News Forum - Thai cabinet approves new visa package to lure wealthy expats and digital nomads

[Bob20]

  On 9/15/2021 at 10:27 AM, yselmike said:

I know a couple of guys who tried Chang Mai but the pollution drove them out,of course they had no chance of getting any sort of visa to stay and work.They went to Vietnam for a while and ended up in Hungary.

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TBH, I think it's past Thailand's time. Numbers have been declining for years. The country needs an overhaul, not just senseless PR because the world had become smaller with a computer in everyones pocket and people know about not being able to drink tap-water, scams, trash everywhere, difficult regulations, corruption etc.

So many new alternative places to try...

[dj230]

  On 9/15/2021 at 10:27 AM, yselmike said:

I know a couple of guys who tried Chang Mai but the pollution drove them out,of course they had no chance of getting any sort of visa to stay and work.They went to Vietnam for a while and ended up in Hungary.

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It's why I am planning to stay in bangkok, it seems more modern/technologically advanced here, convenient as well

A friend told me about vietnam, I may check it out as well

Edited September 15, 2021 by dj230

[palooka]

  On 9/15/2021 at 10:27 AM, yselmike said:

I know a couple of guys who tried Chang Mai but the pollution drove them out,of course they had no chance of getting any sort of visa to stay and work.They went to Vietnam for a while and ended up in Hungary.

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Digital nomads news had VERY little detail, be wary they'll "flesh" the details out a bit more before implementing them, not to the nomads Iiking I'd imagine.

[palooka]

Visa package for the 50+ retirees, I'm thinking will be the future of ALL retirement visas in Thailand.

If married to a Thai change to the marriage visa. Hell to go through with Immigration Police in your house and photos and direct questioning, just keep your cool, don't let them get to you.

[oldcpu]

  On 9/15/2021 at 4:28 AM, Smithydog said:

What gets me is the stated need to have US$100,000 medical coverage even though they are investing millions!

Wasn't the argument for medical coverage on other visas all about foreigners not paying or being able to pay health costs?

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This $100,000 US equivalent medical could be a major negative factor, dependent on how it is implemented. 

Currently the 40,000 THB ($1,217) inpatient and 400,000 THB ($12,170 US$) outpatient for Type-OA visas to Thailand can only be met if one uses a limited list of Thai approved Health Insurance companies. These Thai approved Health Insurance companies need to go thru some hoops and loops for Thailand to accept them (such as filling in a Thai government database).

Some major International Health insurance companies that provide Global medical coverage (of up to (and in cases more) than $1-million US) refuse to go thru the Thai loops and hoops and hence are not acceptable to Thai immigration.

So some Expats to Thailand, who have EXCELLENT health insurance, still have to pay for double Health Insurance coverage obtaining worthless (Thai approved) 2nd insurance, but fortunately its only up to 400,000 THB ($12,170 US$) coverage (about).

But one can image that for coverage 8x that  400,000 THB ($12,170 US$) instead to $100,000 US$ (ie ~3.29-million THB coverage) will cost a lot more to buy (to meet Thai limited insurance company list) - which for double coverage will scare away many who might otherwise want to come to Thailand to retire.

Hopefully they widen their Health Insurance acceptance criteria - to include Global insurance companies that are excluded at present, and maybe even include self insurance - ie allow one to simply keep $100,000 US equivalent in a Thai bank as the insurance.    I confess - I have minimal faith in such a hope.

If the Thai government adopts the Type-OA Visa approach for Health Insurance, I suspect the manner in which this Health Insurance requirement is implemented will be a major issue - potentially blocking for many.

Edited September 15, 2021 by oldcpu

[oldcpu]

  On 9/15/2021 at 11:00 AM, palooka said:

If married to a Thai change to the marriage visa. Hell to go through with Immigration Police in your house and photos and direct questioning, just keep your cool, don't let them get to you.

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Indeed - it avoids what I see as a less than optimal health insurance implementation requirement on the Type-OA visa (which potentially, as some fear, could be expanded to other visas).

[Stonker]

  On 9/15/2021 at 10:00 AM, dj230 said:

Now whether or not they start giving out digital nomad visas is another topic I have no clue about, but one can only hope. It would make sense if digital nomads paid taxes in thailand in exchange for a visa, everyone wins. 

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That isn't what this is about (the visa, not the thread), otherwise you wouldn't have been "living in a bunk bed in Toronto, with a shared bedroom with a stranger, in a basement."

Sorry

[Paco]

  On 9/15/2021 at 10:00 AM, dj230 said:

You’d be surprised how many people would love to move to Thailand and work online here. It just hasn’t hit the mainstream yet. 
 

This is coming from a person in his mid 20’s who just moved to bangkok from Toronto. Thailand is WAY better than I thought and it’s nothing like it’s portrayed to be in mainstream media. 
I bet if people started finding out about how modern and technologically advanced Thailand is, they’d be here in a heart beat. 

wait until people find out instead of living in a bunk bed in Toronto, with a shared bedroom with a stranger, in a basement, it costs the same as living in a nice condo in the center of bangkok

Now whether or not they start giving out digital nomad visas is another topic I have no clue about, but one can only hope. It would make sense if digital nomads paid taxes in thailand in exchange for a visa, everyone wins. 

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i guess you missed that article in the news about it a few months ago.....some rules of insane salaries are needed, they made it impossible to obtain one, i would like one and i always follow the rules, but if they make it impossible i just carry on doing what i already do for years, if Thailand does not make a reasonable option for nomads, they should understand that it is not our fault if we just keep on doing what we doing on the net.. and they the one losing not us. Many of us would like to do it the legal way, but Thailand should be reasonable and make a visa that we can obtain and not with rules of needing a salary of 200,000... the greediness of Thailand always get them nothing... guess they never learn

[Paco]

  On 9/15/2021 at 8:58 AM, Bob20 said:

Forget about those last 3 zeros

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i was generous

[Bob20]

  On 9/15/2021 at 1:46 PM, Paco said:

i was generous

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[Jetboy]

If the government thinks the new scheme will attract at least one million takers, they really are dreaming. I, like many other expat retirees in Thailand certainly cannot meet the monetary requirements for the new schemes. However, we do make a sizeable contribution to the economy. The current requirement of 65,000 THB income per month is already more than the monthly income of the average Thai person.

What will they do? Expel us all from the country? This would make a pretty big dent in an already shattered economy.

With everything that is going at the moment, COVID-19, lockdowns, and ongoing issues with the running of the country, Thailand is hardly an attractive proposition. Certainly, it would take a brave soul to make such a significant financial investment.

[Bob20]

  On 9/17/2021 at 2:14 AM, Jetboy said:

If the government thinks the new scheme will attract at least one million takers, they really are dreaming. I, like many other expat retirees in Thailand certainly cannot meet the monetary requirements for the new schemes. However, we do make a sizeable contribution to the economy. The current requirement of 65,000 THB income per month is already more than the monthly income of the average Thai person.

What will they do? Expel us all from the country? This would make a pretty big dent in an already shattered economy.

With everything that is going at the moment, COVID-19, lockdowns, and ongoing issues with the running of the country, Thailand is hardly an attractive proposition. Certainly, it would take a brave soul to make such a significant financial investment.

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They're not going to get even 1% of what they set-out.

And I agree that they could be "kinder" to the current expats, but not because of our expenditure. That's not a huge part of the economy. But it is big PR for Thailand, and a few hundred thousand disillusioned foreigners make no great advertising for further immigrants nor tourists.

[Artemis080]

  On 9/15/2021 at 10:33 AM, Bob20 said:

TBH, I think it's past Thailand's time. Numbers have been declining for years. The country needs an overhaul, not just senseless PR because the world had become smaller with a computer in everyones pocket and people know about not being able to drink tap-water, scams, trash everywhere, difficult regulations, corruption etc.

So many new alternative places to try...

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I agree. I'm in Thailand only because my current project is time zone sensitive. As a remote worker, I can choose where to be and this is nowhere near the top of the list anymore. The long term visa options are not attractive and unstable.

For retirees maybe the landscape is different, but as someone who falls into "digital nomad" as Thailand mis-defines it, the offering is unattractive and uncompetitive. it seems to be based on the concept that Thailand is the centre of the universe. It isn't.

[MrStretch]

  On 9/15/2021 at 11:00 AM, palooka said:

If married to a Thai change to the marriage visa. Hell to go through with Immigration Police in your house and photos and direct questioning, just keep your cool, don't let them get to you.

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I didn't think it was a big deal.

Three guys from immi showed up, looked around, took another pic of me and the wife and Bob's your uncle.

They all had a laugh when they asked if I could speak Thai.  "Thai mai dai."

[NoshowJones]

 If there had been a properly elected government in power now instead of an unelected PM and his generals, the elected government would not have gained as much financially in personal terms as the unelected one.

May I point out that this is just my opinion as I believe the unelected PM and his generals have been on one long power trip since they took the country in 2014, and caused many expats to leave the country for good, and lots of tourists to go elsewhere because of certain immigration issues even before the pandemic started.

Here's a question, if it was possible to find out how many expats came to retire to Thailand in the five years leading up to 2014, and compare them with the five years between then and up to when the pandemic started, what would have been the difference?

Sorry for being a bit off topic.

[palooka]

  On 9/17/2021 at 4:48 AM, MrStretch said:

I didn't think it was a big deal.

Three guys from immi showed up, looked around, took another pic of me and the wife and Bob's your uncle.

They all had a laugh when they asked if I could speak Thai.  "Thai mai dai."

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Around here they play good cop bad cop, retake all the photos you took, generally harass, one seems to get a kick out of it.

[Bob20]

Thai cabinet approves new visa package to lure wealthy expats and digital nomads.

Even before it starts the language already doesn't appeal.

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

  On 9/17/2021 at 4:48 AM, MrStretch said:

Three guys from immi showed up, looked around, took another pic of me and the wife and Bob's your uncle.

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I didn’t think @Bob20lived with you?

[Cathat]

I think these schemes are mainly aimed at fairly wealthy people from other asian nations and they  realise it will of be of little interest to many nationals of western nations.

They are probably are on to something but the potential uptake numbers they are predicting are very ambitious.

[Bob20]

  On 9/18/2021 at 11:42 AM, Cathat said:

I think these schemes are mainly aimed at fairly wealthy people from other asian nations and they  realise it will of be of little interest to many nationals of western nations.

They are probably are on to something but the potential uptake numbers they are predicting are very ambitious.

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I would say imbitious and ampossible.

[gummy]

Well after 100 or more years somebody in the UK perhaps realises that Thailand got it right after all so can't see Thailand changing their rules about land ownership.

Labour conference: Party pledges to cap foreign sales of new homes - BBC News

[Bob20]

  On 9/24/2021 at 4:55 AM, gummy said:

Well after 100 or more years somebody in the UK perhaps realises that Thailand got it right after all so can't see Thailand changing their rules about land ownership.

Labour conference: Party pledges to cap foreign sales of new homes - BBC News

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If they're that desperate for the money, they could set strict rules. For example, only residential on maximum X square meter of land and only on as yet undeveloped land that has a building license. And they could limit a time period.

Hardly fair for someone who just bought a condo or who arrives after the period lapses, but they can of course set rules to avoid land being purchased for large scale profiteering. (That's what the UK and other countries should have done too...).

Before you create a law, you need to think things through. Plenty of people with plans, but very few with the intelligence to anticipate the consequences.

[HiuMak]

  On 9/17/2021 at 10:38 AM, Bob20 said:

Thai cabinet approves new visa package to lure wealthy expats and digital nomads.

Even before it starts the language already doesn't appeal.

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being rich has it's benefits. does not fit a poor bloke like me but it is how the world spins.

[longwood50]

[DiJoDavO]

'Thanakorn adds that starting next year, and over the next 5 years, the government believes it will 'lure' over 1 million eligible people.'

The word 'lure' makes it sound so negative  

Can't they use 'attract'? Maybe it'll lure more people here if you call it attract.