How to extend the LTR
Extension is a separate process from the original application, judged by a different office against different documents. Most of what goes wrong here is specific to that difference.
The procedure
| Where to file | Two offices, in sequence, both inside Thailand. First the Office of the Board of Investment (One Stop Service Centre for Visa and Work Permit), which re-runs the qualification endorsement — in person or by upload at the Thailand Investment and Expat Services Center (TIESC), 6th-7th floors, One Bangkok, MRT Lumphini, ltr@boi.go.th, +66 (0) 2209 1100, ext. 1109-1110. Then, with the endorsement letter in hand, the Immigration Bureau, which extends the permission to stay. There is no consular route: an extension of an existing permission cannot be done at an embassy abroad the way a first issuance can. |
|---|---|
| Form | No form number published. BOI has not released a renewal form or checklist; its FAQ answer on renewal documents still says the official requirements have not been announced. |
| Timing | Legal floor: the BOI endorsement application must be filed at least 20 working days before the current permission to stay expires (Announcement Por. 4/2568, item 4). BOI's own FAQ tells applicants to file 120 to 60 days ahead, which is the number to work to. BOI decides within 20 working days of receiving the application. The Immigration Bureau step must then be completed before the current permission expires, and the 20-working-day floor leaves almost no margin for it — which is what the 120-to-60-day window is for. Beyond the 10-year mark the same mechanism applies, again at least 20 working days before expiry. |
| How many times | 5 years first, then one 5-year extension, giving the headline 10 years. Past 10 years the announcement sets no hard cap — item 5 of Por. 4/2568 provides for applying again beyond the 10-year permission, on the same endorsement-then-Immigration mechanism, subject to still meeting the criteria. No published limit on the number of dependents. Changing category at the 5-year point is not an extension: the endorsement is applied for from scratch and the visa fee is paid again for the new stamp. |
What to bring
- No dedicated extension checklist has been published, so this list is reconstructed from the first-application requirements and from Por. 4/2568. Treat every item below as inferred rather than published, and plan on re-proving the whole original file.
- Current passport (6+ months validity, 2+ blank pages), full scan of the biodata page and every page carrying Thai immigration stamps, in chronological double-page spreads.
- Health insurance covering Thailand for at least USD 50,000 with at least 10 months of coverage remaining, measured as of the date the endorsement letter is issued rather than the date of filing. Alternatives: Thai Social Security evidence (latest month's payment receipt, the company's submitted employee name list, and the valid SSO card), or a deposit of at least USD 100,000 held and maintained for at least 12 months (USD 25,000 for a dependent).
- Category-specific proof again: filed personal income tax returns for the relevant period; for Wealthy Pensioners, passive-income evidence only; for Work-from-Thailand, a current employment letter plus remote-work permission letter, each issued within 3 months, and fresh evidence the employer still meets the corporate test; for Wealthy Global Citizens, current evidence of the USD 500,000 Thai investment and USD 1 million in global assets; for Highly-Skilled, a current employment letter, Thai company profile and audited financial statement, plus WP.46 if a work permit is involved.
- Dependents: proof of relationship again, and for a child, proof they are still under 20.
- Police clearance may be requested case by case; if requested, it must be under 3 months old.
What goes wrong at extension time
- The fee position for the second five years is unresolved. BOI publishes 50,000 THB per person per 10 years on the Visa Issuance page and the FAQ describes a full payment of 50,000 baht for the issuance. No BOI source says whether a same-category five-year extension carries a further charge, so budget for the possibility that it does.
- Every condition has to have held continuously, not only on the day of filing. The Visa Issuance page states that if criteria are no longer met — investment amounts, insurance coverage — the LTR visa is revoked. An applicant who sold the Thai condo supporting the USD 500,000 investment test in year three has a problem at year five that did not exist at year one.
- The insurance 10-month test is measured at the endorsement-letter issuance date. File in month 10 of a 12-month policy and the policy is compliant on filing day and short by decision day. Renew before filing.
- The deposit alternative needs 12 months of continuous maintenance. Topping a Thai account up to USD 100,000 the week before filing does not satisfy it, and neither does letting it dip below the line at any point in the qualifying year.
- Work-from-Thailand holders are re-tested on their employer, not only on themselves. After a job change the new employer must independently be stock-exchange listed, or have been operating 3+ years with combined revenue of USD 50 million or more across those 3 years, or be a 100%-owned subsidiary of such a company.
- Highly-Skilled holders who changed employer must have moved to a company still inside a targeted industry; BOI asks to be notified by email at least a month before the previous employment ends.
- A dependent child's visa becomes invalid automatically on their 20th birthday. The extension does not carry them and no warning is sent.
- The extension stamp is capped by passport expiry, the same as the first one. Renew the passport before the extension appointment or the grant will be shorter than five years and the stamp will have to be transferred later.
- Missing the endorsement's 60-day validity window means starting the endorsement over. At first application that costs time; at extension it can cost the permission to stay.
- The 20-working-day statutory minimum is a floor, not a target. It leaves no room for the Immigration Bureau step, a document request, or a run of public holidays. Work to 120 days out.
- Annual TM.95 reporting is separate from the extension and does not substitute for it. Leaving and re-entering Thailand resets the reporting clock to one year from the most recent arrival, which is easy to lose track of across a five-year stamp.