What's the best visa to stay long term in Thailand ?

You love Thailand and you're thinking about moving there?

That sounds good, right?

But what visa should you get to stay long term in Thailand?

As every expats here, I had my fair share of experience with Thai Visas, Visa Runs (hello again Laos and Cambodia), and the only thing I can tell you is, it's not getting easier to stay long term in Thailand.

So if you're considering to move to Thailand or at least looking at options to stay there longer, here are your options :

The Different Types of Thai Visas

There's a bunch of different visas that you can use to stay long term in Thailand, with each their pros and cons.

Tourist Visa

A 3 months Tourist Visa used to be one of the easiest ways to stay long term in Thailand.

You apply from your home country or from one of Thailand's neighbor country and you get a 60 days visa that you can extend for an extra 30 days at the immigration.

For years, people would stay on tourists visa only, leaving the country every 3 months for a visa run and coming back with another tourist visa. (I'll probably dedicate a post to visa runs, let me know in the comments if you want to learn more about it)

That worked well for a lot of people until around 2015 when the immigration started to crack down on those that were doing that and on agencies that were helping them.

Now the "rule" is no more than 2 tourist visas of 3 months per year.

There are exceptions of course, but keep in mind that when you get over 2 tourist visas per year, your application for a new tourist visa might get refused or the immigration can stop you at the border and refuse to let you in.

That happened to a lot of people already, including a few of my friends.

Requirements:

• Passport with 6 months validity or more
• Ticket that proves you're gonna leave the county at the end of 3 months (you can book something cheap on 12go asia)
• Have at least 20,000฿ (In theory, the immigration could ask you to show you have at least 20,000฿ with you to support your stay. In my last visa application, they asked for a bank statement. So prepare one for your application.)

Student Visa - Ed Visa

A student visa is a good way to stay for about 1 or 2 years in Thailand.

Student Visas aren't really expensive and it's a good excuse to learn a new language (usually either Thai, Chinese, Japanese, or English).

But be careful. Now, if you have already 2 student visas in your passport, they might refuse your next application.

Oh, and they started to ask for a bank account statement on top of that.

I want to do a Student Visa when my Work Visa is over and I've been told by a school that they would ask to see bank statements with at least 5,000$ (150,000฿) on them.

That wasn't the case a few years ago.

If you're in Bangkok, here are two schools I can recommend for students visa :

• Sandee Thai Language School, the one I used for my student visa in 2016.
• Pro Language School, used by some of my friends.

Requirements:

• Pay the school tuition fee
• Attend classes
• Extend your visa at the immigration every 90 days (1,900฿)
• Pass a test at the end of your first "year" to be allowed to apply for another student visa

Business and Work Visa - Non-B Visa

Probably the best Thai Visa to stay in Thailand for a long time.

Great if you're working for a company that pays for it.

With a Non-B visa and a Work Permit, you can do pretty much everything locals can do.

• Open Bank accounts
• Apply for a driving license
• Get loans
• ...

But if you own the business, that's a whole different story.

Either you got a restaurant or a big business, and the money and the number of Thai employees you have make sense to obtain a work permit.

Or, like me, you have a business that doesn't need staff. And now it's a pain in the ass and cost an arm each year to cover the costs of your Work Visa.

Because unless your company qualifies for a BOI application (list of requirements), you're gonna need to employ 4 Thai Nationals for each foreigner you have.

That means pays their salaries, social security (even if you got no work for them), rent an office to register the company (that you might not use), pay taxes of course, a yearly audit...

Really not ideal if you're a freelancer or if you run a small business.

Requirements:

• If you're employed :
  • Usually, have a degree or proof of a few years of experience in your field
• If you have your own business
  • Have a business that generates over 1,800,000฿ of income per year
  • Pay VAT
  • Have at least 4 full-time Thai employees
  • Have an office
  • ...

(I'm not sure about the income for businesses that qualify for the BOI, check with competent people 😉)

More information

Thailand Elite Visa

Many of my friends have been opting for the Thai Elite Visa in the last few years.

With a price starting at 600,000฿ for 5 years (that need to be paid in full when you apply) it's definitely not for everyone.

But for anyone who spends a lot of time in Thailand and doesn't work there, it's actually a good deal.

For this price you can come and go as you want for 5 years, open bank accounts, have a limousine that brings you to the airport and back to your place when you arrive in the country...

I mean, there's really a ton of upsides.

And if you know you want to stay in Thailand "forever", they even have a 20 years visa for 1 million baht. That's "only" 50,000฿ a year and come with complete peace of mind.

I wrote a whole post about it where I cover the different memberships, costs, advantages, and answer the most common questions. Click here to read it.

I actually have a partnership with an agency that can help with the application if you're interested.

Drop me a message and I'll put you in touch with them.

Requirements:

• Pay the full price of the visa upfront (starting from 600,000฿)
• Have no criminal record in Thailand and in your country of origin

Family and Marriage Visa - Non-O visa

I guess the title is self-explanatory.

In that case, you pretty know what you need to do to get one of those visas.

Requirements:

• Be married to someone Thai or have Thai kid(s)
• 40,000฿ monthly income for both partners
• At least 400,000฿ in a Thai bank account for more than 2 months

More information

Retirement Visa - Non-O A

If you're over 50 years old you can apply for a retirement visa to live in Thailand.

You will need to prove that you have a pension of 65,000฿ or more each month, with a certificate from your home country. Or have at least 800,000฿ on a bank account.

I think that they recently added health insurance as a requirement. I'll check and get back to you on that.

Requirements:

• A pension or income of at least 65,000฿ per month
• or 800,000฿ on a bank account
• Health insurance?

More information

What Visa Should you Choose to Move to Thailand ?

That's a really great question and it's gonna depend on your situation :

• First time in Thailand? Want to move there? Start with a tourist and then a student visa to build your network and find out if it's really the right place for you.
• Got a job opportunity? Cool, your employer should be taking care of your Non-B visa and work permit for you.
• Want to start a business here? Think about it twice, the Thai market is tough. Are you sure you're gonna be able to make enough money to support your company and yourself?
• You're working from your laptop, a digital nomad, or have money coming from overseas? Easy, grab a Thai Elite Visa.
• You're married to a Thai? Even easier, marriage visas.
• You're over 50? Go for a retirement visa or a Thai Elite Visa (if you don't want to have to renew it every year and go through a more difficult application process).

Application

For most visas, you need to apply from outside of Thailand.

Going back to your home country is a good way to use it as an excuse to visit your family and friends.

But most of the time, you will be doing visa runs to a neighbor country to apply for a visa at their Thai Embassy.

Visa runs can be a real pain in the ass if you have to do a lot of them, but it's still a good opportunity to spend some time outside Thailand and visit the rest of South East Asia.

Personally, I mostly go to Vientiane, in Laos, because it's apparently easier to get a visa there.

If you happen to go there too, here are a few tips :

• Visa Run in Vientiane

Single or Multiple Entry Visa ?

Most visas you will get are single-entry visas but in some cases, you can apply for a multiple entry visa right away.

If you can, do it.

It cost an extra 1,900฿ usually but you can enter and exit the country as many times as you want during the validity of your visa.

If you have a single entry visa, no worries.

You can turn it into a multiple entry visa at the airport after you passed the immigration.

It cost you an extra 1,900฿ and you need to have a recent photo of you (or they make you pay an extra 1,000฿ to take a photo).