Most people arrive at this question from a specific situation rather than an academic interest in Thai immigration law. You have a job offer in Bangkok. You are retiring next year. Your work is remote and you would rather do it from Chiang Mai. You married a Thai national. What you want to know is which visa applies to you.
So this guide is organised by circumstance rather than by visa code. Find the paragraph that sounds like you, and it will point you at the right route — along with the requirement that is most likely to trip you up.
You work remotely for a company outside Thailand
Two routes fit, and which one is better depends mostly on how much you earn.
Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)
The DTV is a five-year, multiple-entry visa for remote workers and freelancers. Each entry allows a stay of up to 180 days, and you reset that by leaving and re-entering. There is an in-country extension of a further 180 days on paper, but it is refused often enough that you should not build your plans around it.
- What you need: THB 500,000 in personal savings held for three months, evidence of your remote work or freelance clients, and a minimum age of 20.
- Where you apply: from outside Thailand only, through the e-Visa system, in the country where you hold citizenship or legal residence.
- Who else can come: your spouse, or children under 20, as separate applications filed after yours is approved.
The DTV also covers people coming for qualifying Thai cultural activities — Muay Thai training and Thai cooking courses among them — which is a route worth knowing about if your work situation does not document neatly.
LTR Work-from-Thailand Professional
If you earn USD 80,000 a year or more, the ten-year LTR is worth the extra effort. The threshold drops to USD 40,000–80,000 if you also hold a Master's degree, own intellectual property, or your employer has raised at least USD 1,000,000 in Series A funding.
The trade-off: this category cannot be paired with a Thai work permit. It is strictly for remote work for a foreign employer. What you get in return is annual reporting instead of 90-day reporting, no re-entry permits, airport fast-track, and an exemption on qualifying foreign-sourced income.
A Thai company is hiring you
This is the Non-Immigrant B (Non-B), and it is genuinely two credentials: the Non-B lets you stay, and a work permit lets you work. You need both, in that order.
The sequence runs roughly like this. Your employer files a WP32 pre-approval through the e-work permit system. You then apply at a Thai embassy from outside Thailand and receive a 90-day single-entry Non-B. After you arrive, a medical check and the remaining employer paperwork complete the work permit — and once it is approved, you can start working, even before the physical card is in your hand. You then extend the visa to one year at immigration, renewable annually.
What often goes wrong:
- The employer does not qualify. Thai companies sponsoring a foreign hire need four Thai employees per foreign employee, THB 2,000,000 in registered capital per foreign employee, VAT registration, and at least three months of social security contributions for those Thai staff. Worth checking before you resign from anything.
- Leaving the country too early. The initial 90-day Non-B is single-entry. Travel before your one-year extension is stamped and you need a re-entry permit, or the visa is cancelled when you exit.
- A passport that is running down. Visa validity is capped at your passport's expiry, so you want more than 18 months remaining before the Non-B is issued — otherwise the one-year extension gets cut short.
If you are the founder or director of the Thai company rather than an employee of it, skip ahead — the SMART S is usually the better fit.
You are retiring in Thailand
From the age of 50 there are two tiers, and the gap between them is large.
Non-O Retirement
The standard route. You need one of: THB 800,000 in a Thai bank account seasoned for three months, a monthly pension of THB 65,000, or a combination of THB 400,000 in savings plus THB 40,000 a month in income. You enter on a 90-day visa and extend to one year in Thailand, renewing each year after that.
Two points of confusion are worth clearing up. First, this is a Non-O Retirement, not a Non-OA — the Non-OA is a one-year multiple-entry visa issued abroad that additionally demands health insurance, a medical certificate, and a criminal record check. Second, the Non-O Retirement is not usually issued as multiple-entry, so if you plan to travel, budget for a re-entry permit.
LTR Wealthy Pensioner
Ten years instead of one, with annual reporting and airport fast-track. You need USD 80,000 a year in passive income, or USD 40,000–80,000 a year plus USD 250,000 invested in Thailand.
The word doing the work in that sentence is passive. Pension distributions, dividends, and rental income qualify. Employment income does not, no matter how large — and a provident fund you are still contributing to is not the same as a pension you are currently drawing. This category also does not permit work by default.
You have Thai family
The Non-O covers family connections, on the same 90-day-then-one-year-extension pattern as the retirement visa.
- Married to a Thai national: THB 400,000 in savings, or THB 40,000 or more per month in income if you hold a work permit. This is for a foreigner married to a Thai citizen — not for two foreigners who married each other.
- Parent of a Thai child: the same financial thresholds, for a foreign mother or father living in Thailand to raise their Thai national child.
- Joining a family member on a Thai visa: spouses and children of Non-B holders and of retirement visa holders can apply as dependants. Dependants of a Non-B holder have no financial requirement of their own — eligibility runs through the main holder's employer instead.
One useful detail for the marriage and Thai-child routes: if you later want to work, the company requirements attached to a work permit are lighter on these visas than on a standard Non-B.
You own or direct a Thai company
The SMART Visa was built for Thailand's targeted industries. The programme has been cut back since it launched, and two categories remain available: SMART S for startup founders and SMART O for their dependants. If you have read older guidance listing four or five SMART categories, it is out of date.
SMART S at a glance:
- Two years from the start, renewable — no 90-day entry and no annual extension cycle.
- No work permit required, which also removes the minimum salary rule, the 4:1 Thai-to-foreign staffing ratio, and the THB 2,000,000 registered capital requirement that a Non-B would place on your company.
- You need: an already-registered Thai company in a targeted industry, a directorship or at least 25% of the registered capital, and THB 600,000 in your personal account held for three months.
- Timeline: one to three months, endorsement first and visa issuance second.
Holders report annually rather than every 90 days, need no re-entry permit, and use fast-track immigration lanes. There is one extra obligation worth diarising: a separate status report to the SMART Visa Unit every September. Spouses and children come along on SMART O, and a spouse on SMART O can work without their own work permit.
Targeted industries span digital, next-generation automotive, smart electronics, medical and wellness tourism, agriculture and biotechnology, automation and robotics, aviation and logistics, alternative energy, and human resource and education development. Be aware that the endorsing agencies do not publish detailed criteria for assessing a company, so a realistic pre-assessment matters more here than on other visas.
You have substantial assets or specialist expertise
Two more LTR categories are worth knowing about, both carrying the same ten-year term.
- Wealthy Global Citizen: USD 1,000,000 in global assets, with at least USD 500,000 invested in Thailand through property, Thai company shares, or Thai government bonds. A cash deposit does not satisfy the Thailand investment — it has to be an evidenced holding.
- Highly Skilled Professional: for experts working with companies in BOI-targeted industries in Thailand. USD 80,000 a year, or USD 40,000–80,000 plus a relevant Master's degree.
Every LTR category, including the two above, also asks for health coverage or savings: insurance covering at least USD 50,000, current Thai social security benefits, or USD 100,000 held in your own account for at least 12 months. Spouses and children under 20 can join you, up to four dependants, each as a separate application collected in the same location as yours.
The LTR runs in two stages — a BOI endorsement of about two months, then visa issuance, for roughly four months in total.
Still not sure?
Plenty of people qualify for more than one of these, and the better choice is rarely obvious from the requirements alone. It usually turns on the specifics: how your income is structured, how long your savings have been in one place, which passport you hold, and where you will physically be when you apply.
That is the part Issa Compass handles. We confirm which visas you actually qualify for before you spend anything, our legal team reviews every document before it reaches an embassy, and we stay with the file through approval and into your renewals. See which visa fits your situation.
