Is Thailand Creating a Visa for Digital Nomads?

After years of rumors, false starts, and collective sighs from the nomad community, Thailand finally joins the digital nomad visa party with the introduction of the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV).

For the truly nomadic, this is exactly the dream visa that’s been missing – a flexible visa with minimum requirements that doesn’t force you into long-term commitments.

Alas if you’re a remote worker wanting to stay in Thailand indefinitely – whomp whomp – this is not for you.

This new visa allows stays of up to 180 days (that’s six whole months for the calendar-challenged among us), with the option to extend for another 180 days.

While the DTV has been announced, the details are still a bit hazy. We’re waiting on specifics about documentation requirements, extension processes, and exactly how it’ll work for different types of remote workers.

Many assume Thailand has had a digital nomad visa for years, but we’re still waiting. Given Thailand’s popularity both as a stop on round-the-world tours and a long-term base for location-independent workers, this may come as a surprise. How else could all these nomads be traveling and living here?

Those who have spent some time in the kingdom, however, will know that grey areas in laws and enforcement are pretty normal here, and everyone’s just doing whatever they need to do to make it work.

Rumors were always persistent on visa forums and click-bait news sites, but they have never yet panned out. Visas have been created targeting startups, corporate remote workers, and wealthy expats of various stripes, but the digital nomad visa eluded us.

While there was much excitement leading up to the SMART Visa scheme announced in 2017, it did not turn out to be the long-wished solution desired by digital nomads. Startup founders in targeted industries can qualify for the 6-Month SMART S Visa with not much more than a business plan, but that talent scheme did not suit the general population of nomads.

Much the same happened during the pandemic when it was rumored that digital nomads would be a target of the 10-Year Long Term Resident Visa (LTR Visa). When the program was launched in 2022, there was a category for “Work from Thailand Professionals,” but the criteria only qualified corporate and big tech workers earning over $80,000 a year.

This time, it really seems like our nomad visa dreams are finally coming true, but we’ll see. As with all things visa-related in Thailand, keep an eye out for official announcements and be prepared for potential changes.

We’ve seen the Tourism Authority of Thailand continuing their efforts to promote the kingdom as a remote work destination while remaining silent on the visa issue for a while now, so it’s great to finally see the government enact something official.

What We Know About the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)

Here’s a summary of what we know about the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV):

  1. Duration: Valid for 5 years, with multiple-entry privileges.
  2. Stay period: Allows stays of up to 180 days per visit, with the possibility to extend for another 180 days (for a total of 360 days per entry).
  3. Target audience: Designed for digital nomads and remote workers, as well as those interested in studying Muay Thai or Thai cooking.
  4. Cost: 10,000 baht (approximately $272 USD) for the visa issuance, with an additional 10,000 baht fee for extensions.
  5. Requirements (subject to change):
    • Minimum age of 20 years
    • Evidence of funds of at least 500,000 baht
    • Potential proof of valid employment with a registered company (details pending)
  6. Work restrictions: Allows remote work for foreign companies but does not permit local employment in Thailand.
  7. Dependents: Allows visa holders to bring legal dependents (spouse and children under 20).
  8. Tax: Visa holders do not have to pay income tax as long as they are staying in Thailand under 180 days. It is unclear how taxes would be affected if extending for another 180 days.

The DTV has been approved by the cabinet but is pending official implementation by the Thai Immigration Bureau. It’s important to note that some details are still being finalized, and official announcements with specific requirements and application procedures are expected in the near future.

Other Visa Options for Digital Nomads in Thailand

Thailand has remained a steady favorite amongst location-independent workers for years, despite not having an official digital nomad visa until now. So before the DTV, how did digital nomads live in Thailand without a digital nomad visa?

In the next section, we’ll break down the top visa options for digital nomads in Thailand, explaining some of the what’s and how’s.

*DISCLAIMER* None of what you read below constitutes legal advice. CNXlocal is not a legal company and the writer of this blog is not an immigration lawyer. Use the information below at your own risk.

For a little background, here’s a list of the visa and residency options used by digital nomads to live and work in Thailand:

  • Tourist Visas
  • Business Visas
  • Education Visas
  • The Elite Visa
  • A SMART Visa
  • A 10-Year LTR Visa

Choosing the right visa option for you depends on 1) how long you want to stay in Thailand, 2) what country your passport is from and 3) where you’re currently located. How much you have to spend on a visa and visa services is also relevant, but that mostly applies to those who want to be in Thailand long term.

According to a survey on The Economic Impact of Digital Nomads in Chiang Mai, 86% of digital nomads have entered Thailand on a tourist visa. If Thailand is but one stop on your world tour or you’re just dipping your toes into this lifestyle, a simple tourist visa is your best option.

For those wanting to stay longer in the country, education visas come in handy, and survey results indicate that 24% of nomads in Chiang Mai take advantage of this option. 16% are here longer term on non-immigrant visas of various description, while 12% of digital nomads have a non-immigrant business visa.

Digital Nomad Guide to Tourist Visas for Thailand

Tourist visas are designed for – you guessed it – tourists! And if you’re not planning to live in Thailand long term, this is you, even if “tourist” is an adjective that sticks in your craw. These include single-entry tourist visas, multiple-entry tourist visas, and visa-exempt entry (also called “stamps”).

Designed to encourage travel to tourist-friendly Thailand, these are super easy to get. You can apply through consulates and embassies around the world, or if you’re from one of 64 countries, you can just show up and get a visa-exemption stamp upon arrival. This gives you permission to spend a minimum of 30 days or more in Thailand, with the possibility to extend for a longer stay.

If you apply for extensions and are smart about doing border hops and visa runs, you might be able to game the system to get 6 months in Thailand. If your itinerary includes travel to neighboring countries, you can easily build this into your plan.

For those already outside their home country or considering options for staying a little longer in Thailand, it is possible to apply for a single-entry tourist visa from outside your home country. For those already in Thailand, Laos and Malaysia are the most popular destinations (pro-tip for those going to Vientiane, Laos be aware that appointments have to be booked in advance these days!). The cost to apply for a visa varies depending on the embassy, but is typically under $50.

If you’ve been in and out of Thailand for a while, do keep in mind that its more common now for immigration to use computer systems to tally your time in Thailand and those with many stamps in and out or who have already spent more than a cumulative 6 months in the kingdom may get hassled at the border. Sometimes this results in more questions and a stern warning, sometimes a jokey suggestion it may be time to wife up and get a marriage visa, or in some cases, being turned away entirely and forced to buy a flight out of the country. Yes, for real. This happens.

To restate though, if you’re coming to Thailand for the first time and you’re planning to spend no more than 3 months here, you can basically skip the rest of this article. Entering the country should be a breeze for you.

There’s a lot of advice online that will make it seem like getting a visa for Thailand is difficult or stressful, but that’s only for people who have been coming here for years or are trying to stay long-term, i.e., they’re no longer tourists. It’s easy for tourists to come to Thailand, so don’t stress.

Further reading:

  • The official authority on these matters is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You can also check your home country’s official embassy website for the most up-to-date and accurate info.
  • Though not an official website, ThaiEmbassy.com is a highly detailed resource.

Business Visas for Digital Nomads in Thailand

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Most “business visas” issued in Thailand are for local employment. In other words, a local company wants to employ a foreigner so they need to issue that person a visa. This is just not relevant to most nomads.

The other type of business visa is the Non-Immigrant B Visa (Conducting Business) which is for “foreigners who wish to setup or conduct business in Thailand,” so again probably not relevant for most digital nomads who may be working while in Thailand, but not actually working in Thailand.

If you’re looking to make Thailand an official base of operations or your work requires you to make frequent business trips to Thailand, then this may be the visa option for you. (But like, are you even a nomad then? Probably you call yourself location-independent and whatnot).

Bear in mind there’ll be tons of fun paperwork involved to confirm your financials, travel itinerary and more. If you’re self-employed then you’ll almost certainly have to register a company in Thailand which involves lawyers and accountants and more paperwork. In order to legally work in Thailand, foreigners also need a work permit along with the appropriate visa. Yay, even more paperwork!

If you’re a digital nomad who feels icky about the idea of “working illegally” in Thailand and thinks that getting a business visa will be the answer – it’s probably not worth the hassle.

Do note that if you’re in Thailand on a typical business trip, you’re fine. Thai authorities are not out to get you. People come to the country all the time for conferences, business meetings and the like on tourist visas with the intent to do business. Thailand is a signatory on the International Labor Organization (ILO) agreement that permits this type of business travel.

Further reading:

Education Visas and Programs in Chiang Mai for Digital Nomads

The most commonly pursued option for foreigners wanting to extend their stays in Thailand, education visas are straightforward to get and get you 6 months or 1 year in this sunny and beautiful kingdom, with possibilities of renewing for further study.

An education visa is issued for the purpose of study (in the case of nomads this typically comes under the category of “informal” i.e. non-university study). Common programs are for studying Thai language, non-Thai languages, and martial arts like Muay Thai or hand-to-hand combat.

This visa gives you the right to live in Thailand, but not to work, and if you plan to work around the rules, for goodness sake do not bring this up in any of your submitted paperwork or whilst speaking to immigration. Tons of digital nomads living and working in Thailand use this visa, and it’s a big open secret, but let’s not spoil it shall we?

The nice thing about education visas is that they’re pretty easy and straightforward to get (at least the first couple times). Another upside is that good schools are also super helpful about paperwork, sending you warnings and reminders, and managing follow up visa paperwork for you.

One downside of ed-visas though is they’re not cheap since you have pay for the visa application and for your program of study which can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on your school of choice. They’re also not set up for multiple-entry so you will need to apply for re-entry permits when leaving the country and traveling during your course of study.

You will also, of course, have to actually attend classes! Depending on the program, this might be just class a couple hours a week, though some courses will be more intensive. Some programs, however, literally just need you to show up once a week to sign the register and you leave right after (did we mention people are blatantly abusing this system?).

Further reading:
  • Once again we’d recommend turning to Expat Den for their guide to education visas.
  • Due to the widespread abuse of this system, schools get black-balled and run into issues constantly – even reputable ones – so at this point in time we’ll decline to share links or comment on specific programs to follow up on. To get the latest, check out the Thai Visa Forums.

Elite Visa for Digital Nomads in Thailand

If you’re committed to staying in Thailand and you’ve got money to burn, congratulations, you can make all your Thailand visa problems go away with the Elite Visa! Well, most of them anyway.

This privilege scheme, now rebranded as the Thailand Privilege Visa, has been around since 2013 and plenty of wealthy nomads and expats take advantage. It’s capitalism at its finest – there’s always someone willing to pay if you can find them.

The main benefit of the Elite Visa is you get a renewable multiple-entry visa valid for 5 years or more that requires no additional extensions or border runs. You also get access to fast-track visa services and a concierge to help you with the pesky day-to-days of setting up bank accounts, buying property, etc.

So let’s talk money. The Elite program raised it’s prices in 2023 to the following:

1. GOLD Package: 5-year visa for a cool 900,000 baht (about $25,000).

2. PLATINUM Package: 10-year membership (5-year visa, renewable once) for 1.5 million baht (about $41,000).

3. DIAMOND Package: 15-year membership (three 5-year visas) for 2.5 million baht (about $69,000).

4. RESERVE Package: The crème de la crème – 20-year membership (four 5-year visas) for a whopping 5 million baht (about $138,000), but this one’s invite-only, folks!

Steep? Absolutely. But if you’re living in Thailand long-term and you factor in visa fees over time along with the cumulative airfare and hotel costs for visa runs, the numbers could well work out in your favor. You’re basically paying a huge chunk up front to sidestep the hassle.

The Elite Visa is a pretty nice option considering that so few other visas suit digital nomads, but bear in mind that this visa doesn’t give you the right to work in Thailand and you still need to do 90-day reporting (or at least have an agency do it for you).

So, if you’ve got cash to splash and want to live the high life in Thailand without visa worries, the Elite Visa might just be your golden ticket. Just remember, it doesn’t come with a work permit, so keep that remote job or hefty savings account handy!

Further reading:

Thailand SMART Visa for Digital Nomad Startups

Hopes were dashed when the details of Thailand’s SMART Visa scheme were released a couple years ago and it turned out to be next to useless for digital nomads. While the first iteration of this program was universally panned for obscene and unrealistic criteria and capital requirements, changes and updates to the requirements were rolled out pretty quickly.

Designed to encourage entrepreneurship and investment in innovative business sectors, the SMART Visa program has special visa classes for talent, executives, investors and entrepreneurs along with their spouses and children.

For digital nomads working on a startup and looking for a permanent home, the SMART S for startup entrepreneurs may be worth checking out. While the 1 year and 2 year options are clearly intended for those with capital and a strong intent to make Thailand a business base (so probably not nomads…), a 6 month option is available for those who may still be testing the waters of their business.

If you go for the 6-month SMART S Visa, there is no capital requirement and no need to register your business in Thailand first – you just need a qualifying business plan. The fee, payable once your application has been approved, is only ฿10,000 (about US$300), so it may be worth a shot if you’re in tech and could be interested in developing your project in Thailand.

The benefits of the SMART Visa program are that it eliminates the need for a redundant visa and work-permit, and also relaxes some of the check-in requirements, both excellent reductions in the usual red tape around Thai bureaucracy. You can submit your application online and then complete the process in Thailand or via an embassy abroad.

True Digital Park, a Bangkok-based startup campus run by one of Thailand’s largest telecoms, offers a 1-year SMART Visa package that includes application support, coworking and other perks for about US$3000 which may be an attractive offer for founders who want to jump into the ecosystem.

In order to extend the SMART Visa, however, you will need to demonstrate progress in your business and register a company in Thailand. For a real startup founder, we rate this program highly, but if you’re just a nomad looking for easy visa options, this is probably not the path for you.

Further reading:

Thailand 10-Year Long-Term-Resident (LTR) Visa for Digital Nomads

Many have labelled the LTR Visa Thailand’ digital nomad visa because it includes a category for “work from Thailand professionals.” Off the bat, we don’t see what 10 year residence has to do with living nomdaically, so it seems an odd pairing. When you did into the criteria, however, you can see how poorly this scheme lines up with the characteristics of the average digital citizen.

Thailand’s 10-Year LTR Visas were created to attract wealthy residents to invest in Thailand in exchange for concierge services (similar to the SMART and Elite visas) and other perks. The “Work from Thailand Professional” category for example, gets an exemption on taxes for income earned from abroad.

Few digital nomads are likely to qualify for this visa, however. To be eligible, you must have earned a salary of at least US$80,000 for the past two years. You must also be employed by a public company listed on a stock exchange or; a private company in operation for at least three years with combined revenue at least USD 150 million in the last three years. You must also demonstrate at least 5 years of work experience in your industry.

Plenty of digital nomads might qualify based on income or experience, but the employer requirement unfortunately excludes the overwhelming majority of digital nomads who are self-employed, freelancers, or working for small agencies and startups.

The visa comes with a processing fee of ฿50,000 and you get a 5-year visa first which you can then extend for a further 5 years if you remain eligible.

Honestly, this visa seems a bit bonkers for a digital nomad. If you’re a remote worker who wants to relocate to Thailand though and you can actually qualify, this program seems like a great option.

History of Digital Nomad Visas in Thailand

Given it’s longtime status as a digital nomad hub, many may be surprised that Thailand has not had any official nomad visa until now. Rumors have always been found on visa forums and click-bait news sites, but they have never yet panned out. Visas have been created targeting startups, corporate remote workers, and wealthy expats of various stripes, but until the DTV, there was no plan for a visa specifically for those highly mobile remote workers.

While there was much excitement leading up to the SMART Visa scheme announced in 2017, it did not turn out to be the long-wished solution desired by digital nomads. Startup founders in targeted industries can qualify for the 6-Month SMART S Visa with not much more than a business plan, but this talent scheme does not suit the general population of nomads.

Much the same happened during the pandemic when it was rumored that digital nomads would be a target of the 10-Year Long Term Resident Visa (LTR Visa). When the program was launched in 2022, there was a category for “Work from Thailand Professionals,” but the criteria only qualified corporate and big tech workers earning over $80,000 a year.

We’ve seen the Tourism Authority of Thailand continuing their efforts to promote the kingdom as a remote work destination while remaining silent on the visa issue for a while now, so it’s great to finally see the government enact something official.

Conclusion

With the introduction of the Destination Thailand Visa, it seems like Thailand is finally returning the love that digital nomads have always had for the kingdom. This new visa, offering extended stays and multiple entries over a 5-year period, marks a significant shift in Thailand’s approach to remote workers and long-term visitors.

While the DTV isn’t a perfect solution for everybody, it does target a long neglected group. Combined with existing options like tourist visas and the Elite Visa program, Thailand now offers a range of choices for remote workers, suiting different needs and intents.

As always in Thailand, visa regulations can change rapidly. Stay informed, choose the option that best fits your situation, and don’t let paperwork overshadow the incredible experiences awaiting you in this vibrant country.

If you’re interested in learning more about Thailand visas, check out our resources and guides. Or if you want to connect with the digital nomad community here, check out this list of meetups or join our Facebook group.