Long-stay in Thailand · 2026 guide
The Thailand Elite visa — officially the Thailand Privilege Card since October 2023 — runs from ฿650,000 for five years up to ฿5,000,000 for twenty. The entry tier, Bronze at ฿650,000, closes to new applications on 30 September 2026, after which the cheapest way in becomes Gold at ฿900,000. It is a long-stay membership, not a work visa, and it requires no income test, no bank deposit and no health insurance.
We are a TAT-licensed tour operator, not a visa agent. We introduce you to a licensed agent who handles the entire application at no cost to you — and tell you honestly when a cheaper route suits you better.
Pricing
Five tiers, one-time membership fee, paid only after your application is approved. Cost per year is the number that matters — and it does not fall as you climb the range. Platinum at ฿150,000 a year is better value than Gold at ฿180,000.
Closing 30 Sept 2026
Benefits confirmed directly by the authorised agent. Bronze has no family add-on.
| Tier | Membership fee | Validity | Cost per year | Family add-on | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | ฿650,000 | 5 years | ฿130,000 | No | Closes to new applications 30 Sept 2026 |
| Gold | ฿900,000 | 5 years | ฿180,000 | No | Entry tier from 1 Oct 2026 |
| Platinum | ฿1,500,000 | 10 years | ฿150,000 | Yes — ฿1,000,000 | Best cost per year once Bronze closes |
| Diamond | ฿2,500,000 | 15 years | ฿166,667 | Yes — ฿1,500,000 | 365-day accident cover, co-working access |
| Reserve | ฿5,000,000 | 20 years | ฿250,000 | Yes | Invitation based; the only transferable tier |
Send us your situation and we'll have a licensed agent walk you through it — free, and with no obligation to apply.
Suitability
Four situations where it genuinely earns its price, based on what the programme does well rather than what the brochures claim.
The strongest case in the programme, and the one nobody discusses honestly. At 68, with any pre-existing condition on record, a policy meeting the retirement visa's 3,000,000 THB sum insured is either extremely expensive or unavailable. These applicants are locked out of the retirement route regardless of wealth.
Savings and property, but no 65,000 THB arriving monthly in a documentable stream — and no wish to freeze 800,000 THB in a Thai bank account indefinitely.
Below the LTR income threshold, tired of shorter-term visa cycles, earning outside Thailand rather than from a Thai employer.
You would qualify for other routes and would rather pay once and never think about it again. That is a legitimate reason to buy something.
We would rather lose the introduction than send you to the wrong product. Four groups are better served elsewhere.
50,000 THB for ten years, and it includes a work permit. On price and rights it beats every Privilege tier.
If you can meet the financial and insurance requirements and do not mind annual renewals, it costs a fraction of the membership fee.
This is legally a tourist visa at every tier. Years held do not accumulate towards status.
Membership grants no work permit. You would need the appropriate visa and work permit under Thai law.
Alternatives
| Thailand Privilege | LTR visa | Retirement visa (O-A) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | ฿650,000 – ฿5,000,000 one-time | 50,000 THB government fee | Low fee, renewed annually |
| Duration | 5 – 20 years | 10 years | 1 year at a time |
| Income test | None* | ~USD 80,000/yr or USD 1M assets | 800,000 THB in a Thai bank or 65,000 THB/month |
| Health insurance | Not required | Required | Required — 3,000,000 THB sum insured |
| Work permit | No | Yes | No |
| Annual renewal | No | No | Yes, with fresh documents |
| Path to residency | No | No | No |
*Dual nationals may be asked for proof of income and source of funds, plus six months of residence documentation.
The limits
The process
Confirm which tier fits your situation and how long you intend to stay. Compare it honestly against the LTR visa and the retirement visa before committing. The authorised agent provides consultation free of charge.
A clear colour copy of your passport, valid at least one year, with a minimum of three blank visa pages excluding the observation page, plus the signature page. Dual nationals may also be asked for previous passports, proof of income and source of funds, and six months of residence proof.
For Bronze, 30 September 2026 is the deadline to SUBMIT a complete application, not to be approved. An incomplete file is not a submitted application, so document collection is the stage that decides whether you make it.
The authorities verify a valid passport, no serious criminal record or outstanding arrest warrants, no involvement in bankruptcy, money laundering or financial crime, and no history of overstay or deportation. Processing time varies by nationality.
The membership fee falls due to Thailand Privilege Card Co., Ltd. only after approval, so a failed application does not cost you the fee. The privilege visa is then affixed to your passport.
Six fields, one business day, no charge. We pass your details to a licensed agent and they take it from there.
Benefits in practice
Each tier grants a fixed annual allocation — 20 points for Gold, 35 for Platinum, 55 for Diamond — redeemable across signature service, stay, travel, leisure, well-being and wealth. Family members added under a membership share the primary member's pool.
Points are a redemption unit, not a currency: no fixed baht value, not sellable, not refundable. And the allocation resets annually with no rollover — whatever you have not redeemed by year end is forfeited. Members who treat them as a background perk rather than an expiring allowance lose real value every year.
The full catalogue with point costs is in the official Thailand Privilege Book 2026; airport transfer entitlements begin at page 89. Treat point costs quoted anywhere else as indicative until checked there.
Unlimited on every tier including Bronze, on both arrival and departure. You are met after the airbridge and processed at a separate counter.
At 6am on a Tuesday the main hall works fine and the benefit is modest. At 11pm on a Friday in high season, with four wide-bodies landed inside twenty minutes, the difference is the better part of an hour.
The published materials list Suvarnabhumi, Chiang Mai and Phuket. We have asked the agent to confirm the definitive current list and will publish it here.
About us
Trip Thai Tour is a TAT Licensed Tour Operator — Licence No. 14/04232, operating as Global Feed Limited Partnership in Bangkok. We run private tours, transfers and multi-day itineraries. We are not a law firm and not a visa agent.
Thailand Privilege applications are handled exclusively through authorised General Sales and Service Agents appointed by Thailand Privilege Card Co., Ltd. We introduce you to a licensed agent who manages the consultation, paperwork, submission and follow-up. You deal with them on the application — and with us on everything you actually moved here to do. Learn more about Trip Thai Tour, or message us on WhatsApp at +66 89 949 6235.
Five years is a long time to spend inside one neighbourhood. Our private tours across Thailand, our Bangkok packages and our design-your-own trip planner exist for the long-stay resident who has not yet seen Kanchanaburi, Ayutthaya or the Andaman coast properly.
Questions
Five tiers run from ฿650,000 to ฿5,000,000 as a one-time membership fee. Bronze is ฿650,000 for 5 years, Gold ฿900,000 for 5 years, Platinum ฿1,500,000 for 10 years, Diamond ฿2,500,000 for 15 years and Reserve ฿5,000,000 for 20 years. On a cost-per-year basis Bronze is cheapest at ฿130,000 a year, followed by Platinum at ฿150,000. The fee is paid to Thailand Privilege Card Co., Ltd. only after your application has been approved.
Yes. Bronze closes to new applications on 30 September 2026, after which the cheapest entry point becomes Gold at ฿900,000 — a ฿250,000 increase. The tier has been given a closing date before and then extended, so some scepticism is fair, but it is now published as the close of the tier rather than a promotion. Existing members keep their full five years regardless.
To apply. The authorised General Sales and Service Agent has confirmed to us directly that 30 September 2026 is the application submission deadline for Bronze — the background screening runs after your file is lodged, not before the cutoff. That is more generous than many pages imply. What it does not excuse is leaving document collection to the last week: an incomplete file submitted on 29 September is not a submitted application.
A five-year multiple-entry visa with unlimited entries and up to one year of stay per entry, the Premium Immigration Lane at participating international airports, the Elite Personal Assistant service on arrival, a 24-hour Member Contact Centre, and assistance opening a Thai bank account. Bronze members are also eligible to upgrade the membership for a further five to fifteen years later on.
For a single-nationality applicant: a clear colour copy of your passport, valid for at least one year, with a minimum of three blank visa pages excluding the observation page, plus the passport signature page. Dual nationals may additionally be asked for previous passports, documentation of any nationality change or renunciation, proof of income and source of funds, and proof of residence covering the previous six months. Count your blank pages before starting — a mid-process passport renewal is a common cause of delay.
No. The visa does not include a work permit and members cannot be employed by a Thai company. You may own a company or hold shares as an investor, but not hold a position as an employee. Many members work remotely for employers and clients based outside Thailand, which is a different situation from local employment. If you need the legal right to work in Thailand, the LTR visa includes a work permit and this does not.
No. The Privilege visa is legally a tourist visa, however long you hold it. Years spent in Thailand as a member do not accumulate towards permanent residency or Thai citizenship. If a path to residency is your objective, this is the wrong product and no agent should tell you otherwise.
Yes. The authorised agent is explicit that members must comply with Thai immigration regulations including 90-day reporting and TM30 residence notification — membership does not remove the obligation. The programme does provide concierge and government-liaison support, and several sources indicate the team can file 90-day reports on a member's behalf. We have asked the agent to confirm exactly how far that assistance extends and at which tiers, and will update this page with their answer.
The retirement visa is far cheaper and far more demanding. It requires either 800,000 THB held in a Thai bank account, seasoned for two to three months, or provable income of 65,000 THB per month, plus health insurance covering 40,000 THB outpatient and 400,000 THB inpatient with a total sum insured of 3,000,000 THB, renewed annually. Thailand Privilege requires none of that. If you can meet those tests comfortably, the retirement visa costs a fraction of the membership fee.
The LTR visa costs 50,000 THB in government fees for ten years and includes a work permit, making it dramatically cheaper than any Privilege tier. The barrier is eligibility: broadly around USD 80,000 per year in income or USD 1,000,000 in assets, with adjusted thresholds for pensioners who add a qualifying investment. If you meet those thresholds, LTR is the better product on almost every measure.
Almost anyone with a clean record. Applicants must hold a valid passport and meet Thai immigration requirements, have no serious criminal record or outstanding arrest warrants, not be involved in bankruptcy, money laundering or financial crime, have no history of overstaying or being deported from Thailand, and agree to comply with Thai immigration rules including 90-day reporting and TM30 notification. For single-nationality applicants there is no income requirement, no asset requirement, no bank deposit and no health insurance condition.
The authorised agent states that processing time varies depending on the applicant's nationality and on how quickly the background checks complete, so treat any single figure quoted elsewhere as indicative rather than promised. What is fixed is the order: you submit, the screening runs, you pay only after approval, and the visa is then affixed to your passport. Because payment falls due after approval, a rejected application does not cost you the membership fee.
No mandatory ones. The authorised agent has confirmed there are no compulsory charges beyond the membership fee itself, and that their consultation and application assistance are provided free of charge. The membership fee is paid to Thailand Privilege Card Co., Ltd. after approval. We are paid a referral fee by the agent, never by you — introductions through us cost you nothing.
Yes, annually, with no rollover. Each tier grants a fixed annual allocation — 20 points for Gold, 35 for Platinum, 55 for Diamond — redeemable across stay, travel, leisure, well-being and wealth categories. Unused points are forfeited at the end of the year and cannot be exchanged for cash. Members who do not plan redemptions lose value they have already paid for.
Not on Bronze or Gold — both are single-member tiers. The family option begins at Platinum, where a supplementary card is ฿1,000,000, and Diamond, where it is ฿1,500,000. The agent describes these as 'NEXT' memberships: an additional eligible family member joining under an existing membership at a reduced fee. Supplementary members share the primary member's annual privilege points rather than receiving their own allocation.
The programme's published materials list Suvarnabhumi, Chiang Mai and Phuket, and the agent describes the benefit as covering participating international airports. Access is unlimited on every tier including Bronze — it is not rationed by points — and it runs on both arrival and departure. We have asked the agent to confirm the definitive current airport list and will publish it here.
No, and we would be careful of anyone in the tour industry claiming to. Thailand Privilege applications are processed through authorised General Sales and Service Agents appointed by Thailand Privilege Card Co., Ltd. We are a TAT-licensed tour operator, Licence No. 14/04232. We introduce you to a licensed agent who manages the paperwork, submission and follow-up. We never take payment for membership.
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If Bronze is what you want, your complete application has to be lodged by 30 September 2026. The only part you control is how fast the documents come together.