Bangkok and Thailand
Living here is a different problem from visiting. These guides cover the parts that don't end when the holiday does: visas, rent, bills, clinics and the paperwork in between.
Visas and staying legally
Start here, because everything else depends on how long you're allowed to stay.
Overview
Visa options compared
Every realistic long-stay route side by side: what each allows, what it costs and who it fits.
Enforcement
Visa exemptions and visa runs
The 60-day exemption ended on 15 September 2026. What replaced it, and why repeated short entries stopped working.
Visa
Thailand DTV
The 500,000 THB requirement, the full document list, and what the DTV does not give you.
Over 50
O-A retirement visa
800,000 baht or 65,000 a month, plus 3 million baht of insurance — and why foreign policies usually fail the certificate step.
Over 50
O-X long-stay visa
Ten years, three million baht, Thai insurance only, and a passport from one of fourteen countries.
What it costs
Every figure carries a label saying how it was recorded.
How to read the prices
Every figure is labelled as a card record, logged at the time, or a typical range, and carries a month. That means a number from March 2026 is a record, not a forecast. Treat it as a starting point and expect drift, especially on rent and airfares.
Where I haven't done something myself, the page says so rather than guessing. More on how pages get checked.