TL;DR
- Employee or founder is the question that decides this. Hired by a Thai company, you take the Non-B. Director or 25%+ shareholder of your own registered Thai company, you take the SMART S.
- The SMART S requires no separate work permit at all for your certified business activity, and it is a 2-year visa from the start, renewable, not a 90-day-then-extend process.
- Removing the work permit removes the tests that go with it: the employer's 4:1 Thai-to-foreign staff ratio, the ฿2,000,000 registered capital per foreign employee, and the minimum salary requirement all disappear.
- Non-B: Issa service fee ฿25,000 / $759, plus a government fee of ฿7,000 / $210. SMART S: Issa service fee ฿15,000, fully refunded if the application is not approved, with the government fee paid only after approval.
- Issa Compass handles the Non-B and work permit for Bangkok companies only, and only where the business does not require a specific operating licence. Issa does not do job placement.
- The honest caveat: the exact criteria NIA and DEPA use to assess whether a company counts as a targeted-industry startup are not published, which makes the SMART S the least predictable of the work routes to forecast.
The Question That Actually Routes You
Most people researching Thai work visas start by comparing validity periods and fees. That is the wrong first question. Thailand's work routes are not four grades of the same permission. They are four different relationships to a Thai company, and the relationship you actually have decides which route exists for you at all.
The single question that routes almost every reader is whether you are the hire or the founder. Someone who owns 25% or more of a Thai company, or sits on its board as a director, is usually looking at the wrong visa when they research the Non-B. Worse, they are often looking at a visa their own company cannot qualify them for, because a small founder-run company rarely clears the 4:1 staff ratio and the ฿2,000,000 registered capital test that the Non-B places on the employer.
| Route | Who pays you | Work permit | Burden on the company | Issa Compass scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-B | A Thai employer; you are staff | Separate work permit required | 4:1 Thai-to-foreign staff, ฿2,000,000 registered capital per foreigner, VAT registered, 3 months of SSO contributions | Offered, for Bangkok companies only, and only where the business does not require a specific operating licence |
| BOI-promoted employer (Non-IB) | A BOI-promoted employer | Separate work permit, filed with the stay extension at TIESC | Employer must hold a BOI Promotion Certificate; exempt from the standard 4:1 ratio | Not offered. Issa Compass is not accepting new BOI clients |
| LTR HSP | A Thai or foreign company in a BOI targeted industry, as an employee | Work permit at TIESC One Stop, 3-5 working days | Employer documents (WP.46, PND.50, audited financials) | Offered |
| SMART S | Your own Thai company | None. Work-permit exempt for the certified business activity | Ratio, capital and minimum-salary tests all disappear | Offered |
The key insight here is that the middle two rows are still employment. A BOI-promoted employer is what readers are usually told to ask their company about, and the LTR HSP still requires that a company employ you by contract. Only the last row changes the relationship itself. SMART S is the only work route where the applicant is the founder rather than the hire, and the only one that removes the employer's 4:1 ratio and ฿2,000,000 capital requirement.
Non-B: You Are the Hire
The Non-Immigrant B is Thailand's main visa for working for a Thai company. The mechanics are two-stage. You obtain a 90-day single-entry Non-B abroad, enter Thailand, and then apply for a 1-year extension of stay inside the country once your work permit has been approved.
The structural fact that matters more than any of that: the visa and the work permit depend on each other. Neither stands alone. If your employment ends, your employer must cancel both.
Because the permission belongs to the employment relationship, the tests are applied to your employer, not to you:
- Staff ratio: 4:1 Thai-to-foreign employees.
- Registered capital: ฿2,000,000 per foreign employee.
- VAT: the company must be VAT registered.
- Social security: SSO contributions for at least 3 months prior.
- Minimum salary: a minimum salary applies to you, and it varies by nationality.
Then there is the cancellation mechanic, which is the part most people only learn about when it happens to them. When the job ends, the employer cancels the visa first, at Immigration. The cancellation carries an effective date, which can be set up to 21 days out, and you must leave Thailand on or before that date. The work permit is cancelled online after your departure.
Read that sequence again, because it is the real cost of the Non-B, and it is not the fee. Your right to live in Thailand is held by your employer. A resignation, a restructure, or a company that simply decides to stop sponsoring foreign staff converts into a departure date measured in weeks. Everything else about the Non-B is administration. This is the part that changes how you plan a life here. Our complete Non-B eligibility guide covers the document set and the employer requirements in detail.
SMART S: You Are the Founder
The SMART S (Startup) visa asks a different question. It does not ask who employs you. It asks what you own and what your company does.
The screen is short, and three of its four parts you can check yourself today:
- An already-registered Thai company. The SMART S does not create one for you. Incorporation comes first.
- Director or 25%. You must be a director of that company, or hold at least 25% of its registered capital.
- ฿600,000 in personal savings. Or the equivalent, held in your personal checking or savings account for the last 3 consecutive months. Personal, not corporate.
- A targeted industry. Digital, medical, agriculture and biotechnology, automation and robotics, aviation and logistics, alternative energy, food for the future, smart electronics, next-generation automotive, affluent/medical/wellness tourism, biofuels and biochemicals, or human resource and education development.
What you get is a 2-year visa from the start, renewable. Not a 90-day entry followed by an extension application. And no separate work permit for your certified business activity.
That second point deletes more than paperwork. With no work permit in the picture, the minimum salary requirement goes, the 4:1 Thai-to-foreign staff ratio goes, and the ฿2,000,000 registered share capital rule goes with them. A two-person company with no Thai staff and modest capital cannot legally sponsor you on a Non-B. The same company can support a SMART S application, because none of those tests are being applied.
The process runs in two stages. First, endorsement, via NIA, DEPA or BOI, with the endorsement decision taking roughly 1 to 2 months. Then visa issuance, either in Thailand at TIESC (One Bangkok) or overseas by e-Visa in your country of citizenship or residence. End to end, budget 1 to 3 months.
You can be inside or outside Thailand while it is processed, and you can switch from most visa types while in Thailand. That removes the scheduling problem the Non-B creates for anyone already living here, and it is one reason the SMART S compares well on timing to the LTR, as covered in our breakdown of which Thai visa takes the least time to get approved.
Once you hold it, the ongoing obligations differ from a standard work visa in three ways worth knowing before you apply:
- 90-day reporting is replaced by annual reporting at One Bangkok, plus a separate Smart Visa Unit status report each September. Two obligations, not one, and they are not the same filing.
- No re-entry permit is needed.
- You get a fast-track lane at the airport.
Dependents qualify under SMART O, tied to your duration as the SMART S holder. There is a clause here that gets misread constantly: a spouse on SMART O can work without a separate work permit, but must first apply to and inform the SMART Visa Unit before starting employment. They cannot simply begin working. The full requirement list is in our guide to the Thailand SMART Visa.
Side by Side
| Factor | Non-B | SMART S |
|---|---|---|
| Who pays you | A Thai employer; you are staff | Your own Thai company; you are a director or hold 25%+ |
| Work permit | Separate work permit required, dependent on the visa | None for the certified business activity |
| Employer staff ratio | 4:1 Thai-to-foreign staff | Does not apply |
| Employer registered capital | ฿2,000,000 per foreign employee | Does not apply |
| Minimum salary | Applies, and varies by nationality | Does not apply |
| Initial validity | 90-day single-entry issued abroad, then a 1-year extension in Thailand after the work permit is approved | 2 years from the start, renewable |
| If the work ends | The employer cancels the visa first; the effective date can be set up to 21 days out, and you must leave Thailand on or before it | There is no employer to cancel it. Eligibility is reassessed when you apply to extend, at least 60 days before the 2-year expiry |
| Timeline | Driven by your employer's document readiness first, then the work permit approval in Thailand | 1 to 3 months end to end; the endorsement decision alone takes roughly 1 to 2 months |
| Reporting | Standard 90-day reporting | Annual reporting at One Bangkok, plus a separate Smart Visa Unit status report each September. No re-entry permit needed |
| Issa service fee | ฿25,000 / $759 | ฿15,000, fully refunded if the application is not approved |
| Government fee | ฿7,000 / $210 | Paid only after approval. At renewal, the government extension fee is ฿10,000 per year of permission granted |
| Issa Compass scope | Bangkok companies only, and only where the business does not require a specific operating licence. No job placement | Issa Compass offers all SMART Visa categories the Thai government currently offers, which are SMART S and SMART O |
Where Each One Fails
Both routes have a hard edge, and it is more useful to know where you fall off it than to read another list of benefits.
The Non-B fails if nobody sponsors you
The Non-B does not exist for you as an individual. It exists for an employment relationship, which means without a Thai employer willing to sponsor you and clear the 4:1 ratio, the ฿2,000,000 per-foreigner capital test, VAT registration and 3 months of SSO contributions, there is no application to make.
Two further limits, stated plainly because they are the ones people discover late. Issa Compass does not do job placement. You must already hold a Thai employment contract before there is anything to process. And Issa's own Non-B and work permit service is limited to Bangkok companies whose business does not require a specific operating licence. A restaurant, for example, is out of scope.
The SMART S fails on incorporation, seasoning, and an unpublished test
First, you must already be incorporated. If your Thai company does not exist yet, the SMART S is not a route you can apply for; it is a route you become eligible for later.
Second, the ฿600,000 has to sit in your personal account for a full 3 consecutive months. Moving it in the week before you apply does not satisfy the requirement, and neither does holding it in the company.
Third, and this is the one worth being honest about: the exact criteria NIA and DEPA use to assess whether a company counts as a targeted-industry startup are not published. The shareholding test and the savings test you can verify yourself before you spend anything. The industry assessment you cannot. That single unpublished element makes the SMART S the least predictable of the work routes to forecast, even for a well-documented applicant with a company that looks like an obvious fit. Better document preparation does not narrow that variance, so plan with a buffer and do not build a moving date around the earliest possible outcome.
What About LTR HSP?
The Highly Skilled Professional category of the Long-Term Resident visa sits between the two, and it is worth two minutes because a lot of founders think it is their route.
HSP is for the employed skilled professional working in a BOI targeted industry. The income test is USD $80,000 per year averaged over the past 2 years, or USD $40,000 to $80,000 per year plus a Master's degree or higher in science or technology. The headline benefit is tax: a 17% capped flat rate on qualifying employment income. Timeline is roughly 4 months in total. Issa's fee is ฿35,000 / $1,059 for the BOI endorsement, then a ฿50,000 / $1,520 government fee if you collect the visa in Thailand.
Now the correction that belongs in this article specifically. USD $80,000 of income alone does not qualify a Thai business owner or director for HSP. The category requires qualifying employment, and ownership income or director fees are not a substitute for it. A founder drawing $80,000 or more from their own Thai company is exactly the reader who keeps landing on HSP guides and should be reading about the SMART S instead. If you want the full criteria before ruling it in or out, see our breakdown of the Highly Skilled Professional LTR visa and its 17% flat tax benefit.
Costs
Two fee structures, and they are shaped differently. Always read them as two separate figures, because they are paid to two different parties at two different times.
Non-B: the Issa Compass service fee is ฿25,000 / $759. The government fee is ฿7,000 / $210, and is separate from the service fee.
SMART S: the Issa Compass service fee is ฿15,000, and it is fully refunded if the application is not approved. The government fee is separate and is paid only after approval. At renewal, the government extension fee is ฿10,000 per year of permission granted, and you should file at least 60 days before the 2-year expiry.
The catch worth noticing is not which number is bigger. It is that the SMART S fee structure absorbs the risk of the unpublished industry assessment, which is precisely the part of the process you cannot check for yourself in advance.
Can You Get a Work Permit on a Non-O Visa?
Only on two bases. A Non-Immigrant O held on the basis of marriage to a Thai spouse, or as the parent of a Thai child, allows the holder to apply for a Thai work permit. Every other Non-O category is not allowed to get one — that includes Non-O retirement, guardian of a foreign child, dependant of a Non-B work permit holder, and dependant of a retirement visa holder. The Non-OA and Non-OX retirement visas do not allow a work permit either.
On the two categories that do qualify, the visa and the work permit are independent of each other. The marriage or parent-of-Thai-child visa only allows the holder to apply for a work permit; it does not depend on one. If the holder stops working, they can cancel the work permit and keep the visa, provided they still meet that visa's financial requirement — typically 400,000 THB in savings at extension.
The employer requirements are lighter than on a Non-Immigrant B. A company sponsoring a work permit for a marriage or parent-of-Thai-child visa holder needs a ratio of 2 Thai employees per foreigner rather than 4:1, and 1,000,000 THB in registered share capital rather than 2,000,000 THB.
There is also an alternative to the savings test at extension: a valid Thai work permit plus 40,000 THB per month in income, evidenced with the PND 91 annual personal income tax return and PND 1 monthly withholding returns. The work permit alone is not sufficient — immigration needs the tax filings to verify the income.
As with any Thai work permit, it is tied to a single employer: the holder may only work for that one Thai company while the permit is active.
Frequently Asked Questions
I own 20% of a Thai company. Do I qualify for the SMART S?
Not on shareholding alone. The requirement is that you are a director of the company, or that you hold at least 25% of its registered capital. At 20% and no directorship, you do not meet the screen. Directorship is an alternative route into eligibility, not an additional condition, so if you are a director of the company your shareholding percentage is not the deciding factor.
Can I switch from a DTV or tourist visa to the SMART S without leaving Thailand?
You can be inside or outside Thailand while the SMART S is processed, and you can switch from most visa types while in Thailand. Not every visa type converts in place, though, and some situations require cancellation first, so confirm your specific case before you plan around staying put. The wider point is that the SMART S does not force a departure the way an employer-sponsored route often does.
My company is registered but is not in an obvious targeted industry. What now?
The targeted industries are digital, medical, agriculture and biotechnology, automation and robotics, aviation and logistics, alternative energy, food for the future, smart electronics, next-generation automotive, affluent/medical/wellness tourism, biofuels and biochemicals, and human resource and education development. Several of those are broader than they first read, and the assessment is made by NIA, DEPA or BOI at the endorsement stage rather than by a keyword match on your company registration. That said, the criteria they apply are not published, so nobody can promise you an outcome here. If your business genuinely does not sit in any of those areas, treat the SMART S as unlikely and look at whether an employment-based route is available to you instead.
Can my spouse work on a SMART O?
Yes, and without a separate work permit, but not automatically. Your spouse must first apply to and inform the SMART Visa Unit before starting employment. Dependents qualify under SMART O and are tied to your duration as the SMART S holder.
What happens to my SMART S if I sell the company or drop below 25%?
Your continued eligibility is assessed at the 2-year renewal, through a renewal of the qualification endorsement, which is why you apply at least 60 days before expiry. A material change to your role or your shareholding should be reviewed well before you file that renewal rather than at the counter. We would not tell you what the outcome will be in a particular case, because that assessment sits with the endorsing body.
Is the ฿15,000 SMART S service fee really refundable?
Yes. The Issa Compass service fee of ฿15,000 is fully refunded if the application is not approved, and the government fee is paid only after approval. Given that the industry assessment is the one part of the screen you cannot verify in advance, that structure is doing real work rather than being a marketing line.
Do I need a work permit on a SMART S?
No, not for your certified business activity. The SMART S is work-permit exempt for that activity, which is also why the minimum salary requirement, the 4:1 Thai-to-foreign staff ratio and the ฿2,000,000 registered capital rule do not apply to you. On a Non-B, by contrast, the work permit is a separate document and the visa depends on it.
About Issa Compass
Issa Compass is a software-automated visa services platform for Thailand, operated by Singapore-based Issara Platforms Pte. Ltd. The platform uses a proprietary AI-powered verification engine to check applications against a comprehensive database of Thai immigration requirements, including consulate-specific and unlisted rules, to maximize approval chances. Issa Compass serves over 10,000 expats monthly across DTV, Non-B, LTR, and other Thai visa categories, maintaining a 99% approval rate for pre-qualified applications and a 4.8-star rating from over 800 Google reviews. The company's Issa Guarantee offers a full refund of their service fee (and partner course fee if applicable), or a free reapplication if a pre-qualified application is rejected.
Not sure whether you are the hire or the founder in Thailand's eyes?
Issa Compass can check your shareholding, your savings seasoning and your employer's eligibility against the actual requirements, and tell you which route is open to you before you spend anything on the wrong one.
