Thailand Elite Visa, Now Thailand Privilege: Costs and Rules

Thailand Privilege, called Thailand Elite until 2023, is a paid membership sold by Thailand Privilege Card Co., a company owned by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. As of October 2026 it costs ฿650,000 to ฿5 million for 5 to 20 years and comes with a 5-year multiple-entry visa. Each entry lets you stay up to a year, says the operator; if you stay on, you extend once a year at immigration for ฿1,900 and still file the 90-day report. It does not let you work.

The five memberships and what they cost#

Five memberships are on sale as of 26 October 2026, each with the same kind of visa. Bronze and Gold run 5 years, Platinum 10, Diamond 15 and Reserve 20, the last by invitation only. The prices include VAT, there is no annual fee in any of the signed agreements, and the points pay for extra services and expire at the end of each year.

Divided by the years, that is ฿130,000 a year for Bronze, ฿180,000 for Gold, ฿150,000 for Platinum, about ฿166,700 for Diamond and ฿250,000 for Reserve (our arithmetic). The operator publishes no end date for Bronze, the newest and cheapest card, launched in December 2024. Reserve can be renewed after 20 years for 5 years at a time, at 10% of the price then in force, with the visa only.

Family members, fees and upgrades#

• Family members can be added only to Platinum, Diamond and Reserve: a spouse or registered partner, children and parents, of any age. Each costs ฿750,000 from 1 October to 31 December 2026; the regular price is ฿1,000,000 on Platinum, ฿1,500,000 on Diamond and ฿2,000,000 on Reserve. Each holds the visa, and the family shares one set of points.
• Bronze and Gold are for one person: a partner buys a membership of their own.
• A ฿50,000 application fee counts towards the price if you are approved and comes back if you are refused, except on Reserve, whose agreement makes it non-refundable.
• A membership cannot be passed to anyone, except Reserve, which can go once to a family member.
• Upgrades have fixed prices, for example ฿400,000 from Bronze to Gold and ฿700,000 from Gold to Platinum, asked for at least six months before the term ends.
• The operator's "Thailand Privilege Pass" products, from ฿9,900 a year, carry no visa.

What the visa gives you, and what it doesn't#

Membership comes with the Privilege Entry visa: 5 years of multiple entries, says the Foreign Ministry's visa list, with no visa fee. Each entry gives a stay of up to one year, say the operator's agreements; the ministry's list states no length of stay. If you stay longer, you extend at your provincial immigration office, a year at a time, in person, for ฿1,900. Five years is the window for entering, not one long stay.

• The extension: at Chiang Mai Immigration for a Chiang Mai resident, up to 30 days before your stay ends, with your passport, photos, form TM.7, your membership card and your landlord's TM30 receipt. There is no money test, unlike the retirement extension.
• Leaving and coming back: each entry on a valid visa gives a new stay of up to a year, so the operator says you need no re-entry permit. Check the date on your arrival stamp every time; the operator warns that a wrong stamp left uncorrected can become an overstay.
• On Platinum, Diamond and Reserve the visa is renewed every 5 years within the membership; the operator arranges it.
• Older Elite members may still hold the earlier Special Entry visa, which gives 90 days per entry.

What still applies to members#

Membership exempts you from none of the ordinary rules. You file the 90-day report like anyone staying more than 90 days: the operator's rules say a member must "report himself", and every applicant signs that they know it. Your landlord still files the TM30, which the operator's staff will not do for you, and you report a move within 24 hours on form TM.27. One operator article and one embassy page say members need no 90-day reports; the police regulation and the operator's own rules say they do.

The 90-day report in Thailand

Who files the TM.47, how to work out your due date, filing online step by step and the two Chiang Mai counters.

Read the 90-day report guide

Who may join#

Any foreign passport holder who passes a Thai background check can join: there is no age, nationality, income, asset or insurance test. Thai agencies run the check, four in the operator's 2024 notice: the Immigration Bureau, the Department of Consular Affairs, the police's foreign affairs division and the Central Investigation Bureau. A refusal by any one of them ends the application.

• Refused: a prison sentence in any country (except for negligence), bankruptcy, being declared of unsound mind, an arrest warrant or a place on a watch list, a past deportation, involvement in money laundering or financial crime, and more than one overstay in Thailand in the past three years.
• One overstay in three years is tolerated; two disqualify, says the operator.
• Anyone holding more than one nationality must show all passports, the source of the money for the membership and proof of residence for the past six months.
• You send a colour copy of a passport valid for at least a year, a photo, the application form, your current Thai visa or last entry stamp if you have one, and proof of relationship for family members; documents not in English need a certified translation.
• You need a Thai mobile number for the visa, the extension and the 90-day report, says the operator.

How to apply, and how long it takes#

You apply online on the operator's site, thailandprivilege.co.th, or through one of its authorised agents; the membership fee is the one in the operator's agreement either way. Approval takes about one to two months: the operator promises it "within 2 months", and its notice of 7 January 2026 says some background checks now take longer than six weeks. The visa is then issued by an embassy through the e-Visa system or put in your passport on arrival.

1. Apply and send your documents, with the ฿50,000 application fee.
2. Wait for the background check and the approval letter, which sets a payment deadline; miss it and the approval lapses.
3. Pay the membership into the operator's own bank account, as its agreement requires. If you use an agent, check it on the operator's list and ask what it charges for its own help.
4. Receive your member ID and a certification letter within about a week. The letter is valid for 90 days.
5. Get the visa: apply on the e-Visa system at a Thai embassy with the letter, your passport, a photo and proof of where you live, or have it put in your passport on arrival at Suvarnabhumi, Phuket or Chiang Mai airport on a direct international flight, booked through the operator at least five working days ahead. If the flight changes, the visa is done at the Chaeng Watthana immigration office in Bangkok instead.

Living in Chiang Mai on it#

In Chiang Mai a Privilege member lives much like a retiree on a yearly extension, without the bank-balance test: you extend at Chiang Mai Immigration each year, report every 90 days and rely on your landlord's TM30. The operator has no office or lounge here; most of its help with immigration, driving licences and residence letters runs in Bangkok.

• Extension: in person at Chiang Mai Immigration, ฿1,900, with the TM30 receipt.
• 90-day report: file it yourself online or at the counter, or use one of the two private visa firms the operator names in Chiang Mai, paid with points on Gold and higher tiers. Bronze has no points and no listed 90-day service.
• Bank account: the operator says members can open an account at any Bangkok Bank branch with the membership card or its certificate letter, and at Kasikornbank after booking online. The anti-money-laundering office's guidance for banks and UOB's checklist both name members. Kasikornbank, by contrast, refuses DTV holders by name.
• Driving licence: the operator's service is in Bangkok only; in Chiang Mai you apply like any foreigner, with a residence certificate from Immigration.
• Buying a condo: membership changes nothing; you bring the full price in from abroad like any foreign buyer.
• Airport: help at Chiang Mai airport runs through the operator's partner, booked ahead; the operator's pages disagree on whether its own staff are there.

The address rules are enforced on members too: in October 2026 immigration police in Saraphi, south of the city, charged a Privilege holder over an unreported residence, a local news site reported.

Residence certificate in Thailand

The letter from Immigration that confirms your address, needed for a Thai driving licence: how to apply in Chiang Mai and what to bring.

Read the residence certificate guide

Who runs it, and is it safe to buy?#

Thailand Privilege Card Co. is a state enterprise wholly owned by the Tourism Authority of Thailand since 2003. The programme has survived two decisions to end it: the Cabinet resolved to sell the business in November 2009 and, news reports say, to close it in April 2011, and neither happened. It was relaunched in 2013–14 with fixed-term cards and renamed Thailand Privilege in September 2023.

• If the business were sold: in February 2011 the Council of State, the government's legal adviser, held that the visa privilege belongs to the state and would not pass to a private buyer, for existing members or new ones.
• Refunds: the fee is "non-refundable under any circumstances" and nothing is refunded on a member's death. The one exception: if a government order or law stops the company operating, it may end the memberships and refund "the remaining Membership Fee" within 30 days of the card's return, less charges. The agreements do not define "remaining".
• The record: the lifetime members of 2003–2008 were neither cancelled nor refunded after the 2009 and 2011 decisions, and about 2,300 still hold cards, the company said in September 2026.
• The agreements let the company change or withdraw the lifestyle privileges, though not the visa, and cap its liability at the fee you paid.
• Members: about 40,000 to 42,000 in September 2026, 44% of them from China, according to statements by the company's president reported in the press. No audited count is published.
• Screening: after an arms case involving a member in 2026, the company said it checks applicants through five agencies, with Interpol, and suspends a member at once when the police ask about them (news, September 2026).

Privilege, DTV, retirement visa or LTR?#

Thailand Privilege is the only long-stay route with no age, income, asset or insurance test: you pay for the membership instead. In return it gives no right to work and no tax status, and you still extend every year and report every 90 days. The DTV costs far less for the same five years but is built for remote work or a Thai soft-power course such as Muay Thai or cooking (not language study); the retirement visa needs age 50 and money in a Thai bank; the LTR needs high income or wealth and can carry a digital work permit, except for work-from-Thailand professionals, whose employer is abroad.

On these facts it suits people who cannot or will not meet a money or age test: retirees under 50, older readers whom insurers refuse, families who want everyone on one card, and anyone who wants no yearly bank-balance calendar. It does not suit anyone who must work for Thai clients or wants tax relief.

DTV visa Thailand

The five-year visa for remote workers and soft-power courses: who qualifies, the ฿500,000, fees by embassy and the extension in Chiang Mai.

Read the DTV guide

Thailand retirement visa

The three routes from age 50, the ฿800,000 money test, fees by embassy and the yearly extension in Chiang Mai.

Read the retirement visa guide