Since the introduction last July, the Destination Thailand Visa has been a rip-roaring success. A brainchild of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to boost visitor numbers, extend stays and increase state revenue, no official figures are available for the number granted. Estimates on social media spread from 10,000 to 40,000, the higher guess being the more likely. Although teething problems certainly exist – embassies “doing their own thing” for required documentation being the main complaint – the commentary approval rating on the hugely popular DTV Facebook group is over 90 percent.
Much of the success is due to official, hands-off flexibility. Initially, it was stated that applications should be made in the home country or the work location outside Thailand, then extended to visa runners booking accommodation for just a few days. The quickest fix was, and still is, the Thai embassy in Taipei (officially called the Thailand Trade and Economic Office which avoids irritating Beijing) which still has a walk-in facility and offers a 24-hour turnaround service if your documents are in order. Walk-ins generally have a shorter waiting time than those through the electronic portal.
Inevitably, visa agents in Thailand have now grasped the cash potential of DTV and offer visa run to the nervous, usually to Laos or Cambodia. The companies can arrange road travel and accommodation for several days and provide relevant paperwork, even offering a written bond to those who lack handily the 500,000 baht (US$15,000) guarantee which is part of the application requirements. Full agency service seems to cost between 100,000 and 150,000 baht (US$30,000 up). Unlike the annual extension of stay based on retirement, the DTV application does not require a Thai bank book. Indeed, some applicants may never have visited Thailand yet.
DTV holders receive 180 days on entry and there is no restriction on the repeat number of visits by sea, land or air. It is, after all, a five years multiple entry visa as stressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Naruchai Ninnad in his famous “deeper dive” interview with Bangkok Post. Most of the current question marks are about the option of a further 180 days extension at local immigration offices which are part of the Ministry of the Interior which, to date, has not said a single word about DTV. With an immigration extension, DTV holders would receive a maximum of 360 days (180+180) before leaving the country. Without the immigration discretion, six months is the maximum stay without interruption.
A number of issues probably concern immigration. There is much misunderstanding by freelance or digital workers about working in Thailand (they must not interact at all with the Thai economy to be safe). Some DTV holders with soft power success such as cooking or boxing classes have signed up only for one month’s tuition, or even less. The zoom advance of DTV may well be deterring applications for other longterm visas such as Privilege-Elite or Long Term Residence. Immigration is very reluctant to comment on these contentious issues and a phone call to the hotline 1178 brought only the response to look at the DTV official website which, of course, sheds no relevant light.
Privately, immigration officers say 180 days extensions are likely to be granted without issue until the DTV is at least one year old. That’s to avoid arguments and delays at immigration queue lines, creating bad publicity for all concerned. In the longer term, extensions could require a digital (not in-person) application with the need to provide online updated information. Or such extensions might be decided only by immigration headquarters and not by provincial offices. Or the DTV might be cancelled altogether for new applicants with “grandfather” rights given to those already possessing the visa.
Or maybe, and just as likely, nothing in the future will happen to reduce the current flexibility. After all, the Thai Revenue Department is keen to tax assessable income, from January 2024, transmitted to Thailand by any Thai or foreigner who clocks up a total of 180 days or more in a calendar year. The lack of social media discussion of this particular DTV issue has been deafening. After all, DTV holders don’t have any dispensations. Not from income tax regulations for residents, not from 90 days and not from TM30. As the Swedish saying puts it: no worries unless the sleeping bear wakes up.
