Less than 3,000 expats have shown any interest in Thailand’s golden visa and there are no figures on how many of those have dropped out. Data from 10-year schemes in Malaysia and Cambodia suggest many potential applicants fail to complete. The Thai LTR (Long Term Residence) visa was launched in September 2022, but the Board of Investment is now seeking foreign investment companies to encourage the laying of more golden eggs by wealthy foreigners. There are problems to overcome.
As Thailand is pushing its brand of LTR, other countries are cancelling their versions. Both Portugal and Ireland have very recently cancelled their 10-year options because foreigners, especially Chinese and Russians, have been using their residency permits to buy up choice properties, thus fuelling inflation and making it impossible for poorer citizens to get onto the housing ladder. The same sell-out complaints were heard in Thailand last year and forced the government in November to abort any plans to let rich expats buy freehold properties or land. Just condominium units are allowed.
Alarm bells have been ringing in Britain too where the 2 million pounds cash-LTR was cancelled last year after fears that Russian oligarchs and investment exiles were buying up parts of London. Security minister Tom Tugendhat now says that countries in the Caribbean and Central America are selling citizenship and second passports to foreign nationals who are then landing in the UK for nefarious purposes. This concern mirrors the recent scandal in Thailand where corrupt police and bureaucrats have been issuing longstay visas to Chinese nationals who did not qualify for them.
The Thai LTR is aimed at global citizens, wealthy retirees, digital nomads and highly skilled professionals. The detailed regulations are complex vary according to category, but the eligibility criteria are unduly conservative. Digital nomads, for example, are expected to work for a public company listed on the stock market or for an established private company with a combined revenue of at least US$150 million over the last three years. Many work-from-anywhere professionals in Thailand aren’t impressed by such restrictions and just rely on tourist visas. They are customarily left untouched by the immigration police unless they openly and directly compete with Thai nationals for income.
Retirees are another coveted group as long as their annual income is at least US$80,000, or they have very substantial financial assets in Thailand. But these expats already have multiple (and much cheaper) visa choices, such as the 5-20 year Elite visa or yearly extensions of stay based on retirement or marriage. In other words, it’s a saturated market before LTR makes an appearance. Supposed advantages of LTR, such as reporting your address once a year instead of three-monthly, are pointless now that such reporting can easily be made online to immigration bureaux. Unlike some other LTR schemes elsewhere, the Thai version does not hold the promise of a second passport down the line, although the 10 years are extendable and families are welcome.
The Thai LTR program should be on stronger ground in attracting highly skilled professionals. High earners will receive income tax benefits and will automatically receive a digital work permit which allows them to work independently without Thai subordinates if they so wish. There is also the hint in the regulations that income earned abroad could be free of Thai tax. But even here the LTR is a bit late on the scene. In 2018, the Board of Investment introduced a four-year Smart visa for technological specialists and entrepreneurs, especially in the economic zones which are sprouting up all over the country. This visa was the first one not to require a separate work permit or three-monthly address reporting.
Thailand’s aim is to attract mega-cash on the one hand and to tap into the transformation of work and travel practices in the post-covid world. The challenge is to attract high-value foreigners against the truism that many other countries worldwide are trying to do precisely the same. While the Thai LTR certainly has strengths, particularly the new form of work permit and income tax concessions, the visa competes with other options available to the expat pool in Thailand. The detail requires cool reexamination, especially the current refusal to consider potentially awarding citizenship to cream-of-the-crop LTR holders after the first 10 years. That would certainly cause a stir.
