How long to obtain Elite - start to finish?

[Travelanimal]

2 hours ago, CartagenaWarlock said:

Also got my approval letter (email) today. It took almost 2 months. I will call them tomorrow to arrange for payments. As I am in Thailand now with a tourist visa, I will go to their office to make arrangements for the visa. 

 

Great tips. Always pay in local currency to get the best rate. Never pay in you home country's country.

I noticed lots of brouhaha about health insurance. Does it apply to anybody over 50, like TE card holders? I checked the rates and they are not bad (only 2K USD per year but coverage is paltry). I already have a catastrophic health plan from United Health (the largest health insurance company in the World) for up to one million USD anywhere in the World with a max out of pocket 10K USD and a 20:80 co-insurance. I also have a tax free HSA account accumulating 3K per year for 10 years. I don't want to buy any additional insurance if I could avoid it. If forced, I have to buy a worthless insurance, I guess. 

Can you tell the date your application was sent to immigration 

Edited May 17, 2019 by Travelanimal

[Sharp]

Applied for another PE visa through Elite and confirmation was accepted in 22 days.

Granted I'm already a member and near the end of my membership but I'm seriously thinking of taking this option due to all the issues being discussed and hopefully puts me in a better position going forward not knowing future decisions that will be taken by the powers that be.

Sent from my SM-P555 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[vibration]

On 5/8/2019 at 12:14 PM, vibration said:

Yesterday evening I applied for my Thai Elite Visa and received an email today reply stating the following "..........The copy of your passport page will be sent for the immigration approval which may take about 3 month. Once approved, you will receive an approval letter via email with banking details for payment.............."

 

I really look forward to getting it and I will keep this Post updated.

 

Good luck to all with with your Visa's and extensions.

 

When I applied for my Thai Elite Visa on 08.05.2019 I applied online and today I decided to check the status online and to my pleasant suprise it stated that my application is approved. I called the Thai Elite Office and they conformed this and said that I should receive my Membership Letter within 1 to 2 weeks and then I would have 3 months to pay.

 

I am pleased that my approval process tok maximum 2 weeks.

 

Good luck to all others who have applied.

[Thaindrew]

just had my approval letter come through, took 5 weeks

[JesseBronson]

I also had Non Imm B, BOI visa in 2017, quit my job and switched to TE. I am under 50, not married, so I had no alternative. 

 

From the time I filled in my 1 pager application form and provided scans of my passport, etc, it took about 48 hours for them to confirm that I can get the 5 year visa. 

 

Once I paid, (500,000 baht) an appointment at immigration was set up in less than 3 or 4 days...

 

Went to immigration in Bangkok, the personal helper handled everything, I did not even see an immigration official or talk to one. 

 

Considering the way immigration is going these days, I think its a great alternative... Plus the perks at the airport :) -- If you live in Bkk with the visa, even better perks.. not much help  in the provinces.  

 

As far as work, I talked to several lawyers... You cannot officially work here and collect a salary - if you switch back over to a work visa, the Thai Elite is cancelled automatically. You can however, "conduct business" in Thailand with the Thai Elite as long as any revenue / income is derived from outside Thailand. 

 

Hope this helps. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ukrules]

Well, something has changed hasn't it.

 

Looks like they've turned the approvals process back on for some reason.

 

I recently cashed out a bunch of money from an investment, maybe I'll renew my mine, I'll think about it. I'm stamped in until next April so there's no rush.

[vibration]

On 5/22/2019 at 2:58 PM, vibration said:

When I applied for my Thai Elite Visa on 08.05.2019 I applied online and today I decided to check the status online and to my pleasant suprise it stated that my application is approved. I called the Thai Elite Office and they conformed this and said that I should receive my Membership Letter within 1 to 2 weeks and then I would have 3 months to pay.

 

I am pleased that my approval process tok maximum 2 weeks.

 

Good luck to all others who have applied.

New update today I received my Approval Letter stating that my application was approved by Thai Immigration on the 13.05.2019 which took a total of only 5 days.

 

I would recommend all who have applied online to regularly check the approval status online. 

 

After I applied they promised that I would be informed immediatley when my Visa application was approved however this did not happen. They have however apolajized about this after I complained.

 

Best wishes to all applicants.

[DavisH]

Just a quick question. Can the money for the Thail elite visa be sourced from anywhere, Thailand included? Or is it like the retirement visa, where it must come from overseas?

[ubonjoe]

3 minutes ago, DavisH said:

Can the money for the Thai elite visa be sourced from anywhere, Thailand included?

Yes

[DavisH]

7 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Yes

Thanks, good to know. I'm probably have to work in Thailand until I'd dead though, as I won't get a pension from OZ 

[Travelanimal]

37 minutes ago, vibration said:

New update today I received my Approval Letter stating that my application was approved by Thai Immigration on the 13.05.2019 which took a total of only 5 days.

 

I would recommend all who have applied online to regularly check the approval status online. 

 

After I applied they promised that I would be informed immediatley when my Visa application was approved however this did not happen. They have however apolajized about this after I complained.

 

Best wishes to all applicants.

Did they also told you application may take 2 months for approval when you applied ?

[LongTang]

On 5/22/2019 at 10:10 AM, JesseBronson said:

if you switch back over to a work visa, the Thai Elite is cancelled automatically.

Just to prevent any misunderstandings by others, The Visa in canceled, Not the membership. One can always switch back to the Elite-Visa if stopped working..

[vibration]

2 hours ago, Travelanimal said:

Did they also told you application may take 2 months for approval when you applied ?

They informed me 1 to 3 months depending upon nationality so I am very impressed with only 5 days to approve my application.

[Pilotman]

1 minute ago, vibration said:

They informed me 1 to 3 months depending upon nationality so I am very impressed with only 5 days to approve my application.

why are you so impressed?   You are about to give them a shed load of money for next to no additional benefits from normal extensions of stay, bar slightly easier to deal with immigration, that the rest of us only have to deal with every 12 months.  You must have lots of available cash sloshing around, so good on you.  

[BritTim]

I have been assuming that immigration's go slow on the approval process, and threats to possibly deny entry to some Thailand Elite members who have been approved, were because immigration was negotiating a higher cut of the membership fee. These latest reports of fast approval may signal that an agreement has been reached. Let's see what others say over the next month or so.

[Infantrylaowai]

I applied for the 20 year 1MB Elite Visa on May 24. I called the hotline 3 times to ask questions and each time they told me that for citizens of the USA it should take 10-15 business days for approval. A representative told me that this is because they currently are not conducting criminal background checks with the American government (as opposed to other countries), but believe that if you want. They also told me that right now they are as busy as they have ever been processing new applications, and I believe that. Each time I called they were very polite, and I had nice service. This is my first post, by the way.

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, Infantrylaowai said:

A representative told me that this is because they currently are not conducting criminal background checks with the American government (as opposed to other countries), but believe that if you want.

 

The reason they aren't doing this is because it is not possible for almost every country in the world, they simply won't hand over sensitive information like this to a foreign government.

 

This is also why we need to jump through hoops to get the so called 'police clearance certificates' from our home countries  - because there is no routine way for the Thais to check someones background with a foreign government.

 

There might be some way that they can do this if they are abusing some diplomatic process.

 

As far as I'm aware only the US/Canada share conviction information exclusively with each other (nobody else) and this is why people with minor convictions from either of those countries are effectively banned from entering the other country - for life.

 

[fusion58]

I applied in early January of this year, and approval took about five weeks for me. The rep with whom I spoke advised me that the estimated wait time was normally about two weeks, and that the delay I was experiencing was due to staff turnover at immigration, new officers  getting up to speed, etc.

 

FWIW, I’m a U.S. citizen with a 100% clean record with TI.

[Small Joke]

On 5/7/2019 at 8:46 AM, justin case said:

don't waste your money on it, you have a non-b

 

500k gives you the most expensive tourist visa and you still need yearly extension !!!!

 

and you cannot work, as people said and if your company goes belly up, aka you become bankrupt, bye bye elite, it will be CANCELLED!   read the small letters

 

I've been tempted, but this place is just too wild west for me to invest that much and hope that twenty years from now it will even exist, and I don't mean just the visa, the elites seem determined to birth their own domestic political guerrilla war.

Also, didn't they initially offer it for a lifetime? Changed (to their advantage) already!

 

That cool million could go far resettling in Colombia, Portugal, Morocco, or Vietnam, when Thailand's goalpost-moving finally becomes untenable here for most of us.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Small Joke

[BritTim]

40 minutes ago, Small Joke said:

Also, didn't they initially offer it for a lifetime? Changed (to their advantage) already!

The original offer was, indeed, lifetime. However, it only allowed stays of 90 days at a time. Also, this was when a million baht was worth quite a bit more than now. Those with the original lifetime memberships are still allowed to keep them, though they have been offered the opportunity to convert to the option that gives one-year entries if they forgo the lifetime membership. One other big advantage of the original lifetime membership is that it is transferable. I am curious as to what they might have sold for.

[ukrules]

9 minutes ago, BritTim said:

The original offer was, indeed, lifetime. However, it only allowed stays of 90 days at a time. Also, this was when a million baht was worth quite a bit more than now. Those with the original lifetime memberships are still allowed to keep them, though they have been offered the opportunity to convert to the option that gives one-year entries if they forgo the lifetime membership. One other big advantage of the original lifetime membership is that it is transferable. I am curious as to what they might have sold for.

In reality all that meant is that you had to do an extension of stay every time you do a 90 day report with the original membership but you need to go yourself to do the extension whereas you can send anyone to do your 90 day report for you...officially anyway.

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

The original offer was, indeed, lifetime. However, it only allowed stays of 90 days at a time. Also, this was when a million baht was worth quite a bit more than now. Those with the original lifetime memberships are still allowed to keep them, though they have been offered the opportunity to convert to the option that gives one-year entries if they forgo the lifetime membership. One other big advantage of the original lifetime membership is that it is transferable. I am curious as to what they might have sold for.

Back when the 20 year option was 2 Million baht (there is now a 1MB 30 year option without perks) someone offered me 900k baht to transfer my lifetime Elite Visa.

Being Married (But below 50) the Marriage visa is an option. But the convenience of the Elite Visa is too good and I didn’t sell. 

 

On the Thai Elite S.E. Visa we have to report / extend every 90 days (and pay 1900 baht) but I’ve only ever had to do that twice in 14 years (frequent travel). 

 

I’m glad my made the decision I did 14 years ago...  it was about US$27000  back then, I think. 

[Good Lord]

Sorry if this is a little off topic: I strongly I assume that you only pay the membership fee AFTER they approve you. So when, the waiting period is over then you transfer the money to their account.

[Infantrylaowai]

My visa was approved today, much earlier than I expected. So it took about 2-3 business days. Planning on making the payment next week.

[kekalot]

13 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

there is now a 1MB 30 year option without perks

what's the name of that one? I couldn't find it. The Elite Superiority Extension (the one I have) is 20 years for 1M

if there's a 30 years option without perks (not that mine has any particular perks) then I would be annoyed, haha.

 

 

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, Infantrylaowai said:

My visa was approved today, much earlier than I expected. So it took about 2-3 business days. Planning on making the payment next week.

Yes, things appear to have changed quite lot recently.

[Travelanimal]

Got my approval letter today

took exactly 47 days(including sundays)

[Thaindrew]

one thing to watch, i went to pay my 500,000 fee today and they had sent an invoice for 535,000 - seems they added VAT again as the 500,000 is advertised as including VAT, they have confirmed 500,000 is correct so whatever dont pay 535,000 !!

[jacko45k]

18 hours ago, Thaindrew said:

one thing to watch, i went to pay my 500,000 fee today and they had sent an invoice for 535,000 - seems they added VAT again as the 500,000 is advertised as including VAT, they have confirmed 500,000 is correct so whatever dont pay 535,000 !!

Yes, they never issued any invoices before did they? 

[highland66]

On 5/28/2019 at 9:48 AM, Good Lord said:

Sorry if this is a little off topic: I strongly I assume that you only pay the membership fee AFTER they approve you. So when, the waiting period is over then you transfer the money to their account.

Correct. I got my Elite Visa last week. It took longer than I expected for me to get approved, a little over two months. Once you are approved, they send you an email with the bank wiring instructions. You pay the fee, and the final step is to get the Visa put in your passport.

 

I scheduled an appointment with an Elite representative at the Bangkok immigration office. I went to meet her, she took my passport, and while I relaxed and ate lunch she took care of everything. She handed my passport back to me 30 minutes later, with the new Visa in it, and I was done. 

 

Really looking forward to using this when I fly into BKK airport!