Thailand Start-up Visa

The smart S category sets one money threshold, and it is a deposit rather than capital put into the business: a deposit of no less than 600,000 baht or the equivalent, in a bank account in Thailand or in the country of the applicant nationality or residence, and that sum must have been held for at least three months.

Where a spouse or children accompany, a further deposit of no less than 180,000 baht per person is required, on the same conditions as to where it is held and for the same three months.

Beyond the deposit there is one further condition on standing in the company: holding no less than 25 per cent of its registered capital, or the position of a director of that company

What is granted is a smart S visa of up to two years, renewable. BOI Announcement No. Por 5/2568 of 18 February 2025 repealed Announcement No. Por 12/2561, which had created the six-month, one-year and two-year branches, so the category now has a single route, for founders who have already established a start-up company in Thailand.

The condition of that single route is control of the business. The applicant must hold at least 25 percent of the registered capital or serve as a director of the startup, and the company must be certified by a state body as belonging to a targeted industry.

The holder may work without a work permit for the entire permitted stay, in occupations not prohibited to foreigners, either working or taking part in certified projects or activities. Any change or addition to that work requires additional certification under the relevant criteria.

The programme page opens with a warning about entities claiming to be authorised agents for smart visas. The official contact point is the Smart Visa Unit, housed in the Thailand Investment and Expat Services Center in Bangkok.

Since BOI Announcement No. Por 5/2568 of 18 February 2025, the smart S category is no longer split by how far the business already exists. The Announcement repealed Announcement No. Por 12/2561, which had created the six-month, one-year and two-year branches, and keeps a single route for founders who have already established in Thailand a startup company certified as being in the targeted industries by a relevant government agency, such as the National Innovation Agency (Public Organization) or the Digital Economy Promotion Agency; permission runs for up to two years and is renewable. The company must therefore exist before the application is filed.

The published time limits fall into two steps. Under BOI Announcement No. Por 6/2568, the qualification endorsement is completed within 30 working days of a duly completed application, and the applicant must apply for the visa within 60 days of the issuance date of the endorsement letter.

Where the visa is to be collected abroad, the endorsement letter is forwarded to the chosen Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate-General, which normally takes around 7–14 working days; the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City publishes a processing time of 5 working days for visa applications filed through the e-Visa system.

The e-Visa page of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and parts of the Board of Investment FAQ still describe the old structure, so a six-month or one-year term found there belongs to the abolished branches.

This category removes outright two obligations that foreigners in Thailand otherwise carry throughout. First, no work permit is required to work in the very business certified by the relevant agencies; but a change of job requires additional endorsements in accordance with the relevant requirements.

Second, the 90-day reporting obligation to Immigration is stretched to one year, handled at the One Stop Service Center.

Two further privileges follow: no re-entry permit is required, and holders may use the fast-track service at Thailand international airports where it is available.

The holder's spouse and children may stay in Thailand for as long as the visa holder, and the spouse may also work without a work permit, as the dependants cell of this page sets out

The money part is right and needs its conditions read in full: each accompanying person requires a further deposit of no less than 180,000 baht or the equivalent, and that deposit carries exactly the same three constraints as the principal's.

It must sit in a bank account in Thailand or in the country of the applicant's nationality or residence, and it must have been held for at least three months.

The more valuable half of this cell, though, is two rights that the published material files under privileges, and of which the old cell said nothing.

First, a spouse and children are granted permission to stay in Thailand for the same duration as the smart visa holder, so the whole household runs on one expiry date rather than several staggered ones.

Second, and this is uncommon among comparable routes: the spouse is granted permission to work with no work permit required, although Announcement No. Por 5/2568 caps it: the work rights of the spouse must not exceed those of the person they accompany.

Accompanying children must be under 20, according to the smart O page for dependants, and children of a smart S holder who wish to work in Thailand must apply for a work permit at the One Stop Service Center. One limit of scope should be stated plainly: the deposit clause names spouses and children only, not parents.

The health insurance condition covering accompanying family sits in the other costs cell of this table.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Thailand passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Thailand passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Thailand passport reaches 70 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

BOI Announcement No. Por 5/2568, the instrument now governing smart S, sets no tax rate and no tax benefit, which is to say the programme carries no tax regime of its own.

The programme FAQ does carry an answer on tax that refers the question to the Revenue Department, but it answers for the six-month smart S type, a branch abolished on 18 February 2025, so this cell does not rely on it. The second piece of evidence is structural: the smart S page lists six privileges of the two-year visa — a visa of up to two years, renewable.

No work permit required for work at the certified enterprise. The ninety-day reporting duty relaxed to one year; exemption from the re-entry permit.

Spouse and children admitted for the same duration, with the spouse permitted to work without a work permit; and fast-track at the airport — and none of them is a tax benefit.

The official Board of Investment brochure introduces the whole programme without mentioning tax.

Since the programme has no tax regime of its own, the rest is read at the Revenue Department: under Section 41 of the Revenue Code, a resident is a person present in Thailand for 180 days or more in a tax year (the summary page of the Department says more than 180 days; this cell follows the Code), and a resident is taxed on Thai-source income plus foreign income brought into Thailand, while a non-resident is taxed on Thai-source income only.

The progressive scale runs: exempt to THB 150,000; 5% to 300,000; 10% to 500,000; 15% to 750,000; 20% to 1,000,000; 25% to 2,000,000; 30% to 4,000,000; and 35% above 4,000,000.

Read this cell within its scope: the Board of Investment sources cover immigration conditions and privileges and set out no tax regime.

The Revenue Department source covers ordinary personal income tax, says nothing specific about smart Visa holders, and says nothing about the tax incentives available to promoted projects — those belong to the Board investment promotion regime, which is a different thing from the visa

The insurance condition reaches wider than is usual: health insurance must cover the entire period of stay in Thailand, and must cover not only the applicant but the accompanying spouse and children as well. The Board of Investment guidance page sets minimum in-patient cover in Thailand at 500,000 baht.

The visa fee is 10,000 baht per year of permitted stay, a fraction of a year counting as a full year, payable for the foreign national and dependants alike; the Board of Investment page states cash only, and at a mission abroad the amount may vary with the exchange rate.

Beyond money and insurance, the pivotal condition of this category is a certification or endorsement by a government agency:

The startup company already established in Thailand must be certified as being in the targeted industries.

The agencies named are the National Innovation Agency, a public organisation, the Digital Economy Promotion Agency, and the Board of Investment