Thailand’s Long-Term Resident visa gives wealthy applicants a 10-year renewable stay from 500,000 USD invested in Thai assets (within 1,000,000 USD of total wealth), with a genuine tax exemption on foreign-source income. Two honest points: this is long-stay residency, not a route to a Thai passport, and Thailand is not a zero-tax country — ordinary tax residents are taxed on Thai income and, since 2024, on foreign income they remit.
Thailand gets called a tax haven more often than almost anywhere else on this site, and the label is wrong: ordinary tax residents have been taxed on foreign income they remit since a 2024 rule change. What the Long-Term Resident visa actually buys is a precise carve-out from that change — exemption on foreign-source income — for a single USD 500,000 threshold that can be met by government bonds, a Thai company stake, or property, in any combination. The official criteria are still unsettled: some 2025-2026 sources report the income test dropped for the wealthy route, others still cite it. Thai naturalisation itself stays rare and slow, unlike Canada's three-year citizenship path when its programme is open. See other residency-by-investment options and how figures are checked in our methodology.
| Programme | Status | Verified on | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand Long-Term Resident (LTR) Visa — Wealthy Global Citizen | Open | Thailand Board of Investment — LTR Visa (programme officiel) |
Residency by investment
Read the full Thailand Long-Term Resident (LTR) Visa — Wealthy Global Citizen page →
| Route | Official minimum | Real total, family of four | Hold | Recoverable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government bondsAlso accepted for this threshold — business, real estateOne threshold of 500,000 USD invested in Thailand, in the applicant’s name, met by any one of three assets or by a combination of them: Thai government bonds with more than five years’ remaining maturity, direct investment in a Thai-registered company, or Thai property. It sits inside a wider requirement of 1,000,000 USD in global assets, which the 500,000 USD counts towards. Note that foreigners cannot own land freehold in Thailand — property here means a condominium unit or a long-lease structure. | $500 000 | ≈ $667 500 | 5 yr | Yes |
The programme announces 1–2 months. That is the official figure, not a commitment.
A qualification endorsement from the Board of Investment is issued first, then the visa; practitioners report roughly one to two months end to end for a complete file.
Thailand is often mislabelled as a tax haven. It is not. What the LTR visa offers is a precise, valuable exemption: LTR holders are exempt on foreign-source income. That matters most against the backdrop of a 2024 change, under which ordinary Thai tax residents (present 180+ days) are now taxed on foreign income they bring into Thailand. The LTR carves you out of that; an ordinary long-stay visa does not.
Income earned in Thailand is taxed progressively, from 0% up to 35%. Local salary, local business and Thai-source gains fall here — the LTR exemption is for foreign income, not Thai income.
Companies pay corporate income tax at 20%, and the standard VAT is 7%. These are ordinary, mainstream rates, not offshore ones.
Unlike the zero-estate-tax Caribbean and Gulf options, Thailand levies an inheritance tax on estates above 100 million baht (roughly 2.8 million USD), at 5% for ascendants and descendants and 10% for others, plus a gift tax. A land and building tax also applies to property.
The LTR is a 10-year stay, not a passport, and holding it does not by itself make you Thai tax-resident: that turns on spending 180 days or more in a year. It also does not remove obligations to a country that taxes on citizenship, such as the United States. If a tax-efficient Asian base is the goal, compare it honestly with other residence routes such as Panama or the zero-tax Gulf option of the UAE, read our tax hub, and see how each figure is checked in our methodology. Browse all options on our residency hub.
| Route | Official minimum | Real total, family of four |
|---|---|---|
| Government bondsAlso accepted for this threshold — business, real estate | $500 000 | ≈ $667 500 |
| — | Portugal | Greece |
|---|---|---|
| Official minimum | env. $289 000Identical on this line | env. $289 000Identical on this line |
| Real total, family of 4 (fees included) | ≈ $385 214Identical on this line | ≈ $385 214Identical on this line |
| Announced processing | 12–24 months | 4–6 monthsfaster |
| Presence required | Seven days in the first year, then fourteen days in each subsequent two-year period. | None. |
| Years to citizenship | 10 years | 7 yearsfaster |
| Investment routes | Investment fund, Business, Donation | Real estate |
| A route returns the capital | NoIdentical on this line | NoIdentical on this line |
| Open to Russian applicants | YesIdentical on this line | YesIdentical on this line |
| Region | EuropeIdentical on this line | EuropeIdentical on this line |
Open the country page · PortugalOpen the country page · Greece
Freedom. Anywhere.
What we do for you
Citizenship or residence, the honest answer often is not the one you arrived with. We take the whole procedure with you — eligibility, the route that fits your situation, the file, the follow-up — with one person on your side throughout.
For Thailand specifically, you are talking to someone who already knows the file: who to speak to on the ground, what the unit actually asks for, and the points where applications stall.
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