Thailand's LTR visa in 2026: what changed and who qualifies now

Thailand relaxed its Long-Term Resident (LTR) visa with effect from 4 February 2025, and the changes are not cosmetic. Wealthy Global Citizens no longer need any personal income — USD 1 million in assets and USD 500,000 invested in Thailand are now sufficient on their own to support the application. A remote worker's employer now needs USD 50 million in revenue over three years, down from USD 150 million, and the five-year work-experience requirement is gone. Parents and persons legally dependent on the holder were added to the categories of dependant in the BOI criteria.

The legal instrument is BOI Announcement No. Por. 3/2568, issued after a Cabinet resolution of 13 January 2025. It repealed the original 2022 criteria and their 2023 amendment, Por. 6/2566 outright. The programme itself continues — the four categories, the pensioner criteria and the insurance requirement are unchanged — but several of the tests that decide eligibility are not, so a checklist published before February 2025 should not be relied on. This guide states the rules as the Board of Investment applies them as of 22 August 2026 — including who still does not qualify and which route to consider instead.

What is the LTR visa, and why did Thailand relax it?

The Long-Term Resident visa is a special temporary-stay visa granting up to 10 years in Thailand — in Thai law a non-immigrant visa for temporary stay as a special case, long-term resident category — administered by the Board of Investment (BOI) rather than by the Immigration Bureau alone, and open to applicants since 2022. It is issued as an initial five years plus a five-year extension, with your qualifications reviewed once at year 5. It is distinct from Thai permanent residence. Holders deal day to day with the Thailand Investment and Expat Services Center (TIESC) — a one-stop unit combining BOI, Immigration and labour functions, housed at One Bangkok since March 2025.

The programme targets four groups — wealthy investors, retirees, remote workers and skilled professionals — plus their dependants. The 2022 criteria excluded many otherwise attractive applicants: remote employees of mid-sized companies, asset-rich investors with modest salaries, and specialists who could not evidence five years in a targeted industry. The January 2025 Cabinet resolution relaxed those specific criteria.

What changed under BOI Announcement Por. 3/2568?

Five changes matter in practice:

• No income test for Wealthy Global Citizens: the old requirement of USD 80,000 a year in personal income was removed. The category is now tested on wealth and Thai investment alone.
• A far lower employer bar for remote workers: a private foreign employer now needs combined revenue of USD 50 million over the last three years, not USD 150 million — and a wholly-owned subsidiary can qualify through a parent that is listed or meets that revenue test.
• Experience requirements dropped: the five-year work-experience rule for Work-from-Thailand Professionals was removed; the Highly-Skilled category no longer carries an experience requirement either.
• Instructors named in the special-expertise list: the nine-field special-expertise route is not new in 2025. It replaced the 2022 catch-all in the March 2023 amendment, which also widened the targeted-industry list to take in transport and logistics, petrochemicals and chemicals, and International Business Centers. What Por. 3/2568 changed here is narrower: the education field, previously human-resource development in science and technology at vocational or higher-education level, now reads as instructors at those levels.
• Wider family eligibility in the BOI criteria: dependants now include the holder's parents and persons legally dependent on the holder, alongside the spouse and legitimate children under 20 already covered in 2022. See the qualification below on how this is being applied in practice.

Who qualifies in 2026: the four categories

One requirement applies across all four categories and to every dependant: health insurance covering at least USD 50,000 of medical expenses in Thailand, with at least 10 months of cover remaining as at the date the qualification endorsement letter is issued — not the date you apply — or Thai social-security health cover, or a bank deposit of at least USD 100,000 held for at least 12 months up to the application date. For dependants the deposit figure is an additional USD 25,000 per person.

Wealthy Global Citizens: assets, not salary

• Assets: at least USD 1 million in total assets, domestic and foreign, appraised as at the application date.
• Thai investment: at least USD 500,000 already invested or owned in your own name before you apply, in one or more of three classes — Thai government bonds issued by the Ministry of Finance with at least five years to maturity at the application date; direct investment in a limited or public limited company, or investment in a venture-capital company or private-equity trust registered with the SEC or certified by the relevant agency; or immovable property.
• Income: no requirement since February 2025.

Removing the income test changes who this category is for: a founder who has sold the business, an investor living on gains rather than salary, or an early retiree under 50 may now qualify. The assets, Thai-investment, insurance and immigration conditions above still have to be met.

Wealthy Pensioners: 50 plus, and actually retired

• Age and status: 50 or older and retired at the time of application.
• Income: pension or fixed passive income of at least USD 80,000 a year; or at least USD 40,000 a year combined with a USD 250,000 investment in Thailand in the same three asset classes listed above.

The word retired matters. The criteria require retired status at the date of application, and the applicant has to evidence it. The BOI publishes no test making an ongoing business automatically disqualifying, but a 55-year-old still running one should expect that status to be examined. Where it cannot be evidenced, our practice view is that the Wealthy Global Citizen route is usually the better fit.

Work-from-Thailand Professionals: your employer matters as much as you do

• Employer: a foreign company that is listed on any stock exchange; or a private company at least three years old with combined revenue of USD 50 million over those three years; or a wholly-owned subsidiary of either.
• Income: an average of USD 80,000 a year over the two years before you apply — reduced to USD 40,000 if you hold a master's degree or higher, own intellectual property, or have raised Series A funding of at least USD 1 million.
• No Thai work permit: the category exists for remote work for an overseas employer. The BOI states that holders cannot work or carry on activities with Thai employers that generate income in Thailand, because the category carries no work permit. BOI's application-timeline page is less absolute: it says a temporary work permit allowing a Work-from-Thailand holder to work for a company in Thailand can be issued case by case. The two pages do not say the same thing, so clear any Thai work with the LTR unit and the Department of Employment before it starts — do not assume either that it is barred or that a permit will follow.

The test is a qualifying overseas employer, so an independent freelancer with no employer does not meet it. The wording matters: this category requires employment with a foreign employer, where the Highly-Skilled criteria expressly accept a contract of employment or services. That difference is why “contractor” cannot be called as a group. Where there is a contracting company that could itself satisfy the employer test, or where the applicant is an owner-employee of one, the position turns on whether an employment relationship can actually be evidenced, not on the label. Employees of smaller startups fall outside where the employer is below the revenue threshold and has no listed or qualifying parent.

Highly-Skilled Professionals: the targeted industries, and the special-expertise route

• Work: an employment or services contract with a Thai or foreign enterprise for work performed in Thailand, or evidence of work for a Thai higher-education institution, research institute, specialised training institute or public agency. In either case the work must fall within one of the targeted industries below — the targeted-industry requirement governs the academic and public-sector route as well.
• Income: USD 80,000 a year on average over the past two years; or USD 40,000 with a master's degree or higher in science and technology, or demonstrated expertise in the field. Retired science and technology professionals may rely on their income over the two years before retirement, and public-agency and public-university employees have no income requirement at all.
• Industries: the current list is broad — automotive; electronics; affluent tourism; agriculture, food and biotechnology; transport and logistics; automation and robotics; aviation, aerospace and space; biofuels and biochemicals; petrochemicals and chemicals; digital; medical; national defence; circular-economy support; and International Business Centers — plus a special-expertise route covering, among others, R&D, vocational and university instructors, applied AI and robotics, financial or marketing services and consultancy, and alternative dispute resolution.

This category is usually described as the one 2025 widened most, and that description does not survive the announcements. The industry list in its current shape and the special-expertise route both arrived in the 16 March 2023 amendment, not in Por. 3/2568. Higher-education institutions, research institutes, specialised training institutes and public agencies were already qualifying employers under the 2022 criteria, and the income exemption for state-sector staff was already there too. What 2025 added was the removal of the five-year experience test, plus the re-wording that puts vocational and higher-education instructors in the special-expertise list by name. A lecturer turned away in 2023 was far more likely turned away on experience than on employer type.

What about family? Who counts as a dependant

Por. 3/2568 widened the BOI's dependant criteria. They now cover the holder's spouse, parents, legitimate children under 20, and persons legally dependent on the holder; the 2022 criteria covered only the spouse and legitimate children under 20. Neither announcement sets a maximum number of dependants — the familiar limit of four has never appeared in a BOI announcement at all.

That is a statement about the BOI's criteria, and the criteria are not what admits a dependant to Thailand. Clause 4 of Por. 3/2568 makes the right to enter and stay, and the other LTR privileges, subject to rules laid down by the Ministry of Interior, the Immigration Bureau and other agencies. The Ministry of Interior announcement that does that work defines a dependant as the lawful spouse and lawful children not over 20 years of age, not more than four in total. It is the same instrument that sets the 10-year visa, the 5+5 permission to stay, the THB 50,000 fee and the annual report. BOI said in January 2025 that the expanded dependant rights would take effect once both a BOI announcement and a Ministry of Interior announcement on those rights were issued. As at 22 August 2026 the BOI's published LTR legal materials still list the 2022 Ministry of Interior announcement, and no superseding instrument. The mismatch is therefore between the BOI's qualification criteria and the immigration instrument in force — not between a portal and the criteria. Until it is closed, treat a parent, or a fifth dependant, as a position to confirm with the LTR unit before you file rather than an entitlement.

Each dependant needs insurance cover of USD 50,000, or Thai social-security cover, or an additional deposit of USD 25,000 per person held for 12 months.

Same-sex spouses. The Ministry of Interior announcement uses the gender-neutral term คู่สมรส — a lawful spouse — and the Marriage Equality Act, in force 23 January 2025, allows two persons to marry regardless of sex. Section 67 of that Act directs that a reference to a husband or wife in any law, regulation, announcement or order be read as including a spouse registered under the amended Civil and Commercial Code. On the face of the instruments, then, a couple lawfully married in Thailand fall within the LTR dependant definition, and no change to the LTR rules was needed to put them there.

Administrative practice is the less settled part, and it is worth separating from the law. No BOI, Ministry of Interior or Immigration instrument addresses same-sex spouses in the LTR context at all. The routes opened first were those for spouses of Thai nationals; as at March 2025 the in-country dependent route for the spouse of a foreign visa holder — which is what an LTR dependant is — had not been implemented, and we have found no instrument since that closes the gap. A marriage celebrated abroad raises a further question, because the Act does not deal with foreign marriages and capacity to marry remains a matter of each party's national law under the Conflict of Laws Act B.E. 2481. Confirm the position with the LTR unit before filing, and expect to evidence the marriage.

Which LTR benefits are worth real money?

• A 17% personal income tax rate — Highly-Skilled Professionals only, and only on qualifying employment income: section 40(1) employment income from a company or juristic partnership carrying on a targeted industry is taxed at 17% instead of the progressive scale that tops out at 35%. Conditions apply, and they are set out below.
• A foreign-income exemption for the other three categories: under section 5 of Royal Decree No. 743, Wealthy Global Citizens, Wealthy Pensioners and Work-from-Thailand Professionals are exempt on assessable income of a previous tax year arising from employment or a business carried on abroad, or from property situated abroad, and brought into Thailand — more on this below.
• A digital work permit without the 4:1 ratio: where the category allows Thai employment, the digital work permit is issued without the four-Thai-employees-per-foreigner requirement that ordinary employment-based extensions carry, at THB 3,000 a year.
• One report a year instead of four: holders file a one-year report (TM.95) instead of the 90-day TM.47 — and the clock resets each time you re-enter Thailand, so frequent travellers may rarely file at all.
• Multiple re-entry rights and airport fast-track access: re-entry is built into the visa — no separate re-entry permit to buy or forget — plus fast-track service at international airports.

What does the LTR visa cost in 2026?

The BOI endorsement stage is free of charge. The visa fee is THB 50,000 per person, paid once at issuance in Thailand; if you collect the visa as an e-Visa at a Thai embassy abroad, consular procedure applies and the fee can differ. The year-5 extension carries no second visa fee — you re-confirm your qualifications in a window of 120 to 60 days before your current permission to stay expires.

For scale: ten years of Thailand Privilege membership at the Platinum tier costs THB 1.5 million as at 22 August 2026. On fee alone the numbers are not close — though the two differ in eligibility, work rights, tax treatment and member benefits, so fee is not the only comparison that matters.

How do you apply — and how long does it take?

The application runs through the BOI's online LTR portal:

• Register and file online: you create an account on the LTR e-portal and upload the evidence for your chosen category — income, assets, employment, insurance.
• Qualification endorsement — about 20 working days: the BOI's published standard is a decision within 20 working days of a complete and valid file; requests for further documents extend that.
• Visa issuance — within 60 days of endorsement: with the endorsement letter you have 60 days to have the visa issued, either at TIESC in Bangkok or as an e-Visa at a Thai embassy abroad.
• Digital work permit — 3 to 5 working days: for Highly-Skilled Professionals taking up work in Thailand, the permit is issued at TIESC within a few working days.

In our experience the document stage, not the review, sets the timetable: asset appraisals, two years' worth of income evidence in the required form and insurance wording acceptable to the BOI take longer to assemble than the BOI takes to review. Our LTR visa service starts with an honest eligibility check — including telling you if no category fits — and prepares the file in the format the LTR unit expects.

Who still does not fit — and what to choose instead

• You work for a Thai company outside the targeted industries: LTR covers Thai employment only through the Highly-Skilled category. Outside it, the usual route is a Non-B visa and work permit, unless another qualifying visa and work-authorisation route applies — see our work permit and business visa service and our guide to which document comes first.
• You freelance or run your own small remote business: with no qualifying employer, the Work-from-Thailand category is closed to you. If the other categories' tests cannot be met either, Thailand Privilege buys 5 to 20 years of stay with no income proof at all — from THB 650,000 for the five-year Bronze tier, as at 22 August 2026, though Bronze is a limited offer advertised to 30 September 2026 — with no work rights and with the usual 90-day reporting.
• You are under 50, or over 50 but not retired: the pensioner route is out. Check Wealthy Global Citizen — USD 1 million in assets plus USD 500,000 invested — and, failing that, Thailand Privilege again.
• Your employer is a young startup: unlisted and below USD 50 million in three-year revenue, it fails the employer test, however high your own salary is.

How does the LTR visa interact with Thai tax?

For foreign-sourced assessable income arising on or after 1 January 2024, a Thai tax resident is taxed on that income when it is remitted to Thailand, even where the remittance falls in a later tax year. That is Revenue Department Order Por. 161/2566, read with Order Por. 162/2566, issued two months later, which carves out assessable income arising before 1 January 2024. The LTR programme is then a defined exception for three of the four categories.

The exemption for Wealthy Global Citizens, Wealthy Pensioners and Work-from-Thailand Professionals. Section 5 of Royal Decree No. 743 exempts assessable income under section 40 of the Revenue Code, of a previous tax year, arising from duties or a business carried on abroad or from property situated abroad, where that income is brought into Thailand. It is worth reading in the statute's own terms rather than as a blanket freedom from tax on foreign income: what is exempt is foreign-derived income, so income from duties performed in Thailand is not within it however or wherever it is paid — and the year in which the income arose matters.

The 17% rate for Highly-Skilled Professionals. Section 3 of the same decree reduces the rate to 17% on income received from employment by a company or juristic partnership carrying on a targeted industry under the Competitiveness Enhancement Act, the Investment Promotion Act or the Eastern Economic Corridor Act. Revenue Department Notification No. 427 then sets the conditions:

• the income must be section 40(1) employment income from that employer;
• the employer must file a notice naming the employee with the Area Revenue Office for the place of business, by the last day of the first tax year in which the relief is claimed — and the relief runs only from the date that office receives the notice, not from the date employment started;
• the holder must file form PND 95 for the tax year, within the statutory or extended deadline;
• and under section 4 of the decree, the income is left out of the annual computation only if the holder does not claim a refund or credit of the tax withheld.

Two consequences follow. A Highly-Skilled Professional employed by a state university, state research institute or public agency qualifies for the visa on that footing, but section 3 speaks only of a company or juristic partnership — so tax eligibility has to be checked separately from visa eligibility. And under section 7 of the decree, the relief lapses for any tax year in which the conditions are not met.

Neither benefit takes you outside the tax system, but the filing duty is not the same in both. A Highly-Skilled Professional relying on the 17% rate must file PND 95 — that is a condition of the relief, not a formality. Section 5 imposes no return-filing duty of its own: whether a return is required turns on the ordinary filing rules in the Revenue Code and on the holder's other income. In either case the treatment of income earned before the visa was granted should be checked before any substantial remittance. A pre-move review with our tax advisory team can address those questions.

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This article is general guidance — not legal or tax advice. If you'd like a scoped opinion on how it applies to your specific situation, contact our team.