Thailand DTV Visa 2024: Everything You Need to Know About the DTV

Overview

In this webinar, we discuss the anticipated Destination Thailand Visa (DTV), which is set to offer new opportunities for those seeking a long-term stay in Thailand. We explore the expected changes, potential application requirements, and the benefits this visa could provide. Stay informed about this upcoming visa option and prepare for your extended stay in Thailand.

Key Takeaways

  • Anticipated Updates: Insights into the expected features of the visa.
  • Eligibility Criteria: Preliminary information on who might qualify for the DTV.
  • Application Process: What the application process might be, once the visa is rolled out.
  • Benefits: Potential advantages of the DTV for long-term stays in Thailand.
  • Expert Tips: How to stay prepared and informed about the rollout of the DTV.
 

Transcription

Mark Friedman: Hi. Hello, everyone.

Thanks for joining us today. We probably have a few more joining. As we get started, but before we begin, we just have a few housekeeping items. Copter, if you can go to the first slide, I’d appreciate that. Great. So we’re going to do the Q&A at the end of the webinar. It’s always been a great part of it to interact with you all and answer your questions.

It also helps inform us as to what kind of information is important to put out there. You’ll see an icon that says Q&A, on the space bar above. And you can just click on that, type in your question. We’ll try to get to all the questions, uh, before the end of the presentation, but if there are any left over, we’re certainly going to try to put together an FAQ, and we’ll include that in future blogs and on YouTube videos.

Second, don’t worry about getting all of this down. We’re going to share a recording. It’ll probably go up in two to three days. Following this presentation,  they’re free to download. We have recordings for other webinars available to you. So take notes if you will, but if you miss something, don’t worry about it.

And then finally, we got a great turnout tonight. A bonus for all of those participating and we’ll talk about that at the end. So let’s introduce the team here. I’m Mark. I’m the founder and managing director of Baan Thai. I’m an American lawyer. I’ve been a member of the California Bar since 1987.

And I lead our outbound group that’s helping Thai nationals and other people in the region either immigrate or visit abroad, uh, with a focus on the United States, of course, UK, EU, and Australia. Um, unfortunately, it’s the beginning of the rainy season here and apparently there’s a bug going around, so Roy was unable to join us.

Roy is a graduate with a law degree from Thammasat University. He’s fluent in English and Thai. He spent 10 years in big law, focusing on helping expats start businesses here in Thailand and then, helping them obtain their attendant visas and work permits. So. You’ll meet boy at another time.

 

Thitsana: Hi everyone.

I’m see, I’m French and Thai. So you were here the French accent, but I also can speak Thai and English. I graduated from from Paris. I must say in international business law and from Cambodia with a master degrees in international and comparative comparative law. I’ve been working at Baan Thai Immigration Solution for one year already, and I’ve been focusing mainly on LTR visa.

Mark Friedman: Excellent, and Tea is also conversational in Spanish and Russian, so we know who the real brains of the outfit are here.

Mark Friedman: Okay, so what are we going to cover this evening? Let’s jump into the substance today. DTV or destination Thailand visa is. We’re going to cover who’s it for and sort of the process, at least what we know now.

And then we’re going to do a comparison of the DTV visa and other visas that you may be considering or that might be available to you. Again, any questions that come up, click that Q&A button and let us know. So where are we today? Well, the destination Thailand visa was announced, um, on May 28th. It was approved by the Thai cabinet.

It hasn’t been formally adopted yet. It needs to be published in what’s called the Royal Gazette

and endorsed by His Majesty. So use this webinar for information and planning purposes only. And then as we get additional information, we’re certainly going to pass that along to you. We’re keeping a keen eye out on the news and the Royal Gazette.

So we did get some feedback on social media platforms. So if it hasn’t been formally adopted yet, so why are we talking about this? I think that’s a perfectly fair question to ask. We think it’s likely quite likely that this will be adopted and will be adopted

in 2024. It’s part of a package of visa changes.

Announced by the prime minister’s cabinet that included holiday travelers. So people coming at some point this year visa exempt from places like the U.S. and the EU. and so on can stay for sixty days instead of thirty days of students who used to have to leave the country immediately upon graduation.

They’re now being encouraged and allowed to stay for an additional year. And then the DTV visa was an important part of this, action by the Thai government to encourage people to visit Thailand and stay here longer. And we’re going to talk in just a moment about, about who this covers. So we thought it was a good idea since it was likely to be adopted.

And we’re starting to talk to our prospective clients about this as a visa option, that for those of you who may be considering Thailand, as a place to spend more than just a holiday, or maybe you’re making your next international move to put this into your long range planning. So we appreciate we’re a little early with this, but we think that given the fact that these kinds of moves do take some long range planning.

Better to be early than late. Okay, so let’s level set and talk for a moment about where Thailand is currently in terms of its immigration paradigm. If you’re over the age of 50 or you are supporting a Thai family married to a Thai national or have Thai children, It’s very easy to obtain a long term stay visa, typically a visa that you could extend annually, called a non O, non immigration, other visa.

And clearly, if you work for a Thai entity, or you teach here in Thailand, you’ll be entitled to a non B visa, and that’s, An easy way to stay here. And the other possibility is if you’re willing to make a larger investment in coming to Thailand, that could be an investment in the Visa itself, such as the privilege Visa.

Currently a five year Privilege Visa costs 900,000 Thai Baht, or about $5,000 per year. And or you are making a larger investment in the Kingdom itself. And under the long term resident visa offered by the Board of Investment, that would be a 500,000 investment. So what if you’re a younger person, you’re self employed, or you just want to immerse yourself in the culture?

My daughter introduced me to one of her friends. He’s a successful entrepreneur in his 20s from California. He wants to study Muay Thai here and he wants to do it for about six months. And, and the Muay Thai Academy he selected is not accredited, so he can’t get an ED visa there. For somebody like that, it’s been a difficult, um, a difficult way to find a path forward, and you kind of cobble together solutions.

That could be a non ED visa, that’s a temporary solution. It’s kind of disfavored by immigration because it’s been abused over time, and may have consequences down the line for other visas. For Or you can make border runs once your visa exempt stay starts to run out. But obviously that has a limited utility.

You can’t make border runs forever. So that’s why this visa program the destination thailand dtv visa is really a game changer For younger folks who don’t have a thai family, but really want to immerse themselves in thailand. So  let’s talk a little bit about uh the parameters for this

Thitsana: So as mark mentioned, uh, the DTV is really a big change It’s valid for for five years and it allows uh, stay for up to six months at a time That you can extend for six additional months Other than the LTR visa or the privileged visa, it’s the only visa that allows you to stay this long if you’re under 15 years old.

And the eligibility, the visa is quite broad. It’s anyone over 20 years old. And it’s also, it also includes your family, uh, your spouse and children up to 20 years old. The cost is 10,000 baht for five years, which is about 275$.

Mark Friedman: So if you think about this for just a minute, this looks a little bit like, uh, the U.S. Tourist B1, B2 visa, which you get for 10 years, but allows stays for up to six months at a time. So we think this is a very valuable visa. And with the extension, You actually could be here for an entire year. We’ll talk about some tax implications for that a bit later on.

And the fact that it also includes spouses and children is much different than the U.S. Tourist visa, or frankly, the remote working visa or digital nomad visas offered around the world. So this is quite a valuable visa product for 10,000. So who’s it right for, Tea?

Thitsana: The DTV is great for anyone working remotely, so you can come open your laptop and sit in Thailand to work at the beach or at the mountains.

It’s also for people considering to make Thailand their home base. It could be for cultural immersion. If you, if you want to take classes, uh, culinary classes or Muay Thai classes in an academy that is not accredited by the government to sponsor you for the, for the ED visa, it could be a great option.

Also, for extended medical treatment or could be for cultural events.

Mark Friedman: So obviously this is quite broad, and you know, there is a remote worker provision under the LTR visa, but that’s and that’s a 10 year visa, but that’s exclusively for somebody working for a major company, either a publicly traded company or a company doing 50 million in revenues every year.

So if you are a consultant, if you’re a freelancer, this is the kind of visa that allows you to, you know, close up your, your shop, um, or your home, uh, in some Western country and really immerse yourself and find a great neighborhood in Thailand and work here for, for a while. So let’s talk a little bit about the other qualifications.

Thitsana: So as I mentioned, it’s for people over the age of 50 years old. And you need to show financial capability. What does that mean for now? We know that it has to be a deposit and that they will accept any documents as long as it’s in Thai or English. You can also, as I mentioned before, also you can also bring your spouse and children, to prove the relationship.

A birth certificate or marriage certificate will probably be sufficient without legalization, as long as it’s in English or in Thai. And like other long term visas, they will likely check your history of stay and check if you ever overstayed in Thailand. for your time.

Mark Friedman: Yeah, so always a good idea when you come here, observe your, your period of stay and try to avoid those overstays.

They can be costly, not only from a daily fine perspective, but from how immigration views you when you’re asking for a different visa stamp. And just to put this in some kind of context, you know, I think I mentioned there’s about 50 countries around the world, Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Greece, Portugal, the Bahamas.

that offer this kind of program. Typically what we’re seeing in terms of financial requirements Our salary requirements anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 a month, so if you kind of take the middle range of that, it’s about our financial requirement of about 36,000 a year in income. Thailand is kind of at the low end of the range.

That may reflect the lower cost of living here and the fact that it is a six month visa. But we think that 500,000 Thai baht requirement is pretty reasonable when you look at other similar places. visa programs around, around the planet. Also, unusually, it will include spouses and children. Most visa programs don’t, so we think that that’s a, an added benefit if you’re, if you’re traveling with your family.

And then finally, there will be some due diligence. Immigration is, the Bureau of Immigration is responsible for stamping every visa in, and we’ll talk about process in just a little while here. But again, if you’ve got some overstays where you’ve had a visa history, with the kinds of visas that have kind of fallen into disfavor with immigration, that’s a conversation we can have with you, and we may be able to work, okay?

So to be announced, I’ll, I’ll take this one if you’re okay with that, is the start date. We just don’t know. And again, as I said, this was part of a package of changes to drive economic growth and drive people to come into Thailand in 2024. There were some additional visa changes that were announced that we’re going to implement in 2025, primarily focused on the 90 visa.

So again, we’re reasonably optimistic that 2024 is going to be the start and probably in the fall, but we’ll, we’ve been surprised one way or the other from time to time, and that’s completely within the discretion. of the government. So how is this going to work? the application process and timing for approval?

We think it’s likely to be online. Thailand has made, some tremendous advancements in, in online filing and online reporting. And if you look at this kind of like a 90 day, uh, non O visa filing from your home country, um, we think it’s going to follow along those lines. Now, if it’s through your local Royal Thai Embassy or consulate, that’s an organization that’s overseen by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or MOFA, and then Thai Immigration will then look at your documentation and they’ll be the ones, that agency will be the one to stamp you in.

So we think it’s likely that both government agencies are going to be involved in the, in the application process. Thanks. Um, the online process that MOFA has created for other visas is actually quite effective and quite easy to use, and it’s quite easy to upload documents, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that presenting your information, uh, to the government will be easy.

In terms of application timing, we think that’s going to depend on demand. Uh, if the demand trickles in, it could be quite quick, but if the demand kind of becomes overwhelming, you know, so plan on anywhere from weeks to maybe months, but we have to just see what the demand, uh, creates their proof of financial capability team mentioned the 500,000 type bot.

Um, so when you’re applying for, for example, a non retirement visa. and need to show financial capability of 800,000 Thai Baht. Um, immigration is accepting proof of that through bank statements in either English or Thai without certification or further legalization. And we suspect that that’s going to be the paradigm here.

We don’t know that, but we think if it was an income requirement, uh, it would have been expressed like that as it is in other jurisdictions. And we mention insurance here because that financial capability requirement is really to give the Thai government some assurance that you’ll be able to support yourself while you’re here.

I would say about 20 to 25 percent of these kind of programs globally require some kind of health insurance, just in case you have an upset in that country and, uh, The government in that country can be assured that you’ll be able to, you know, take care of your hospital bills. The cabinet didn’t mention whether they’re going to require insurance.

They do for the LTR visa program, and they do for the non OA program, which is an annual retirement program. So we don’t know but put that into your thinking as a possibility. And finally, they did mention the fees for both the five year visa. Again, we think it’s very reasonable at 275 and then an extension for another 275.

They didn’t mention fees for family members. We think that there will be an additional 10,000 fee for each family member. That would be in keeping with Um, how the BOI and immigration charges for the LTR visa. Again, we’re extrapolating from our experience with other visa programs, but for planning purposes, just put that into your thinking.

So let’s talk about your favorite subject, tax. You know, if you’re in Thailand for less than six months, Then you won’t be considered taxed domiciled here. You’ll still be domiciled in your home country, so don’t worry about it. But because you can extend this visa for an additional six months, once you’re here for 181 days, you’ll be considered taxed domiciled in Thailand.

So as a U.S. Citizen, as long as I hold a U.S. Passport, I will be forever taxed domiciled in the U.S., and because I live here now most of the year, I also am taxed domiciled in Thailand, so lucky me, I have two taxed domiciled. The current rule is that you’re taxed on income you bring into Thailand. So if you’re here for six months, and you pay a lot of things with a credit card through your home bank, and you don’t bring that money into Thailand, that won’t be taxed to the extent you’re bringing money into the country.

That would be subject to tax once you’re domiciled. Now the Revenue Department recently announced a possible change to include all income. So that would be a big change. That hasn’t gone into effect yet, and we don’t know whether it will. But again, for planning purposes, put that in your thinking. So to get outside of the chicken little kind of, um, attitude about taxation, um, you should also consider, if you do want to stay here for the year, tax treaties with your home country.

Most jurisdictions have tax treaties with Thailand. Those are typically double taxation agreements, so that to the extent that your income is taxed in, for example, the United States or the UK, you should consider staying here for the year. and you report it here in Thailand because you’re tax domiciled here, you can get credit for the amount of money you’ve already paid in tax.

Okay. Um, similarly, if you’re paying tax, uh, on income in Thailand, you can get a credit back for your home country, as long as they have EDTA in effect. There are also exclusions for income. So if your double taxation treaty excludes, for example, government pensions or social security, as the tax treaty with the United States does.

That won’t be subject to tax. And finally, there is tie allowances. Including age, uh, medical expense, and so on, um, that would exclude some of your income. The final thing I’d say is, as you kind of do your planning and pencil all of this out, is don’t forget, don’t forget the cost of living differential between most Western countries and Thailand.

I think in terms of rent and groceries alone, you’ll see a substantial savings here. Apartments in Los Angeles. I know this because I have two daughters living there are in the 1,500 to 2,000 a month range for a pretty decent place here that same apartment might cost you 300 or 400 in Bangkok. And obviously if you go into the countryside, it would be cheaper than that.

So yeah, There is a cost of living differential that you can put into your thinking, uh, as you work through these tax implications. The final thing I’d say about tax is I’ve never regretted hiring a good tax advisor. I’m terrible with math. I’m great with the language. So, um, you know, it’s, it’s, I think, always advisable if you’re going to make a major move like this to talk to somebody with some tax experience and get some good advice.

Okay, so that’s the tax. Um, now let’s just talk through comparing the DTV program as it’s been announced and with some other visa options that might be available to you and what might be better. I’m going to take the first one and then Tia is our LTR expert. She’s going to take the second one. But the non OBs are.

Typically for folks over the age of 50, there’s a retirement visa or if you’re married, uh, or have Thai dependents, that’s non immigrant other visas. So if you’re thinking about really making Thailand your home and you fit into those categories, we think the non O visa might be better for you. You can open a Thai bank account.

With a non O marriage visa, you could obtain a work permit. So if you start to generate income or start to work in the kingdom, you can do that without having to change your visa. And the other benefit for a non O marriage or dependent visa is really it puts you on a possible pathway to permanent residency, which is really the only way to immigrate to Thailand.

So there’s a lot of advantages to the non O visa program as opposed to the DTV. However, if you’re looking at Thailand as a possible home and you really haven’t made up your mind yet, What a great way to spend six months or up to a year here getting immersed in Thai culture, checking out different neighborhoods, and so on, and being more than a tourist, uh, and getting to know the country really, really well, and we think the DTV visa suits, uh, that purpose, uh, exceedingly well.

So why don’t we compare DTV to the LTRs. As Tim mentioned, there’s only a few multiyear visas. DTV will be one of those LTRs in 10 years.

Thitsana: So the LTR visa is a 10 years multiple entry, uh, visa. It’s, uh, the financial requirements are higher than, than the one with the DTV, with the DTV, and if you qualify for LTR Visa, you should consider it because it offers more benefit than DTV and then other type of visa.

Mainly the tax exemption on the income from abroad that you bring in Thailand, it’s exempted if you hold a LTR visa. You can also work under a certain category of LTR visa, which, we don’t think we will, you will be allowed to work on DTV since it’s for a digital nomad coming to work from home in Thailand.

And work from Thailand category of visa under LTR visa doesn’t allow you to work for a Thai company too, so. And, um, under the LTR visa, you can stay more than six months. You don’t have to; to extend or you don’t have to leave the country to, to add six months to your stay. And the last, the last benefit that I will tell you is that, uh, you have a one-year report instead of 90 day report under other type of visa.

Mark Friedman: Well said. And so if we just conceptualize this a bit, if you’re, for example, like an airline pilot, And you work for a publicly traded airline. Let’s say Cathay Pacific. I’m just making one up and you want to use Thailand as your home base. The LTR visa would be great because you get the tax exemption.

It’s a 10 year visa settle in. And if you’re. a wealthy retiree and you generate a lot of passive income or you committed to making Thailand your home and you’re going to invest some significant sum here. Boy, the LTR offers a wide array of benefits. However, the DTV, again, if you’re Not certain you want to be here or you just want to be here intermittently or in a few years You’re gonna pick your next destination I’ll be the right piece and then the final multiyear visa is Thailand privilege and T is an authorized agent For the Tourist Authority of Thailand for the Thailand privilege visa Clearly there are large cost differences between these two visa programs 10,000 versus 9,000 So why would you even consider the privileged visa?

Let me give you a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s a bird in the hand, right? It is a well established program. It used to be called Elite. It’s been around for a second. It allows unlimited access, uh, to the kingdom. You can stay multiple years. In fact, all five years if you purchase a five-year privilege visa.

You do need to check in and extend that with immigration, but that’s a simple process to go through. They do have a points reward program, and think of this as a kind of a high end concierge program. So, at 5, 000 US dollars a year equivalent, um, that’s kind of the cost of the privileged visa. Again, you may want to pencil in the cost of living difference between, you know, major cities in the West and Thailand and maybe that pencils out.

So it is a valuable and easy to apply for an easy to use visa program. And if ease of access to Thailand is, is kind of in your wheelhouse and that’s most important for you and you’re less price sensitive, privilege still has its day. Okay. Um, I know that we’ve given you a lot of information. About long term visas and we’ve done it very quickly and that’s not really fair But you know, we’re we have a limited period of time and I’m sure folks are interested in

Are answering some of your questions and also getting to dinner tonight The good news is we try to be the trusted voice on these matters and offer you free resources.

So if you go to the resources section of our website We did a prior webinar on your long term visa choices outside of DTV. You can download that and just listen. And if you learn better or you accept information better in writing, we also have a guide you can download. Or you can always send us questions at hello@btisolutions.co

Roy or Tea or Mint or one of our counselors here would be happy to answer those. And we also believe in hosting initial conversations, free consultations. to chat with people, um, to help them strategize and then hopefully they’ll think we’re the right fit Go forward from there. But if not we want you to be comfortable and make good informed decisions about coming to Thailand. So we’re right on the half hour, which was our goal here was to spend a half hour with you Describing this new visa program and then spending some time answering your questions.

So thank you all very much for spending this time with us and as a small token of our appreciation for those that are with us today in the audience. If you engage Tea or Roy or one of our other competent And, and lovely, Thai legal counselors, uh, in, over the next month, will provide a 10 percent discount on their fees.

So, anyway, small token of our appreciation, so thank you. So let’s get into the Q&A now. Um, I know we do have some questions that folks have asked. So let’s go down to the first one, and I’m sorry, I’ve got older eyes, so I’m going to have to lean in here. So does the visa fee of 10,000 include dependents, the spouse, or is that extra?

It’s a great question. Judging by and extrapolating from other visa programs like the LTR program that allows you to bring up to four dependents to Thailand. The LTR, they charge for each dependent coming in, and I think that that’s fair because they’re going to look at each individual, each individual stay history.

They’re going to do their diligence at 275 per application. We think that that’s a pretty reasonable amount if you compare that globally to other similar programs. So, our guess, and it is a guess, That for each dependent you bring in, it’ll

probably be another one to take the next one.

Thitsana: So is the visa only for five years, or is it when you were able.

So, the first fee to pay is 10,000 bucks, and, um, and you have five years. And after you might be able to extend it, not to extend it to, uh, to apply again for the visa 10,000.

Mark Friedman: Yeah, and we just don’t know yet. Um, so, you know, the B1, B2 U.S. Program, you can, you can extend your, your, your visa or renew it.

Um, you know, five years is a long time. We don’t know if the program will be around after that. Um, but, you know, we, we also think that five years is a pretty generous time period. Most of these visa programs around the world, uh, are one year programs or up to three or four years, so. Five years is a long time frame, but as soon as we hear more, uh, about extensions or renewability, we’ll let you know that, but very good question.

Say we stay for six months, exit Thailand, and reenter. Uh, do we pay extra each time were enter? Um, you know, that, that’s, that’s a great question. You know, when the cabinet approved this and kind of rolled this out and made, made that announcement, um, they didn’t give us examples of all the possible entries and exits from the country.

We do know you can stay for six months at a time, and if you want to extend that stay for a solid, another six months. that would be an extra fee if you stayed for, let’s say, five months and 20 days and left for a month and came back in. Does that then start your next six-month period? We don’t know.

That seems to be a logical, um, a logical, uh, inclusion that would be okay to do. without paying anything extra. So we do know that the initial five years is 10,000. We do know that if you stay beyond the 180 days and you do the extension, that’s another 10,000. It hasn’t been made clear if there’s a point at which you must exit and reenter and how long that exit period will be, but we’re going to

let folks know that as soon as we start getting examples.

Thitsana: Is it possible to stay for more than 180 days in the same calendar year? And if so, will I become a taxpayer in Thailand? And when will I receive my tax ID number? So yes, it’s possible to say for more than 180 days, like you can say six months and extend for six months or 10,000 baths. If you stay for more than 180 days, you become a tax resident in Thailand and you will have to, to file taxes and pay taxes to, you don’t receive the tax ID number automatically.

You have to go, uh, to the revenue department to, to apply, to register, uh, for a tax ID. Then after this, you can file a tax.

Mark Friedman: And there’s a number of revenue department offices around Bangkok. It’s not that difficult to do. They make it very easy for you to become taxed out, domiciled here and report your taxes.

Um, there’s also a number of, um, tax accountants. Names you’ll recognize like BDO and Pricewaterhouse, so on. But there’s local tax accountants that are great that can, that can help you out as well. Because I’m tax domiciled in two countries, I have a tax help in the U.S. I’ve got a great accountant in El Segundo, and I also have a lovely accountant here in Bangkok.

But you will need, as T said, to go to the Revenue Department, present some documents, make application, uh, including your place of residency, and then you’ll have your tax account. Great question. Thank you.

Does changing a new passport erase the visa history? Um, so if I understand this question, uh, correct, um, if you have a visa history here in Thailand immigration will have that visa history regardless of the passport. If you’re getting a new passport and you have your DTV or other visa stamps and those are still current, You can pay a fee, and you can have that visa stamp transferred to your new passport at, I think, any immigration office.

Is that correct? Or do they have to go to what, uh, John?

Thitsana: Usually for other type of visa, you have to go to the immigration office who issued the visa. So, it will be the same for the two.

Mark Friedman: Thank you, Eric. We appreciate that. and another question about the, the extent of stay. These are great questions. I wish, I wish we had, you know, full answers for you.

But this question is, does the DTV visa allow you 180 days per year for five consecutive years? Um, yes. I mean, when you get stamped in, [00:35:00] your visa will run for five consecutive years. And you let Wilma. And, and so, um, and then, you know, the visa will, will run, um, and, and that’ll be that. But yes, I think it’ll be five consecutive.

Okay. So, um, you want to answer this one.

Thitsana: I will need the visa next winter. Is there any benefit in applying as soon as it’s available? For example, could a requirement be changed to be modified by next winter? So the full requirements has not been announced yet, they, like, as they’re in the process of implementing and launching the visa, they may, uh, they may add requirements, clarify them, so we have to wait for when they launch the visa to know the specific requirements.

And if the visa is launched by this winter, yes, you could apply as soon as it’s available.

Mark Friedman: Now, I think to T’s point, the question is, when does that five years begin to run? For the LTR visa, once you’re approved, but until you’re stamped in, does it start to run? Or does it start to run from the moment you’re approved?

Thitsana: For the LTR the moment you approve the 10 years. We start from the moment you approve. So, my guess is that the DTV will be, will start at the moment it’s approved.

Mark Friedman: So, you may want to, from a strategic standpoint, if you’re going to wait until the following winter. To apply closer to the time you intend to come rather than apply the year before and start have your start have your visa time run out, right?

Or start to have that five years run. So again, we need to understand exactly what the starting point will be in terms of when when they consider that term to start to run. And then, um, the other thing to consider is how long approvals are taking, okay? Um, for, can those already living in Thailand now beyond the 181 days apply for the DTV or is this for new arrivals?

So, um, Ashley, I don’t know, um, currently what you’re residing under, um, in terms of your, in terms of your visa. And again, it may depend on the application process. So it’s like an e, excuse me, an e filing for a 90 day visa through Beauforth for your home countries, um, Royal Thai Embassy or Royal Thai Consulate.

You may have to leave. and go do that process abroad. Um, again, we just don’t know yet, but, um, we don’t see any problems or historically any problems of changing visa types. It would really depend on the kind of visa or, or your, your long

term stay here at the moment.

Let me read this one from

Colin. For the non O, the 800,000 needs to be in a Thai bank account. This is a great question, I had the same question. For the DTV visa, it looks like the money can be in your home bank account. You just need to provide a statement. We think that’s likely to be the case. Um, you know, this isn’t a situation where the DTV visa contemplates you being,

you know,

kind of a permanent resident here, not in a legal sense, but sort of making Thailand your permanent home.

Again, for the e filings, for the 90 day nonos, that’s proof of funds in your home. home country bank account. And again, that will need to be in English or in Thai. You can certainly get that translated.

That’s what we anticipate it’s going to have.

Erica, if one has an ED visa history, does changing a new passport before applying for the DTV erase the ED visa history? The answer is no. Um, immigration will have on file your visa history. regardless of what’s in your, in your, uh, in your, uh, passport. And also we assume that, um, part of this application process will be recounting your visa history, uh, with the, with Thailand.

They’re going to ask you to be transparent about that. Now with the privilege visa, ED visas can Create a speed bump, but not a bar to you receiving the privilege visa and what immigration is going to want to know is, was this a valid ED program? Did you attend? And so you’re going to have to fill in some additional information around that.

We anticipate that will probably be the case.

Another question, which countries are eligible for this type of visa? We’ve really seen no country restrictions announced at all. Now, Interestingly, um, Thailand is expanding as part of this program. The visa exempt countries from I think about 52 or 53 countries to 97 countries. So Thailand is looking to be more inclusive at this point.

Um, but we’re not aware of any countries that would be excluded, uh, from folks applying for

a DTV. It’s possible, but we haven’t seen it.

Let’s go down to the next one.

Yes, scroll down a bit, Copter, if you would. Oh, we’ve already, we’ve already handled that. Okay. All right. Let’s take,

One more question. Um, and so someone asked, you mentioned being able to work remotely. What if I start to have clients in Thailand? Um, that’s a very good question.

So remote work means that all of the income that you’re deriving from your activity, if you’re a freelance writer or a consultant or whatever, comes from clients or overseas. Once you start generating income, in Thailand or doing consulting work for a Thai company. Thai labor laws and immigration laws are very strict in that regard.

And so any revenue you generate here would require a work permit and either working for a Thai entity that would sponsor you for that work permit or forming your own Thai entity that would then sponsor you in. And you need to be quite careful about generating, uh, income within the kingdom and having that, uh, and having that work permit and observing the strictures of labor law here.

Uh, the enforcement mechanisms are quite severe and you could end up actually with what amounts to a lifetime ban in the kingdom if you don’t do that. So if you’re coming here to work remotely, that’s great. Work remotely, keep your clients overseas, generate your revenue overseas. But if you’re starting, uh, because of your time here, to generate business interest within Thailand, talk to somebody that, that knows compliance and that might be able to, uh, set you up in business here, so that you’re, so that you’re in compliance with Taiwan.

Okay? I think we’ve exhausted the questions. We’re about 45 minutes in, which is where we like to, where we like to, uh, end these things. Um, we really appreciate the engagement interaction. Uh, this has been terrific. Uh, please stay tuned to our YouTube channel. Check in if you want to sign up for a newsletter.

We are going to produce, uh, more information about the DTV visa program. As soon as it’s available and, uh, especially when this has been published in the Royal Gazette and we have a sense of when these applications will be available. So, T, thank you for your help this evening. Kopter, thank you. And, um, until next time, folks, thanks a lot for participating.

Thitsana: Thank you for attending, everyone. Thank you.