Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the so-called LTR Visa which is short for Long-Term Residence Visa. As we have discussed in a number of videos on this channel, not to sound like a broken record, but the LTR Visa is not a long-term residence visa in any true sense of the word. It is a long visa, it can provide up to 10 years of status but it does not confer permanent residence in Thailand. As we have discussed in a number of videos, Permanent Residence is a different thing, so it is just sort of used euphemistically, the residence side of it, it doesn't confer permanent residence. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the East Asia Forum that is eastasiaforum.org, the article is titled: Will Thailand's new residency Visa achieve results? Quoting directly: "On 1 September 2022, Thailand introduced a new Long-Term Resident (LTR) Visa program. The program offers a 10-year renewable Visa and a range of tax and non-tax benefits to four distinct categories of foreigners." Well first of all, as we have discussed in other videos, strictly speaking it is not really a 10-year Visa one off. It is really kind of a bifurcated 5-year and 5-year visa. As we have also discussed in other videos, all this tax stuff they talk about, the one big thing that we do know at this time is that the big difference is it is sort of automatic tax scrutiny from the Revenue Department whereas other visas don't really have that issue.

Quoting further: "These are wealthy global citizens, wealthy pensioners, work-from-Thailand professionals and highly skilled professionals. Though Thailand's LTR Visa aims to attract 'high-potential' foreign talent and technologies, the eligibility criteria is conservative and risk-adverse. Work from anywhere professionals, for example, are expected to work for a public company listed on the stock exchange or an established private company with a combined revenue of at least US$150 million over the previous three years." So you have either got to be dealing with a private company, working for a private company that makes US150 million a year or a major publicly listed company in the sort of work authorized categories associated with the sort of Long-Term Residency Visa, again not residence, it just confers longer status and again there's a lot of tax scrutiny associated with it.

That stated, there are many who feel that this may end up being a major benefit. I kind of look at it as more akin to the Smart Visa. It may actually end up being very beneficial for a small niche group of people but overall I don't really see where this Visa is going to have any broad benefit for folks in a broad way in the long term.