Start with the question nobody asks first
Americans comparing Thai visas almost always begin with duration and cost. Both matter, but they are downstream of a harder gate: is the company that pays you registered in Thailand, or outside it?
Thai long-stay visas divide work into two kinds, and the split is where the paying entity is registered — not your nationality, not where your laptop is.
| Kind of work | What it means | Visas that allow it |
|---|---|---|
| Working at a Thai company | You work for, or run, a company registered in Thailand — usually with a work permit, or a visa that replaces one. | Non-B; Non-O Marriage; Non-O Parent of Thai Child; LTR Wealthy Global Citizen; LTR Highly Skilled Professional; LTR Wealthy Pensioner; LTR dependents; SMART S |
| Remote work from Thailand | You work for a foreign employer while living in Thailand, are self-employed through a company outside Thailand, or freelance for clients outside Thailand. All revenue and income must be from outside Thailand. | DTV; LTR Work-from-Thailand Professional (WFT) |
Two consequences follow, and they are absolute:
- DTV and LTR-WFT holders are not allowed to derive any income or salary from any Thai company. LTR-WFT holders cannot obtain a Thai work permit at all — not a digital work permit, not an exemption.
- If you have a Thai job offer, neither the DTV nor LTR-WFT is your visa. The routes are the Non-B work visa, LTR-HSP if the role sits in a BOI targeted industry, SMART S if you are a founder or director of a Thai-registered startup, or a Non-O family route if you have a Thai spouse or child.
Everything below assumes you have answered that question. If your employer is outside Thailand, the DTV and LTR-WFT sections are yours. If your employer is in Thailand, skip to Working for a Thai company.
The visas at a glance
| Visa | Duration | Financial requirement | Who pays you |
|---|---|---|---|
| DTV | 5 years, multiple entry Up to 180 days per entry |
฿500,000 / $17,000 personal savings, maintained 3 months | Foreign employer / clients only |
| LTR (four categories) | 10 years (5 + 5) Continuous |
Varies by category — USD 80,000/year income, or USD 1,000,000 in assets | WFT: foreign only. HSP: employment in Thailand. WGC / WP: assets or passive income |
| Non-O Retirement | 90-day entry → 1-year extension → annual renewal | ฿800,000 / ~$24,000 savings (3 months seasoned), or ฿65,000 / ~$1,950 per month pension | n/a — age 50+, not working |
| Non-OA | 1 year, multiple entry, issued abroad | Same as Non-O Retirement, plus mandatory health insurance, medical certificate and criminal clearance | n/a — age 50+ |
| Elite (Thailand Privilege) | Membership 5–20+ years 1 year of stay per entry |
Membership fee only — no savings or income proof | n/a — no work authorisation |
The DTV: the default for American remote workers
The DTV is a 5-year multiple-entry visa for remote workers, freelancers, and soft-power or medical applicants who meet the savings and qualifying-activity gates. Validity runs from the visa issue date, not your first entry.
The financial gate: ฿500,000 / $17,000 in personal savings, maintained 3 months. For US applicants the embassy data specifies a 3-month maintenance window and a 3-month statement.
Stay: each entry allows up to 180 days. Not "six months", and not five years of continuous residence on one trip — the 5 years is your window to enter and re-enter, not your stay. On paper immigration may allow a further 180-day extension, but in practice extensions are often denied. The reliable approach is a border run and re-entry on the DTV before the stay permit ends. We do not file the in-Thailand DTV extension.
Minimum age: 20. Under 20, only as a dependent.
Qualifying activity — pick one track:
- Workcation — remote employment, freelance, or self-employment outside Thailand.
- Soft Power — Muay Thai or Thai cooking enrolment, minimum 9 months. Not a two-week course.
- Medical — ongoing or planned medical treatment in Thailand.
Where you apply: outside Thailand only — there is no in-country DTV path and no in-country conversion. Royal Thai missions accept DTV applications only from their own citizens and legal residents, so you apply in your passport country or a country where you hold legal residence. Applying as a tourist at a third-country hub — Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia — is not an option.
For Americans specifically: the Thai mission that covers you depends on your state. Washington D.C. covers Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Chicago covers Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Los Angeles covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and US Pacific territories. New York covers Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Processing is 2 weeks in most cases, but up to 6 weeks. The DTV government fee for US applicants is USD 400. Criminal record clearance is embassy-specific — check the requirement for your mission rather than assuming.
Documentation traps. Your remote-employment contract must permit remote work and must not mention Thailand. Freelance client contracts likewise. Your résumé must be current and reflect active work, and your current role must show zero Thailand connection — no Thai addresses, clients, suppliers, partners or brands. Any Thai company in your résumé history has to line up with matching Thai visa or stamp records for that period.
Fees — quoted as two separate lines, never one bundled total: our service fee is DIY free, Plus ฿3,000 / $89, or Full Service ฿10,000 / $299; the government fee is the embassy figure above. There is no ฿18,000 all-inclusive DTV package — that legacy bundled price is discontinued.
After approval: the DTV is multiple-entry, so no separate re-entry permit is needed. If you are physically in Thailand for more than 90 consecutive days, file a 90-day report.
The LTR: 10 years, and four different answers to "can I work?"
The LTR is issued through the Board of Investment in two stages — BOI endorsement (approximately 2 months), then visa issuance, which must be initiated within 2 months of endorsement. Around 4 months in total. The Qualification Endorsement is not the visa: it confirms BOI approved your qualifications, and you cannot reside in Thailand on it.
Work-from-Thailand Professional (WFT) — foreign employer
Condition 1 (one of): average personal income of at least USD 80,000/year over the past 2 years; or USD 40,000–80,000/year and one of a master's degree or higher, full and complete ownership of intellectual property, or Series A funding of at least USD 1,000,000. The lower band never qualifies alone.
Condition 2 — the employer (one of): a public company listed on a stock exchange; a private company with at least 3 years of operation and combined revenue of at least USD 50,000,000 in the last 3 years; or a wholly owned subsidiary of a company meeting one of those, with the parent holding 100% of shares. The employer must be located outside Thailand.
BOI generally expects audited financial statements as filed with the regulatory authorities, or the employer's corporate income-tax filings. A self-issued revenue-summary letter alone is not sufficient, and BOI may later request full, unredacted audited statements.
Condition 3 (one of): health insurance covering hospitalisation and medical treatment in Thailand for at least USD 50,000 with 10 months of remaining coverage; currently receiving social security benefits in Thailand; or bank statements showing at least USD 100,000 maintained for 12 months.
Work permit: not allowed at all.
Highly Skilled Professional (HSP) — employment in Thailand
Condition 1 (one of): average personal income of at least USD 80,000/year over the past 2 years; or USD 40,000–80,000/year and a master's degree or higher in science or technology.
Condition 2 (one of): employed by contract at a Thai or foreign company in a BOI targeted industry; or proof of expertise in a field specified by BOI. The industries are automotive, electronics, affluent tourism, agricultural and biotechnology, transportation and logistics, automation and robotics, aviation, biofuels and biochemicals, digital, medical, defense, petrochemical and chemical, International Business Center, circular economy industries, and other fields where BOI determines special expertise.
The document set makes the category's centre of gravity obvious: an employment letter from the current Thai company (or a signed employment agreement if you have not started), a company profile, the most recent audited corporate annual financial statement, the WP.46 employment certificate signed by the company's director or authorised person with their ID (or work permit if foreign), corporate affidavit and shareholder list, VAT registration certificate (P.P.01), VAT amendment form (P.P.09), and corporate income tax return (Form P.N.D.50).
Work permit: yes, with any company — exempt from the 4:1 Thai staff ratio, exempt from minimum registered share capital, no minimum salary. Collected at TIESC, One Bangkok, in 3–5 working days.
Wealthy Global Citizen (WGC)
Global assets of USD 1,000,000, of which at least USD 500,000 is invested in Thailand — property, investment in a Thai company, or Thai government bonds with a remaining maturity of no less than 5 years. Plus the Condition 2 health coverage or savings options. A bank deposit or transfer alone does not satisfy the USD 500,000 Thailand investment; it needs a title deed, bond copy, shareholder certificate, or a qualifying leasehold with at least 10 years remaining. Work permit: yes, any company.
Wealthy Pensioner (WP)
Minimum age 50. Passive or unearned income of at least USD 80,000/year, or USD 40,000–80,000/year plus USD 250,000 invested in Thailand. Plus the health coverage or savings condition.
Income must be genuinely passive — W-2 employment income does not qualify, regardless of amount. On a US Form 1040, W-2 wage income on Line 1A is a signal to BOI that you may still be employed rather than retired. Accepted evidence for US applicants is Form 1040 plus 1099s (the most recent year's 1099 is sufficient; two years are not required, and if the current year's 1040 has not been filed, 1099s alone are acceptable if they show sufficient passive income). A provident-fund contribution line is not proof of pension income — BOI wants pension-payment stubs or a formal pension-commencement letter showing you are receiving distributions. Work permit: yes, any company.
LTR fees and process
Two separate figures, always: ฿35,000 / $1,059 our service fee for the BOI endorsement, and ฿50,000 / $1,520 government fee on issuance in Thailand — collected by TIESC in cash or Thai mobile banking QR, with card available at a 3% fee if arranged in advance. Issued overseas, the fee is embassy-dependent and can be considerably higher. Overseas issuance must be in your country of citizenship or residency, and you must remain there until the visa is issued; processing can take up to around 8 weeks at some embassies, the USA included.
Health insurance is not required at first submission — submit it when BOI requests it, active on the date of that submission. If the application is not endorsed, our service fee is refunded.
After approval: annual address check-in replaces the standard 90-day address reporting; all LTR categories are multiple-entry with no separate re-entry permit; the 10 years is a 5-year stamp plus a 5-year extension, requalified at One Bangkok before the first five years end. Dependents are spouse and children under 20, maximum 4, each a separate BOI application issued at the same location as the main applicant.
Working for a Thai company
If a Thai entity will pay you, the remote-work visas are closed and the question becomes which work-authorised route fits.
Non-B. Thailand's main visa for working or running a business for a Thai company. The visa and work permit depend on each other. Employer requirements: a 4:1 ratio of Thai to foreign employees, ฿2,000,000 registered capital per foreign employee, VAT registration, and SSO contributions for at least 3 months before the application. There is a minimum salary set by nationality. The initial visa is a 90-day single-entry Non-B issued abroad after a WP32 letter, then medical check, work permit, and the 1-year extension in Thailand — and if you leave Thailand before the extension is stamped you need a re-entry permit or the visa is cancelled on exit. Our platform fee is ฿25,000 / $759, and government fees for the route total about ฿7,000 / $210. We take Non-B cases only for Bangkok companies whose business does not require a specific operating licence.
LTR-HSP, if the role is in a BOI targeted industry and you meet the income test — the work permit is exempt from the 4:1 ratio, minimum share capital and minimum salary.
SMART S, if you are a director or hold at least 25% of a Thailand-registered startup in a targeted industry and can show ฿600,000 in a personal account for the last 3 months. It is a 2-year visa from the start and replaces the work permit entirely. If you are an employee rather than a founder, this is not your route — Non-B is.
Non-O Marriage or Parent of Thai Child, if you have that family tie. These allow a work permit with reduced employer requirements — 2:1 Thai to foreign staff and ฿1,000,000 registered capital — and the visa is independent of the work permit: stop working, cancel the permit, keep the visa, provided you still meet the ฿400,000 savings requirement.
One rule that applies across all of these: each work permit is tied to one employer. While it is active you may only work for that single Thai company.
Retirement routes for Americans 50 and over
Non-O Retirement is the standard path: a 90-day entry, then a 1-year extension, then annual renewal. Financial proof is ฿800,000 / ~$24,000 in savings seasoned 3 months, or a pension of ฿65,000 / ~$1,950 per month.
The US-specific reality: the pension route requires a verification letter from the government pension authority or your embassy in Thailand — a notary or solicitor certification is not accepted, and a private pension alone is not sufficient. Where the US embassy will not issue that letter, there is no usable 65,000 THB/month income route, and VA and disability benefits do not qualify as pension income. In practice, American applicants use the ฿800,000 savings path.
There are two ways to the 90-day visa. If your funds are in an overseas bank, you apply by e-visa from outside Thailand and then make a single immigration visit later for the 1-year extension; after arrival you rent a place, open a Thai bank account, deposit ฿800,000 within 30 days of arrival, and extend between day 45 and day 90. If your funds are already in a Thai bank and you are on a tourist visa or visa exemption with at least 21 days remaining, you convert in-country — three immigration visits, with the full document pack each time.
Our Non-O Retirement fees are quoted as service fee plus government fee: ฿5,000 service for the 90-day abroad; ฿7,500 service plus ฿2,000 government for the in-Thailand 90-day conversion; ฿12,500 service for the 90-day plus extension package applied abroad; ฿15,000 service plus ฿3,900 government for the conversion plus extension package; ฿10,000 service plus ฿1,900 government for an extension or renewal only. Our 1-year extension service is Bangkok / Chaengwattana only.
Non-OA is a different product, not a synonym: a 1-year multiple-entry visa issued abroad with no 90-day conversion step. It adds three mandatory items the Non-O Retirement does not require — a medical certificate issued in the submission country and no older than 3 months, health insurance covering general illnesses, with a minimum to confirm with the mission where you file (with the insurer completing, signing and stamping the Foreign Insurance Certificate), and a certificate of criminal record clearance. You cannot apply for a Non-OA while on a tourist visa, and it must be applied for from your country of citizenship or permanent residence. Our fee is ฿10,000 service only, plus the embassy government fee.
Thailand Elite (Thailand Privilege): convenience, not work rights
Elite has no income, savings or employment gate — the qualifying step is the membership fee plus a background check by Thailand Privilege Card Co. Membership tiers run 5 to 20+ years: Gold 5 years at ฿900,000, Platinum 10 years at ฿1,500,000, Diamond 15 years at ฿2,500,000, and Reserve 20+ years at ฿5,000,000 by invitation only. A Bronze tier at ฿650,000 for 5 years was listed as a limited-time offer running to 31 December 2025 — confirm current availability before quoting it. Dependents can be added on Platinum and above only.
The stay is 1 year per entry, multiple-entry. The critical limitation: the Privilege Entry visa is categorised as a Tourist Visa and does not allow the holder to legally apply for a work permit. Long validity is not employment authorisation.
The TPC background check takes around 4 weeks, or around 12 weeks for countries TPC designates for special consideration, and cannot be expedited. Existing Non-Immigrant visa holders must cancel that visa before the Elite visa can be affixed, and a Non-ED holder — or a Medical visa holder without hospital documentation — cannot switch to Elite at all. Annual 1-year stay extensions are filed at immigration with a ฿1,900 fee.
Choosing, in order
- Who pays you? Foreign entity → DTV or LTR-WFT. Thai entity → Non-B, LTR-HSP, SMART S, or a Non-O family route. Nobody, and you are 50+ → Non-O Retirement, Non-OA, or LTR Wealthy Pensioner.
- Can you evidence the numbers? ฿500,000 for the DTV; USD 80,000/year plus employer financials for LTR-WFT; ฿800,000 or a qualifying pension letter for retirement.
- Do you need to work for a Thai company at any point? If yes, WFT and DTV are permanently out — WFT cannot hold a work permit and DTV is not the Thai-job route.
The common failure is the middle case: a remote worker over the income bar whose employer misses the WFT company test. That is not an HSP application — HSP is built around employment in Thailand with a Thai corporate document set. It is a DTV application, which does not test your employer's revenue at all.
FAQ
Can I switch from a tourist visa to a DTV while in Thailand?
No. There is no in-country DTV application path and no in-country conversion — you must be outside Thailand, in your passport country or a country of legal residence.
My employer is in the UK but I'm American. Does that break the DTV?
No. What matters is that the employer and the income are outside Thailand. Your nationality determines which Thai mission you apply through, not whether you qualify.
Can I do a little consulting for a Thai client on the DTV?
No. Remote-work visas do not permit any income or salary from a Thai company, and the documentation rules go further — your current role must show zero Thailand connection, including clients.
My LTR-WFT is approved. Can my spouse work in Thailand?
Yes. LTR dependents can apply for a work permit with any company, exempt from the 4:1 ratio, minimum share capital and minimum salary — including the dependent of a WFT holder, even though the WFT principal cannot.
What happens if I stay past 180 days on a DTV?
Each entry grants up to 180 days. An in-country extension exists on paper but is often denied, so the reliable route is to exit and re-enter on the DTV before the stay permit expires. The DTV is multiple-entry — no re-entry permit needed.
Next steps
Answer the employer question first, then check the numbers for the category it points to. Start your eligibility check in the Issa Compass app, or book a free consultation with an Issa specialist to have your income source and employer structure reviewed before you pay any government fee.
