Entry and longer stays for Russian and Kazakh passport holders.

The exemption position, stated honestly

Thailand's visa exemption scheme covers a long list of nationalities, including Russian and Kazakh passport holders, and the permitted length of a visa exempt stay is in flux at the time of writing. The exemption has been operating at 60 days for the exempt nationalities, but the Cabinet approved a reduction to 30 days in May 2026, to take effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette, and that publication date is not confirmed. We are not going to print a settled number, because whichever one we printed could be wrong by the time you read it. Confirm the current position for your own passport with the Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate in your country before you book anything, and confirm it again in the week before you fly.

Whatever the number turns out to be, understand what the exemption is for. It is a tourist permission. It carries no right to work, it is granted at the discretion of the immigration officer at the border, and it is not a foundation for living in Thailand. Immigration takes a dim view of a passport showing a long run of back to back exempt entries, and families have been refused at the border on exactly that history. If you intend to be here for a year, get a visa for a year.

Tourist visas

A single or multiple entry tourist visa obtained from a Thai embassy or consulate before travel gives a longer and more secure permission than an exemption, and it is the sensible instrument for an extended first look at the country. It still confers no right to work. Application requirements, fees and validity vary by consulate, so apply through the mission with jurisdiction over where you live and follow its published requirements rather than a summary found online.

The Destination Thailand Visa

The DTV, introduced in 2024, is the route that has changed the picture most for mobile families. As published, it is a five year multiple entry visa permitting stays of up to 180 days per entry, extendable once per entry at an immigration office, aimed at remote workers employed or contracted outside Thailand and at people coming for qualifying activities such as extended Thai language, cooking or Muay Thai courses or a course of medical treatment. A financial requirement applies, and dependants can be included. It does not permit work for a Thai employer or for the Thai market, and it is not a residence permit. Requirements and interpretation vary between consulates and have been tightened and clarified more than once since launch, so treat the published requirements of the specific mission you will apply to as the only authority.

The Long Term Resident visa

The LTR is the most substantial of the long stay routes: a ten year permission issued in two five year blocks, administered by the Board of Investment rather than by immigration alone, with categories covering wealthy global citizens, wealthy pensioners, professionals working remotely for established foreign employers, and highly skilled professionals. Its practical advantages are real: annual rather than ninety day reporting, a digital work permit where the category allows employment, fast track immigration channels, and inclusion of a spouse and children. The financial and documentary thresholds are meaningful, differ by category, and are published by the BOI. This route rewards preparation, because the evidence requirements around income, assets, employment history and insurance are the whole application.

Thailand Privilege

Thailand Privilege, the programme formerly known as Thailand Elite, is a paid membership that carries a long stay visa with it, sold in tiers with different durations, fees and service entitlements. Its virtue is simplicity: you buy it, and the immigration administration becomes somebody else's job. Its limitations should be understood clearly. It is a fee, not an investment, and it is generally not refundable. It confers no right to work. It is not residence and it does not lead to residence. For a family with the means and no appetite for annual paperwork it is a perfectly rational purchase; for a family expecting it to be a status, it is not one.

Education and guardian routes

Two further routes matter to families. The education visa covers enrolment on an approved course, including Thai language study, and requires genuine attendance; scrutiny of these has increased and a course used purely as a visa vehicle is a poor idea. The guardian route allows a parent to obtain permission to stay on the basis of a child enrolled at a school in Thailand, on conditions that depend on the child's age and the school, with the school's documentation central to the application. For families whose primary reason to be here is the children's schooling, this is often the cleanest basis. There are also the familiar routes for those over fifty, and for spouses of Thai nationals, each with its own financial and documentary conditions.

Extensions, reporting and the administrative load

Living here lawfully involves a running set of obligations, none of them difficult and all of them unforgiving if ignored.

• The digital arrival card, completed online shortly before each arrival in Thailand.
• Extensions of stay, applied for at an immigration office before the current permission expires, never after; overstay carries fines and, at length, more serious consequences.
• Address notification, which is the obligation of the landlord, hotel or occupier to report a foreign national's residence, and which in practice you should confirm has been done.
• Ninety day reporting for those on long stay permissions, in person, by post or online depending on the office.
• A re entry permit before leaving Thailand if you hold a long stay permission you do not want to forfeit by departing.
• A work permit, separately and in addition, for any work performed in Thailand; no visa on its own confers the right to work.

Immigration offices differ in practice and in the documents they ask for, and Phuket, Bangkok and the provincial offices are not identical. Go early in the day, go with more documentation than you think you need, and use a reputable adviser for anything complicated. Be wary of anyone promising an outcome that the published rules do not provide; the only sound approach to Thai immigration is the compliant one, and shortcuts have a way of surfacing at the worst moment, usually at a border.

The honest position on staying long term

Thailand is very good at allowing people to live here for many years and it is not a settlement country. Every route above is a renewable permission that can be changed by policy, not a step toward status. Permanent residence exists but the route is narrow, quota bound, slow and conditional on a work and tax history in Thailand. Citizenship is further still. Property ownership carries its own limits, with condominium freehold available within the foreign quota of a building and land ownership generally closed to foreign individuals. Families should build a plan that works if nothing ever changes and that survives if the rules do: keep your documents in order, keep your affairs in your home jurisdiction tidy, keep a second option open, and take proper legal and tax advice in both countries rather than relying on what worked for someone else.

Thai visa categories, fees, financial thresholds and permitted stay lengths change, sometimes with little notice, and the visa exemption position described here is unsettled. Verify everything for your own passport with the Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate in your country and with the Thai Immigration Bureau before booking travel or making commitments.

This briefing is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Thai rules change frequently and individual cases differ. Verify current requirements with the relevant authorities, including the Immigration Bureau, the Board of Investment, the Land Department, the Department of Business Development and the Revenue Department, and take advice on your own facts before acting.