thailand at any time.
On the other hand, if you stay less than 180 days in a calendar year, you are not a tax resident and PIT in Thailand does not apply to your foreign-sourced income (even if brought into Thailand).
More developments will occur in this field; we will advise in due time on them.

Many categories of visa allow you to attach your family. However, the
partner/wife/husband must be eligible for the same visa type; for example for a retirement visa both partners must be aged above 50 years.

For children, it depends on the targeted visa: they must be under 20 years (or else …) Should you want to emigrate to Thailand with your family, contact us and we will provide you the appropriate information for the existing “family packages”.