What changed, and when
Long-stay visa rules in this region move faster than the guides that describe them. Each entry below records a change we have sourced, the date it took effect, and the advice it made obsolete. If a page elsewhere contradicts one of these, check its date.
It does not. The floor stays at S$5,600 for general sectors and S$6,200 for financial services through 2026, rising with age to S$10,700 and S$11,800 at 45 and above. The increase to S$6,000 / S$6,600 (up to S$11,500 / S$12,700 at 45+) applies to new applications from 1 Jan 2027 and to renewals of passes expiring from 1 Jan 2028. Budget on 2026 figures for a 2026 hire, and on the higher numbers for anyone starting in 2027.
Made obsolete: “The Employment Pass minimum salary goes up in 2026.”
Effective 31 August 2026, all DTV applicants must submit a certificate of criminal record clearance issued by the relevant authority in their home country, plus proof of permanent residence. This is a recent addition and most guides written before mid-2026 omit it.
Made obsolete: “The DTV requires no documents beyond a bank statement.”
Japan raised consular visa fees for the first time since 1978. For applications submitted on or after 1 July 2026, a single-entry visa costs 15,000 yen and a multiple-entry visa 30,000 yen, up from 3,000 and 6,000. Almost every digital-nomad guide written before mid-2026 still quotes the old figure.
Made obsolete: “The visa costs about 3,000 yen.”
That figure is two GNI cycles out of date and is not a single number any more. From 30 June 2026 the Ministry of Justice applies a sliding 1x-2x of per-capita GNI depending on age and where you live in Korea. On the 2025 GNI of KRW 52.41 million the top tier is about KRW 104.82 million and the floor - ages 18-34 living outside the capital region or in a population-decline area - is about KRW 52.41 million. Several Korean consulate pages in the United States still publish the old USD 66,000 and 85-million-won wording, so an official page is not proof the number is current.
Made obsolete: “You need about USD 66,000 a year, or 85 million won - that's the number every guide gives.”
The two-year cap ended on 30 June 2026, when the programme stopped being a pilot and became permanent. The Ministry of Justice now allows residence up to three years, still granted a year at a time. The catch is that the exact renewal mechanics inside that three-year window - how many extensions and of what length - have not been set out in any updated primary government document, so plan the third year as probable rather than guaranteed.
Made obsolete: “The workation visa caps you at two years - one year plus one extension - so it's not worth it for a real relocation.”
Both conditions have to hold together. The Ministry of Justice example is a foreigner aged 18-34 doing their workation in a non-capital-region (비수도권) or population-decline area, and only then does 1x GNI apply. Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi are the capital region, so basing yourself in Seoul pushes you up the scale regardless of age. The government published the 1x-2x band without publishing the intermediate breakpoints, so anyone who is young in Seoul, or older outside it, has to ask the consulate or immigration office what their actual number is rather than calculate it.
Made obsolete: “If you're in the reduced-income band you just need to be young - the location part is a formality.”
The Golden Visa was proposed in April 2025 and is still at proposal stage, with no published mechanism for how remote workers would qualify. What did come out of those discussions is a separate five-year Talent Visa, which has officially launched. That distinction matters because the two are routinely conflated: one exists and is narrow, the other is widely written about and does not yet exist.
Made obsolete: “Vietnam's ten-year Golden Visa is now available, so long stays are solved.”
The Thai e-Visa system now flags IP and GPS location, and 2026 applicants increasingly face a Location Verification step requiring a utility bill or driver's licence matching the country of the embassy they applied to. Applying from inside Thailand is a rejection.
Made obsolete: “You can apply for the DTV while you're already in Thailand on a tourist stamp.”
Amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals passed the Legislative Yuan on 29 August 2025 and took effect 1 January 2026. They allow "foreigners who earn at least NT$6 million (US$196,046) annually to apply after just one year of residence"; they let "Spouses of special foreign professionals and foreign senior professionals (holders of EGC, ASP-type WP, ARC or Plum Blossom Card)... apply for an individual work permit directly, without requiring employer sponsorship"; they widen the degree shortcut to "graduates from the world's top 1,500 universities — up from the current top 500"; and the field list has grown past the old eight — the official qualification pages now also list Architecture, Biotechnology, Digital, Environment and National Defense. Guides written before late 2025 are describing the previous regime.
Made obsolete: “Permanent residency takes five years, your spouse needs an employer to sponsor her, and there are eight Gold Card fields.”
The salary floor is unchanged but COMPASS itself was recalibrated. Revised sector-specific salary benchmarks for the C1 criterion apply to new EP applications filed from 1 January 2026 through 31 December 2026, and to renewals of passes expiring from 1 July 2026. The same round updated the recognised-qualification lists and the Shortage Occupation List. A candidate who scored 10 or 20 C1 points on last year's benchmark can score fewer points on the same salary this year.
Made obsolete: “Nothing about the EP changed in 2026, so a COMPASS score calculated last year still holds.”
The blue book stopped being issued in October 2025. Clark Hill's summary of the change states that "As of Oct. 13, 2025, it has replaced the previous 'Blue Book' with a fully digital platform known as the e-Work Permit System," with applications filed online and a card-format permit issued after a biometric appointment at one of the Foreign Work Permit Service Centers. The practical consequence is that the WP3 and work permit steps now run through an employer account on the Department of Employment platform, so an employer that has never registered on it will stall your start date. Existing paper permits remain usable until they expire, after which renewals must be filed digitally.
Made obsolete: “My work permit is the blue book I collect at the Labour Department.”
The September 2025 restructure lowered the minimum age to 40. Applicants aged 40–49 without a pension face the highest deposit tier at USD 50,000, but they are eligible, which older guidance says they are not.
Made obsolete: “You must be 50 to qualify for the SRRV.”
Those codes no longer exist as separate application categories. On 31 August 2025 Thailand's Department of Consular Affairs collapsed 17 non-immigrant codes into seven, and B, B-A, IM, IB and EX were all merged into a single B (Business) category. Fragomen's note on the change says "this adjustment does not alter eligibility criteria or applicants' rights" — it is an administrative relabelling, so nothing about what you must prove changed, but any guide or checklist still telling you to pick "Non-B-A" on the application form is describing a dropdown option that is gone.
Made obsolete: “I should apply for a Non-B B-A, IB or IM visa — those are the codes for investment and business.”
Circular IMI-417.GR.01.01 of 2025 took effect on 29 May 2025 and requires foreigners in Indonesia to have a photo taken and be interviewed at the immigration office when applying to extend a stay permit. The application and payment still start online at evisa.imigrasi.go.id, but you appear in person afterwards, and Yogyakarta immigration's own guidance says the photo is taken one working day after payment. Plan each extension around a trip to the office that holds your registered address, not just a WhatsApp message to an agent.
Made obsolete: “My agent extends the visa online, I never have to show up anywhere.”
From 16 May 2025 MTCP limits personal sponsors to immediate family — spouse, parents or step-parents, children or siblings — and the application guide states that a 'Personal sponsor can only sponsor one applicant for a lifetime'. Unless you have close family resident in Sarawak, the only remaining route is a licensed S-MM2H agent registered in Sarawak, whose fees sit on top of the RM5,000 government processing fee. This is a common reason applications stall before they are ever acknowledged.
Made obsolete: “Any friend or business contact in Sarawak can sponsor your application, so you can skip the agent fees.”
That was the rule under D.O. 146-15, Sec. 7, and it is still the most-repeated line in guides written before 2025. Under the 2025 rules the DOLE Regional Office acts on a new or renewal AEP application within fifteen (15) working days from payment of the required fee. Plan an AEP-to-visa timeline in months, not days.
Made obsolete: “The AEP is issued within 24 hours once you've paid and published.”
Since the 2025 rules there is a window that closes. The vacancy ad has to run in a newspaper, on PhilJobNet and at the PESO/JPO; the AEP application can be filed 15 calendar days after publication, and the published ads are only valid for 45 days, so the filing has to land inside that period or the publication is redone. Covered employers must also submit an Understudy Training Program or Skills Development Program plan with the application or within sixty (60) days of the start of employment, then file progress reports semi-annually on a one-year AEP.
Made obsolete: “The employer just files the AEP paperwork whenever it's ready.”
The published English text of clause 2.18(6) is indeed written as "In the case of marriage to a Thai woman, the alien husband must earn...", and that wording has never been amended. It no longer describes who can use the route. Thailand's Marriage Equality Act came into force on 23 January 2025, and by March 2025 immigration pathways for same-sex foreign spouses of Thai nationals had been implemented. Foreign wives of Thai husbands have long been granted the same extension in practice. Do not let the gendered wording in an old PDF talk you out of applying, and do not expect the PDF to be your authority at the counter either.
Made obsolete: “The marriage visa is only for a foreign husband with a Thai wife — that is what the regulation says.”
Those are pre-2025 numbers and they no longer exist. From 1 January 2025 the fixed deposit is RM500,000 at a Sarawak panel bank, the old RM84,000-a-year (RM7,000/month) income test was scrapped and replaced with RM10,000/month for an individual or RM15,000/month with a dependent, and a RM5,000 non-refundable processing fee was added. S-MM2H is still cheaper than federal MM2H, but it is no longer a cheap programme in absolute terms.
Made obsolete: “Sarawak MM2H only needs about RM150,000 in the bank and RM7,000 a month in income — it's the cheap one.”
Those were the old e-Visa prices. CambodiaGo: "Tourist and business e-visa fees were reduced from $36 / $42 to $30 / $35 on 1 January 2025." The $35 figure matches what the Royal Embassy of Cambodia in Washington D.C. charges for a Type-E visa. Older guides and any figure you get from a model trained before 2025 will still quote $42.
Made obsolete: “The business E visa costs $42 and the tourist visa $36.”
It does not. Acclime: "Even though the foreigner has obtained the EB visa extension, it does not guarantee that the foreigner can work in Cambodia. Work permits and foreign employment cards must also be secured to work in Cambodia legally." Since 2024 this bites at renewal, not just in theory — Cambodia Expats Online lists a valid work permit as required for 6-month and 12-month renewals where you work. The permit is a separate Ministry of Labour process with its own annual fee and its own deadline, and the old practice of buying a 12-month EB and ignoring the labour side is what now gets renewals refused.
Made obsolete: “The EB is a business visa, so holding one means you can legally work or run a business in Cambodia.”
That figure is obsolete for the O-A and has been since 2021. The current requirement is at least USD 100,000 / 3,000,000 THB of cover including all medical benefits. The old numbers still circulate widely in guides and in AI-generated answers, and a policy bought to meet them will be rejected at the counter.
Made obsolete: “Thai retirement visa insurance is 400,000 THB inpatient and 40,000 THB outpatient.”
That was the ceiling under the original Law 47/2014, whose Article 38 read "The duration of a NG3, LV1, LV2, ĐT or DH temporary residence card shall not exceed 05 years." Law 51/2019/QH14 rewrote Article 38 effective 1 July 2020 and split the investor categories: ĐT1 cards now run up to 10 years, ĐT2/DH/LV1/LV2/LS/NG3 up to 5, NN1/NN2/ĐT3/TT up to 3, and LĐ1/LĐ2/PV1 up to 2. Since 1 July 2026 the new UĐ1 and UĐ2 cards also reach 10 years. Guides still reciting the old symbol list "LV1, LV2, ĐT, NN1, NN2, DH, PV1, LĐ, TT" are quoting pre-2020 law — the undifferentiated ĐT and LĐ symbols no longer exist.
Made obsolete: “A Vietnamese temporary residence card lasts up to 5 years.”
Below VND 3 billion of contributed capital you get an ĐT4 visa, and ĐT4 is not on the Article 36 list of TRC-eligible categories at all — a small company buys you a visa you must keep renewing, not a card. The thresholds set by Law 51/2019 are: under VND 3bn is ĐT4 and no TRC; VND 3bn to under 50bn is ĐT3, capped at a 3-year card; VND 50bn to under 100bn is ĐT2, 5 years; VND 100bn or more, or investment in a government-designated incentivised sector or locality, is ĐT1 and the 10-year card. The incentivised-sector clause is the part most guides omit, and it is the only way to reach ĐT1 without VND 100 billion.
Made obsolete: “Set up a small company in Vietnam and the investor route gets you residence.”
Law 47/2014 said "Expired temporary residence cards may be extended." Law 51/2019 deleted that and substituted "An expired temporary resident card shall be considered for issuance anew," effective 1 July 2020. The practical consequence is that there is no lightweight renewal: each cycle needs a current sponsor, a fresh work permit or work permit exemption confirmation, a new dossier and the fee again. If your employer has not started the work permit renewal in time, you cannot stretch the card to cover the gap — you drop back to a visa.
Made obsolete: “When my TRC expires I just renew or extend it.”
327/2557 is still the operative text for the marriage extension. Order of the Royal Thai Police No. 161/2563, effective 30 April 2020, repealed and replaced only articles 2.11, 2.20 and 2.27 of the 327/2557 attachment. Clause 2.18, which covers family members of a Thai national and carries the 40,000/month and 400,000 baht test, was untouched and still reads exactly as written in 2014.
Made obsolete: “Order 327/2557 was replaced years ago, so the 400,000 baht figure I read in it might be out of date.”