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As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question what is going on with these so-called Long-Term Residence Visas, that basically I think we have been discussing this for a little bit over a year now on this channel. The question posed is what is going on with those?

To get into some of this I am going to quote from the Thaiger, that's thethaiger.com, the article is titled: Who is eligible for a 50,000 Baht 10 year LTR Visa in Thailand. The fine print. Just quoting an excerpt here and hats off to the folks at the Thaiger, always interested in their take on things. Quoting directly: "Today, Thailand's Cabinet announced that the fee for a 10-year Long-Term Resident Visa would be halved from 100,000 Baht to 50,000 Baht to attract foreigners with high potential to reside in the Kingdom. Not only has the fee been reduced, but the eligibility criteria has become more "flexible", according to Deputy Spokesperson for the PM's Office, Ratchada Thanadirek. The Cabinet hopes the changes will increase foreign investment and boost the economy in these early post-pandemic months. The LTR Visa is targeted at four groups of foreigners: wealthy foreigners, retirees, working foreigners and specialists. All groups are welcome to bring their spouse and up to four children, as long as the children are under the age of 20." Quoting further: "The changes will come into effect 90 days after the Cabinet's official announcement in The Royal Gazette." I am not certain. We have been looking at this, I haven't seen if the Cabinet has made an official announcement in the Royal Gazette. That being said, even if they have done, this article was done on May the 11th, we are sitting here in May 18th so 90 days we would actually see the Act come on line. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that okay 3 months from now so August, we are going to be seeing these LTR Visas in action. Not necessarily. They have to enact the law, then they have to deal with the regulatory structure that comes out of that, the Ministerial Regulations. And then after they have kind of hammered that out they will go ahead and we will probably start seeing actual visas being issued or at least criteria promulgated so you can get the actual Visa. 

Again, this thing is still in kind of a state of flux. I think things are moving forward on it but as far as finalized outcomes yet it sort of remains to be seen. We have got a good idea what things are looking like. Also understand there are other options out there for long-term stay in Thailand, it is not just this particular program. Quite frankly and I have mentioned it before, I think a very narrow subset of people are going to be using this visa ultimately quite frankly. Now that being said, it remains to be seen. We will keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.