Thailand — Visas

Easy to arrive, hard to stay for good

Thailand is generous with time and stingy with status. A foreigner can spend a decade here lawfully, renewing and re-entering, and finish that decade holding exactly the immigration status they started with. The long stay is a product this country sells well. Permanent residence is not.

The routes on the table are the 30-day visa exemption30-day visa exemptionSince 15 September 2026, Thailand's unilateral visa-free entry for tourism and short business trips, granted to passport holders of 60 countries and territories. It allows up to 30 days, extendable by up to 30 more at an immigration officer's discretion. It replaced the 60-day exemption that had covered 93 countries. at the border, the DTVDTVA five-year multiple-entry visa for remote workers and freelancers ('workcation'), for Thai soft-power activities such as Muay Thai, cooking courses or medical treatment, and for their spouses and children. Each entry allows 180 days, extendable once by up to 180 days. Applicants must show 500,000 THB in the bank. for remote workers, the LTRLTR visaA 10-year (5+5) visa run by Thailand's Board of Investment in four categories: Wealthy Global Citizens, Wealthy Pensioners, Work-from-Thailand Professionals and Highly-Skilled Professionals. It replaces the 90-day report with a yearly one, exempts holders from re-entry permits and carries tax benefits under Royal Decree 743. from the Board of InvestmentBOIThailand's investment-promotion agency. It sets the criteria for, and endorses applicants to, the LTR visa and the startup-only SMART visa., the SMART visaSMART-S visaThe only surviving track of Thailand's SMART visa since February 2025 (BOI Announcement Por. 5/2568). It is for founders of certified startups in targeted industries who show 600,000 THB held for three months; the former talent, investor and executive tracks were folded into the LTR visa. for startup founders, the O-ANon-Immigrant O-AThailand's one-year retirement long-stay visa for applicants aged 50 or over. It requires 800,000 THB in the bank, or a 65,000 THB monthly income, or a combination totalling 800,000 THB a year, plus health insurance of 3,000,000 THB (USD 100,000) per policy year. Employment is prohibited. and O-XNon-Immigrant O-XA 5+5-year retirement visa for applicants aged 50 or over from a fixed list of nationalities. It requires 3 million THB in a Thai bank, or 1.8 million THB plus 1.2 million THB a year in income. The visa fee is 10,000 THB. retirement visas, and Thailand PrivilegeThailand PrivilegeA fee-paid membership that comes with a long-stay visa. Tiers range from Bronze (650,000 THB, 5 years) to Reserve (5,000,000 THB, 20 years). It does not lead to permanent residence., a membership with a visa attached. Not one of them converts into permanent residence by itself.

That status runs on a separate track: an annual quota of 100 places per nationality, opened for a filing window of under four weeks. It has its own section near the end of this chapter, and it is the wall every route below runs into.

The visa-exempt regime most readers will arrive on changed on 15 September 2026, and this chapter is checked against the rules in force that day. Start at the border: the first stamp shapes everything after it.

Visa-free entry after 15 September 2026: 30 days, not 60

The 60-day visa exemption is gone. A Cabinet resolution in May 2026 revoked it for 93 countries and territories at once, and the scheme that replaced it took effect on 15 September 2026. Travellers who entered under the old rules keep the stay already stamped in their passports.

60 countries and territories now hold the shorter exemption: 30 days on arrival for the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Türkiye and all 27 EU member states, among others. An immigration officer may add up to the same again, and the embassy wording is blunt that the decision is theirs alone. A month is the entitlement. Two months is a ceiling you may be granted.

The extension fee belongs to the Immigration Bureau, whose site could not be read for this chapter, so no figure appears here. The number circulating on forums is unverified. Ask at the immigration office where you would actually file.

Below that list the scheme narrows fast. Seychelles and Mauritius, 2 countries in total, get half of the 30-day stay. Visa on ArrivalVisa on ArrivalA visa issued at designated Thai immigration checkpoints for a 2,000 THB fee. Since 15 September 2026 it is available only to passport holders of Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia. at THB 2,000 survives on a list cut from 31 countries to three: Belarus and Serbia, which already had it, and Azerbaijan, which is new to it.

Bilateral agreements were left alone, which matters if your passport is not on the unilateral list. China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Laos, Macao, Mongolia, Russia, Timor-Leste and Vietnam hold agreements worth 30 days. That is not the same as nothing changing: every one of them except Timor-Leste was also on the revoked scheme, so its nationals fall back from 60 days. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and South Korea keep 90 days.

The cash rule is the one people forget: THB 20,000 per person or THB 40,000 per family, in cash or its equivalent. The embassy page states the requirement and says nothing about how often anyone checks it at the counter. Have the money anyway.

Two details are missing from the consular infographic and rest on a single, secondary source. According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Ministry of Interior announcements appeared in the Royal GazetteRoyal GazetteThailand's official journal. Laws, royal decrees and ministry or committee notifications take legal effect only once published there, often 'from the day following publication'. Many rules that affect foreigners, such as alcohol sale hours and visa-exemption lists, change by Gazette notice rather than by new legislation. at the end of August 2026, and visa-exempt entries through land borders are limited to 2 per calendar year, with nationals of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore outside that limit.

Sources: MFA Department of Consular Affairs, summary and infographic of the 2026 visa-exemption and VoA revision, status 31 August 2026; Royal Thai Embassy Washington, page updated 15 September 2026; TAT Newsroom, 1 September 2026. Figures last verified 15 September 2026.

Thirty days buys a holiday. Everything below is what people use when they mean to stay.

The DTV: five years built out of 180-day stays

The DTV lasts five years and nobody spends five years on it without leaving. Validity is 5 years with multiple entries, each entry admits the holder for 180 days, and the Immigration Bureau can extend that once by up to the same again. Then you fly out and come back to start the cycle over.

It covers 3 groups: workcation applicants, meaning remote employees, freelancers and digital nomads; people here for Thai soft-power activities such as Muay Thai, culinary training or medical treatment; and the spouse and children under 20 years of age of a holder.

The money test is where applications come apart. THB 500,000 has to be in the account in every one of those categories, dependants included, and the employment contract or portfolio a remote worker submits is an extra document rather than a substitute for the balance.

How long the balance must sit is decided mission by mission. Washington asks for three monthly statements, each closing above the threshold; Helsinki accepts one recent statement. The fee works the same way, set in local currency: $ 400 in Washington, € 350 in Helsinki. No baht figure appears on either page.

Two missions have made the file heavier. Helsinki, in an update dated August 2026, requires a criminal-record certificate in every category and asks applicants who are not Finnish or Estonian citizens for permanent residence in one of those countries. Washington asks non-US citizens for a permanent resident card or a US visa valid for at least six months. Other missions set their own rules, so read the page of the one you would file with.

Two widely repeated claims are not supported either way by the pages read for this chapter. Nothing on them bans applying from inside Thailand, and nothing lists language schools among the soft-power examples or rules them out. Both deserve a direct question to the mission before you book a flight or a course.

What the DTV grants is permission to keep coming back, not a residence status, and five years of it leave the holder where they began. It also complicates ordinary life: some Thai banks decline DTV holders outright, which the banking chapter sets out.

LTR: ten years, four categories, and what the 2025 rewrite changed

The LTR is the Board of Investment’s answer to where wealthy foreigners should live. The first grant runs 5 years and stretches to 10 years in all, but the second half is not automatic: BOI endorses the qualifications again before the extension is issued, and the conditions have to still hold on that day.

Wealthy Global Citizen is the door with no income test at all. It asks for $ 1,000,000 in total assets, of which $ 500,000 must sit inside Thailand, in Thai government bonds, in direct or SEC-registered fund investment in Thai companies, or in property. There is no minimum age on this category either.

Wealthy Pensioner starts at 50 years and requires the applicant to be retired when they file. The bar is $ 80,000 a year of pension or fixed income, and BOI will not count a salary towards it. Below that, $ 40,000 qualifies if it arrives with $ 250,000 invested in Thailand.

Work-from-Thailand Professional is for employees of foreign companies: $ 80,000 averaged over the two years before filing, or $ 40,000 for an applicant with a master’s degree in any field, owned intellectual property or Series A funding behind them. The employer faces a test of its own. It must be listed on a stock exchange somewhere, or private with at least three years of trading and $ 50,000,000 of revenue combined across those three years rather than in any single one. Holders in this category get no Thai work permit.

Highly-Skilled Professional needs a contract with a targeted-industry employer and the same $ 80,000, or $ 40,000 with a science or technology master’s or demonstrated expertise in the field. Staff of public universities and research agencies face no income floor. The work-experience clause that used to sit in this category is gone from the text.

The 2025 rewrite is widely reported as having abolished the LTR’s money thresholds, and it did no such thing. BOI Announcement Por. 3/2568, announced in February 2025, removed the Global Citizen income test, cut the employer revenue bar and dropped the experience clause. It left $ 80,000 and $ 500,000 standing exactly where they were.

All four categories need health cover of $ 50,000, or Thai social security, or a deposit of $ 100,000 held for twelve months. Every condition has to be maintained for the life of the visa, investments and balances included. On dependants, BOI’s own site states a maximum of 4 per holder, while the announcement sets no number and adds parents to the definition.

Collected in Thailand the visa costs THB 50,000 a person, and BOI warns that missions abroad charge considerably more. Holders working for a Thai entity keep a digital work permit for THB 3,000. Reporting is lighter than on any other long stay: the cycle stretches to 1 year with a TM.95TM.95The annual report that replaces the 90-day report (TM.47) for Long-Term Resident (LTR) visa holders who stay in Thailand for a year without leaving. in place of the 90-day report, though TM.30TM.30Notification of a foreigner's place of residence to Thai immigration, filed by the housemaster, owner, possessor or hotel manager where the foreigner stays. Still required even for LTR visa holders. residence notification still applies.

Tax follows the category. Highly-Skilled Professionals can have withholding on salary from a targeted-industry employer capped at 17 % where the progressive scale would take more, final only if they claim no refund or credit, while Royal Decree 743 exempts foreign income brought into Thailand for the other three categories and not for them. How that meets the remittance rules is the taxes chapter.

Sources: BOI Announcement No. Por. 3/2568 (unofficial English translation) and Por. 4/2568; ltr.boi.go.th, including its FAQ; Royal Decree issued under the Revenue Code No. 743 B.E. 2565, sections 3 and 5. Figures last verified 15 September 2026.

Ten years is a long time to hold a visa that matures into nothing. The LTR grants no right to remain beyond its term, and none of those years counts towards permanent residence.

Startup founders: the SMART visa was narrowed, not abolished

The SMART visa survives. Relocation blogs keep reporting it abolished, and our own country brief once did the same. BOI Announcement Por. 5/2568, from February 2025, kept a single track: the founder of a startup. The talent, investor and executive tracks were folded into the LTR.

What it asks for is specific. A startup certified in a targeted industry, for instance by NIA or DEPA. A quarter of the capital or a seat on the board. THB 600,000 held for three months, plus THB 180,000 for each spouse or child. Health insurance covering the whole stay. In return the holder may work without a separate work permit.

The announcement does not state the visa term in language this chapter can quote, so no duration appears here. A freelancer with clients rather than a company is not what this route was built for, and the DTV is the closer fit.

Retiring on the O-A or O-X: the deposit is the easy part

Applicants for the O-A must be 50 years or over on the day they file, and show THB 800,000 in the bank, or THB 65,000 a month in pension or income, or a combination of the two reaching THB 800,000 across a year. Most readers clear that test comfortably. The insurance is what catches them.

The visa grants 1 year at a time, bans employment of any kind, and carries a notification of stay90-day reportNotification of stay that foreigners on long-stay visas such as the Non-Immigrant O-A must file with the Immigration Bureau after every 90 days of continuous stay in Thailand, on form TM.47. every 90 days for as long as the holder remains in the country.

Thai mission pages updated in September 2026 put first-application cover at THB 3,000,000, printed alongside $ 100,000, as the total sum insured per policy year. Qualifying policies are listed by the Thai insurers’ own long-stay portalTGIA long-stay insuranceHealth insurance policies for Thai long-stay visas (O-A, O-X), listed by the Thai General Insurance Association on its longstay.tgia.org portal. First-time O-A applicants need cover of at least USD 100,000 or 3 million baht. O-X holders need a Thai policy with at least 400,000 baht inpatient and 40,000 baht outpatient cover per year., and foreign policies are accepted on some mission pages and not others.

An older standard is still in circulation: THB 40,000 of outpatient and THB 400,000 of inpatient cover, printed on an undated embassy document in Warsaw and on an MFA page last touched in 2022. That is the earlier rule, not a cheaper option someone forgot to withdraw. Buying to the old numbers today is how a file gets returned.

What applies at renewal is unsettled. No reachable official page states the threshold for the second year or the third, so this chapter prints none. Confirm it with the insurer and with the immigration office that will handle the extension, well before the first renewal falls due.

The O-X is the longer instrument: THB 3,000,000 deposited in a Thai bank, 10 years in two equal blocks, the same age floor, and only for a fixed list of nationalities. The MFA’s 2022 page and a consulate page from 2026 disagree on how long that list is, so the mission that would issue it is the only place to check.

Retirement visas renew for as long as the money and the policy hold. They do not turn into anything else.

Thailand Privilege: paying up front for up to 20 years

Thailand Privilege is the state enterprise that used to sell the Thailand Elite card, and it charges one fee for a long-stay visa with an airport and concierge package wrapped around it. Bronze costs THB 650,000 and runs 5 years. Reserve costs THB 5,000,000 and runs 20 years.

Between them sit Gold at THB 900,000 for 5 years, Platinum at THB 1,500,000 for 10 years and Diamond at THB 2,500,000 for 15 years. The packages sold before October 2023 are closed to new members.

Before signing, set the fee against the LTR. A Privilege fee is spent and gone. The LTR’s $ 500,000 goes into bonds, a company or a flat and stays the holder’s asset while doing the same job of keeping them in the country. Anyone who can write a cheque for Reserve can afford to price both.

The most expensive tier buys 20 years of stay and not one step towards the status in the next section.

Permanent residence: 100 places per nationality, one short window a year

Permanent residence in Thailand is rationed rather than earned. A joint announcement of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Interior fixes the quota at 100 applicants per nationality for the year, plus 50 stateless persons, whatever the size of the community concerned.

The 2025 quota shows how narrow that is in practice. It was announced in February 2026, and applications on form TM.9TM.9The form used to apply for permanent residence in Thailand. It can be filed only during the annual quota window: 100 applicants per nationality and 50 stateless persons. For the 2025 quota, the window was 9 March – 3 April 2026. were accepted from 9 March 2026 to 3 April 2026, during official working hours only. Under four weeks of filing time, for a quota year that had already ended.

This chapter cannot tell you who qualifies. The eligibility criteria and the fees sit in Immigration Bureau documents that returned an error to every attempt to open them. So no requirement is stated here, including the minimum years on extensions that expat forums quote, and no claim is made about which visa categories may apply at all.

Route by route the arithmetic comes out the same. The chart below shows the longest stay each product sells.

The DTV renews by re-entry, the LTR by a fresh BOI endorsement, the O-A year by year, and Thailand Privilege by the size of the fee paid at the start. None of them, by itself, brings the holder to that quota window with a claim on one of the places.

Sources: Office of the Prime Minister and Ministry of Interior announcement of 26 February 2026 on the residence quota for 2568 (2025), as published by the Surat Thani provincial immigration office. The Immigration Bureau’s own guidance PDFs were unreachable on 15 September 2026.

Naturalisation: five years in the Act, and the gaps around it

The Nationality Act B.E. 2508 sets out naturalisationnaturalisationAcquiring Thai citizenship under section 10 of the Nationality Act B.E. 2508. It requires adulthood, good behaviour, a regular occupation, five consecutive years of domicile in Thailand and Thai-language knowledge. It is granted at the Interior Minister's discretion with Royal Assent, followed by an oath of allegiance. in a handful of lines. Section 10 asks for legal capacity, good behaviour, a well-founded occupation, domicile in Thailand for 5 years consecutive years up to the date of filing, and knowledge of the Thai language as prescribed by Ministerial Regulation.

Section 12 makes the grant discretionary. The Minister decides, and the applicant takes an oath of allegiance afterwards. Section 11 waives both the domicile and the language conditions for distinguished service to Thailand, for the child or spouse of a naturalised Thai, for former Thai nationals and for the husband of a Thai citizen. Wives of Thai citizens have their own route under section 9.

The gaps around that text matter more than the text itself. Whether permanent residence has to come first, how the language requirement is examined, what the fees are and how long a file sits on a desk are all questions this chapter could not settle against a primary source. So it does not answer them, and neither should anyone quoting a number at you without one.

Long before any of that, there is the paperwork that keeps an ordinary stay lawful.

Staying legal: TDAC, reports and the overstay trap

Thailand’s digital arrival cardTDACThailand's online arrival card, filed on the official Immigration Bureau site tdac.immigration.go.th. The official service charges no fee; sites that charge for it are not the government service. is filed online, and the official service charges THB 0. The host is tdac.immigration.go.th. Lookalike domains sell the same form and are not a government service. The submission window and the date the card became compulsory could not be read on the official page, so neither is stated here.

Reporting then depends on the route. Long-stay holders such as the O-A file a TM.47 every 90 days, LTR holders file a TM.95 once a year instead, and TM.30 residence notification is filed by the landlord or the hotel whatever visa sits in the passport.

Overstay costs THB 500 a day, capped at THB 20,000. The fine is the cheap part.

The re-entry banoverstay banRe-entry ban imposed by Thailand's Immigration Bureau for staying past your permitted date. If you surrender, overstays of over 90 days bring a 1-year ban, rising to 10 years for over 5 years. If you are arrested, the ban is 5 years for under a year's overstay and 10 years beyond that. There is also a fine of THB 500 per day, capped at 20,000. is the expensive part, and its asymmetry is what readers miss. Surrender at the airport and a ban follows only if the overstay ran past 90 days, beginning at 1 year and rising in steps to 10 years. Be stopped at a police check with less than a year of overstay and the ban is 5 years.

So the same short overstay costs money when you declare it on the way out and years of exclusion when somebody else finds it first. Bans run from the date of departure, not from the date the overstay began.

Pick the route, then turn it into dates: the Thailand checklist lists the filings and deadlines each one carries through the first year.

Frequently asked

How long can I stay in Thailand without a visa from 15 September 2026?▾

From 15 September 2026, 30 days for passport holders of 60 countries and territories, the US, UK, Canada, Australia and every EU state among them, with up to the same again at the immigration officer’s discretion. Seychelles and Mauritius get half of that. Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia need a Visa on Arrival at THB 2,000. Russia, China and Kazakhstan fall back from 60 days to the 30 days of their unchanged bilateral agreements, and Brazil and South Korea keep 90 days.

Can I extend a visa-exempt stay in Thailand, and how much does it cost?▾

By up to 30 days, and only if the officer agrees. The embassy wording puts that decision squarely with them, so it is not something to plan a lease around. The fee belongs to the Immigration Bureau, whose pages could not be opened for this chapter, so no figure is printed. Anyone counting on two months should treat the second one as possible rather than promised.

How much money do I need in the bank for a Thailand DTV?▾

THB 500,000, in every category, dependants included. Proof of remote work is an additional document rather than an alternative to the balance. How long the money must sit varies by mission: Washington asks for three monthly statements, Helsinki for one recent one. The fee is set locally, $ 400 in Washington and € 350 in Helsinki, and Helsinki has required a criminal-record certificate since August 2026, as Washington also does.

Can I apply for a Thailand DTV while I am in Thailand?▾

Ask the mission before you assume either answer. Applications run through the e-Visa system to a Thai mission abroad, and since August 2026 the Helsinki and Washington pages ask non-citizens to prove residence in their country. None of the embassy pages read for this chapter bans applying from inside Thailand. None confirms that it works either.

What are the Thailand LTR visa requirements in 2026?▾

Four categories. Wealthy Global Citizens show $ 1,000,000 in assets with $ 500,000 invested in Thailand, and face no income test. Wealthy Pensioners must be 50 years or over and retired, with $ 80,000 a year of pension or fixed income. Work-from-Thailand and Highly-Skilled applicants need $ 80,000, or $ 40,000 with a qualifying degree or credential. All four need $ 50,000 of health cover or an approved alternative.

What health insurance do I need for a Thai retirement visa?▾

For a first O-A application, Thai mission pages updated in September 2026 ask for THB 3,000,000, printed alongside $ 100,000, as the total sum insured per policy year. Some embassy documents still show the earlier split of THB 40,000 outpatient and THB 400,000 inpatient cover. What applies at renewal is not settled in any reachable official source, so confirm it with the insurer and your immigration office.

Does the DTV, LTR or Thailand Privilege lead to permanent residence?▾

No, not by itself. The DTV runs 5 years, the LTR 10 years and Privilege Reserve 20 years, and each simply ends when it ends. Permanent residence is a separate application against an annual quota of 100 places per nationality, with its own form, its own criteria and a filing window measured in weeks.

How do you get permanent residence in Thailand?▾

By filing form TM.9 inside the annual quota window. The quota is 100 applicants per nationality and 50 stateless persons. For the 2025 quota the window ran from 9 March 2026 to 3 April 2026, in office hours only. The eligibility criteria and the fees sit in Immigration Bureau documents that could not be opened for this chapter, so check those with the bureau itself.

What happens if I overstay in Thailand?▾

THB 500 for each day, up to a cap of THB 20,000, and then the question of a ban. Surrender on departure and a ban follows only if the overstay ran beyond 90 days, starting at 1 year and rising in steps to 10 years. Arrested with under a year of overstay, the ban is 5 years, counted from the day you leave.

Related chapters

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• 🧮TaxesPIT rates, regimes, treaties
• 💶Cost of livingRent, groceries, services