Thailand LTR Visa: The 10-Year Long-Term Resident Visa

The Long-Term Resident visa (LTR, วีซ่าผู้พำนักระยะยาว) is Thailand's 10-year visa for four groups: wealthy global citizens, wealthy pensioners, remote workers for large foreign companies and highly skilled professionals. You apply online to the Board of Investment (BOI) at ltr.boi.go.th, then pay ฿50,000 once for the visa if you collect it in Thailand. It needs no yearly extension, replaces the 90-day report with one address report after each full year without leaving, and for three of the four groups exempts foreign income brought in from work or property abroad. It gives no right to own land, and about 12,000 people had been approved by October 2026.

The four categories#

Each category has its own money test, set by BOI Announcement Por. 3/2568 of 4 February 2025, and every category needs health cover. The pensioner rules have not changed since the visa opened in September 2022; the 2025 rewrite eased the other three.

At the BOI's own rate of about ฿33.6 to the dollar, US$80,000 is about ฿2.7 million a year and US$1 million about ฿33.6 million (our arithmetic). The BOI assesses applications at the World Bank's official rate.

The pensioner's income must be pension or passive income: the BOI counts pensions, rent, dividends, interest, realised capital gains and royalties, and says salaries do not count. You must already be retired when you apply, so a 52-year-old who still works does not qualify as a pensioner, whatever their savings; they may still qualify as a wealthy global citizen, which has no age or income test (our reading of the announcement).

The Thai investment, for wealthy global citizens and for pensioners on the US$40,000 route, can be Thai government bonds with at least five years to run, a direct investment in a Thai company or a registered venture-capital or private-equity fund, or property. Property means a condo or a house in your own name, or a lease with at least 10 years left. No rule caps the property share, so the whole amount may be a Chiang Mai condo, but it must be bought before you apply and kept for the whole stay; a unit in a spouse's or child's name does not count.

Remote workers need an employer abroad that is listed on a stock exchange, or has run at least three years with US$50 million of revenue over three years, or is a wholly owned subsidiary of either, plus a letter allowing them to work from Thailand. Highly skilled professionals need a Thai contract in one of the BOI's targeted industries, from automotive and digital to medical, or a post at a Thai university, research body or public agency; since 2025 lecturers in any subject count.

• What changed on 4 February 2025: the US$80,000 income test for wealthy global citizens was dropped; the five-years-of-experience rule went for remote workers and skilled professionals; the remote worker's employer test fell from US$150 million to US$50 million of revenue, with subsidiaries now counted; lecturers in any field became skilled professionals.
• What did not change: the pensioner rules (50, retired, US$80,000, or US$40,000 plus US$250,000) and the health cover.

Dependants and health cover#

Your spouse and children under 20, up to four people in all, can hold LTR dependant visas, each for ฿50,000 and with its own health cover. The BOI approved parents and an unlimited number in January 2025, but the Interior Ministry announcement that grants the stay still says spouse and children, at most four, and the BOI made the change wait for a new announcement that has not appeared. Ask ltr@boi.go.th before you plan on bringing a parent.

A spouse must be legally married; the BOI accepts same-sex marriages but not partnerships. Adopted children and stepchildren need a court order, and a child's stay ends on their 20th birthday. The main holder signs that they are responsible for each dependant's support, and must report a child turning 20 or a divorce.

Health cover is one rule with three ways to meet it: a policy covering treatment in Thailand for at least US$50,000 with at least 10 months left, or Thai Social Security, or US$100,000 held in a bank in Thailand or abroad for 12 months. Each dependant needs their own US$50,000 policy, Social Security, or US$25,000 more on deposit. Any insurer may issue the policy; life and travel insurance are not accepted. The cover must be kept for the whole stay and is checked again at the five-year renewal.

How to apply#

You apply in two stages: a free BOI endorsement online, decided within 20 working days, then the visa within 60 days of the endorsement letter, at the Immigration counter in the BOI's Bangkok service centre or at a Thai embassy abroad. In Thailand the visa costs ฿50,000 per person, once for ten years.

1. Apply online at ltr.boi.go.th. The endorsement is free; the BOI warns against firms that claim to be authorised agents. Every category sends a passport with at least six months left, a photo, its proof of money and work, and the health cover (which may follow later); the BOI may ask for a police certificate.
2. Wait for the decision. The BOI must answer within 20 working days; documents it asks for must reach it within 30 days of each request, or the file may be refused. A refused applicant may apply again.
3. Collect the visa within 60 days, or apply for the endorsement again. In Thailand that is at Immigration in TIESC, the Thailand Investment and Expat Services Center at One Bangkok, in person, paid in cash or by Thai QR, and the BOI shows it done in a day. Abroad, an embassy or the e-Visa site issues it in local currency, usually for more.
4. Keep the stamp in mind for later: a stamp from TIESC can be moved to a new passport, an embassy sticker cannot.

From Chiang Mai you file online, then travel to Bangkok once for the stamp or collect it at an embassy abroad within the 60 days. Immigration Bureau Order 150/2565 also lets provincial immigration offices under Divisions 3 to 6, Chiang Mai among them, issue the visa, but Chiang Mai Immigration's booking calendar has no LTR appointment, so ask the office before you plan on it. The BOI's Chiang Mai office advertises no LTR service.

The ten years are two stays of five, each ending no later than your passport. For the second five you need a new BOI endorsement on the rules then in force; three official texts give different deadlines, and applying 120 to 60 days before your stay ends, as the BOI advises, meets all three.

What it gives you#

The LTR saves paperwork: no yearly extension, no re-entry permits, and one address report a year in place of the 90-day report, due only after a full year in Thailand without leaving. All categories except remote workers can also get a digital work permit.

The yearly report is made on form TM.95, from 15 days before to 7 days after it falls due, one year after you were admitted or after your latest arrival. Anyone who leaves Thailand at least once a year never files one; missing one risks a fine of up to ฿5,000 plus ฿200 a day.

Where to file it, the two official texts differ. The BOI tells holders to report at its Bangkok centre, TIESC at One Bangkok, in person or through someone you authorise. The Immigration Bureau's own Order 150/2565 also lets provincial immigration offices under Divisions 3 to 6 take the report, and Chiang Mai Immigration belongs to Division 5. No Chiang Mai page confirms it in practice, so call Chiang Mai Immigration (053 201 755) before you travel to Bangkok for your first report.

Work permission rests on a Ministry of Labour notification of 2 June 2022. The main holder and a lawful spouse may apply for a digital work permit of up to five years, ฿100 to apply and ฿3,000 a year, and may work while it is pending; it needs an employment certificate from a Thai employer, and the employer is spared the rule of four Thai staff per foreigner. Remote workers get no permit and may not work for Thai employers or clients. The jobs closed to foreigners stay closed, property brokerage among them.

The BOI also lists a fast lane at international airports that offer one; no official list says whether Chiang Mai airport has it.

The 90-day report, step by step

What the LTR replaces: who reports every 90 days, the due date, filing online, by post or in person in Chiang Mai.

Read the 90-day report guide

Tax: the exemption and its limits#

Royal Decree 743 of 2022 exempts wealthy global citizens, wealthy pensioners and remote workers from Thai tax on income from work or business done abroad, or from property abroad, that they bring into Thailand. That switches off, for them, the rule that since 1 January 2024 taxes residents on foreign income in the year they bring it in. Highly skilled professionals get a flat 17% instead, and dependants get neither.

The exemption needs no application, and the Revenue Department says a holder with no Thai-source income need not file a return. It covers pensions, foreign dividends, interest, rent and capital gains, and pay for work done abroad. It is suspended for any tax year in which you no longer meet the BOI's conditions.

The open question is where a remote worker does the work. The decree's Thai text exempts income from work "done abroad" (ทำในต่างประเทศ), while the Revenue Code taxes pay for work done in Thailand wherever it is paid. No official text says whether a remote worker's salary for days worked in Chiang Mai is covered, and the Revenue Department's 2026 briefing for LTR holders does not address it, so ask a Thai tax adviser before you rely on it.

The 17% rate applies only to a highly skilled professional's salary from a company in a targeted industry. The employer must notify its Area Revenue Office by the end of the first tax year, the rate applies from the day the office receives the notice, and you file form PND 95 and claim no refund or credit of the tax withheld.

Living in Chiang Mai on it#

Day to day the LTR works like any long stay, with a few BOI routes for banks and licences. It gives no right to own land: you buy a condo like any foreigner, within the 49% foreign quota and with money brought in from abroad, and the landlord's TM30 and your own address duties still apply.

• Banks: the BOI publishes two routes. At Bangkok Bank you book through ltr@boi.go.th at least four days ahead, at a branch in the city where you live; a retirement account there needs property you own, not a lease. At Kasikornbank you walk in with the LTR stamp, a home-country ID and a lease, a condo title or a digital work permit.
• Driving licence: the BOI points holders to a residence certificate from TIESC, issued in 15 days, or a letter from their embassy.
• Land: no LTR text mentions land. A 2022 draft letting wealthy foreigners buy land was withdrawn (Thai PBS news, November 2022). Property counts for the LTR only as a building or a lease.
• Duties that stay: the landlord's TM30, your own change-of-address notice within 24 hours (TM.27) after a move, the digital arrival card on every entry, and every condition you qualified on, from income and investment to insurance, kept for the whole stay.
• Passports: move the visa to a new passport before the old one expires, or it becomes invalid; the move is free.

The stay ends if you stop meeting the conditions, are judged a danger to society, are wanted abroad, or have been deported, and your dependants' stays end with yours. To give it up, you send the BOI its termination form and then have at most 21 days to leave Thailand or change visa.

How to open a bank account in Thailand as a foreigner

What each bank publishes for foreigners, the 2025 app rules, fees, and the money proof a condo purchase needs.

Read the bank account guide

LTR or another long stay?#

The LTR's price is the qualifying wealth, not the fee. A pensioner needs US$80,000 a year, about ฿2.7 million, against the retirement visa's ฿65,000 a month (฿780,000 a year): about 3.4 times as much (our arithmetic). In return it alone gives a written tax exemption, no 90-day reports (one address report only after each full year without leaving), and for most categories a work permit.

The fee is not the barrier. A retiree on yearly extensions who travels pays 10 × ฿1,900 plus ฿3,800 a year for a multiple re-entry permit, about ฿57,000 over ten years, against the LTR's ฿50,000 once (our arithmetic from the Immigration Bureau's fees). The O-X is the only other ten-year route and is open to 14 nationalities only. If a bill at the Senate making the 90-day report optional becomes law, the LTR's reporting advantage shrinks; as of October 2026 it has passed the House but is not law (Prachatai and Thansettakij news).

Uptake is small. The BOI had approved 12,010 people by its release of 5 October 2026: 4,561 wealthy pensioners, 3,891 dependants, 1,779 skilled professionals, 1,043 remote workers and 737 wealthy global citizens, with Americans the largest group, then Japanese and British. At launch it aimed for a million people in five years; it has reached about 1.2% of that (our arithmetic). It publishes no Chiang Mai figures.

Retire in Chiang Mai

Every retirement route side by side, with the money, insurance, tax and what daily life costs here.

Read the retirement guide