What are the visa options and cost considerations for moving a family of 8 to Bangkok in 2026?

Nice Dream, hope you win the lottery for that.

Hi, maybe already written before but we (husband, myself and our son) came here last October on a DTV. I applied for my husband (has his own company) and after receiving the DTV (which went really smooth and quickly) I applied for my son and myself (as spouse and child on the same income). DTV for your kids can be on yours until 20 years old I believe. No experience with retirement visa. Good luck!

I'd say "where there's a will there's definitely a way" so don't give up on your dream my friend.. but financially it is clearly only feasible if you can box off the home schooling issue.. that is the key here.. and other contributors should have given you some hope there.. reaching out to them to get a better understanding of the logistics involved and staying 'approved' would be advisable before investing too heavily in the other issues.. cos if you can't make that work then you've hit a road block!

You might be able to afford it if you sell three of the children.

the visa applications that need to be done ahead of the shot cost $80 Dollars for each family member. That alone sums up to $800. Then every stay permit application inside Thailand costs 1900 Baht. That's another $550. And it must be renewed every year that's $550 only for a yearly stay permit for 10 people. On top of this comes the rental of a house big enough to host everybody, in and around Bangkok you won't find anything cheaper than 40,000 THB. You need a health insurance for the whole family and it will set you back with a minimum of $350-400 per month. The MIL won't find an insurance willing to take her at her age. How do you intend to move, going shopping for food - transportation? Will you buy a car? How do you intend to move around, you would need three Taxi-Meter for that. Are you aware how much a taxi costs? You can't live in Thailand on 100,000 THB per month, you would need twice as much.

Talk to a Visa agent or a Thai immigration law firm. Most provide free consultations. I wouldn't take advice from random people on a forum. Expatden.com is a great resource.

My guess is you'll need atleast a couple hundred thousand baht per month plus a couple million baht to get settled (not including any visa, schooling or extracurricular activitie costs etc). Thailand is definitely not cheap for families, especially with that many members.

If you are having immigration issues in America, all of you will have immigration issues in Thailand.

Making the move, figuring out visas, figuring out the budget (100k for 8 - no way).. are all just a scratch in the surface of the headache headaches you’re going to suffer.

What is more important for you to consider is how emotionally difficult it is to pull this off. Even young resilient married couples are tested to the max.

It is remarkably difficult to do what you’re proposing. The teamwork has to be on point and the resilience emotionally will be tested beyond what you think. 

Odds are that bringing that whole group out here will a remarkably painful experience.

The odds are not in your favor, and divorce rates are out of this world.

I'm honestly more surprised you're able to live off $3200 (100K baht you've mentioned) a month in US with 6 kids because that's hella struggling and hella tight budget.

Where are you living now and why would you want to move to Bangkok, it’s incredibly polluted? 🤷🏾‍♀️

I’m a solo parent with 2 homeschooled kids living in Chiang Mai. There’s a good homeschool community here, if you can get the funds for DTV.

My advice is hit the lottery because you will need major cash flowbto live here with that large of a family. Finding a place to accommodate a family that large will be big money.

Unlike the USA , Thailand has luckily very strict rules for homeschooling and controls the quality of it plus you must follow specific curriculum. Additionally this would probably give you much trouble visa wise.

Use numbeo.com to compare cost of living scenarios.

It sounds like you have never been here before …I have to tell you that is a big leap especially for 7 of you ….

Even if you can get cover the 500k baht for a DTV for yourself what are the rest of them going to do. I can't see any consulate would allow you to sponsor 6 other people using that same 500k baht. According to Numbeo the average cost of living for a family of 4 in Bangkok is almost 80k baht per month before you pay rent. So that's 100k baht and you have 4 more mouths to feed on top of that. Its highly unlikely any of you will be able to get a job here and the 80 year old will struggle to get health insurance so there are also hospital bills to consider. This can give you an idea of costs and you can change the cities to view different areas, but there are also visa costs as well

You are allowed to have dependents on the DTV visa. You would apply first, once you are approved your family members can apply as dependents and should not require the additional financial requirements. You would need to check with the embassy you would be applying at.

You raising entire thia family dummy

Thia family

The first post by the moderator says it all.. there’s more bad news that could be added to that like how limited the jobs legally available to foreigners are here but I think you should get the point. Thailand is not as cheap and easy as TikTok videos make it seem.

Like Beverly Hillbillies meets Green Acres.

But the idea of y'all just showing up here and starting from scratch sounds like an interesting premise for a reality show series.

Going from U.S. style home schooling to an international school setting would be very challenging. Your kids will be light years behind their grade level peers.

Thats a lot of money every month for schooling

Stay where u are ! Due to ur financial situation it will be very difficult or almost impossible to live in Thailand !

Even the most creative visa agent in Thailand couldn't help you with that. Good luck!

Why would to put your children I to that much pollution ?

Lots if great places in Thailand that are not psoriasis unhealthy

The 18 year is on his own as he is an adult

So it’s 7 of you

You will need at the very least ฿100k a month to cover all your expenses (housing food visas transportation health insurance diapers air fare etc etc etc)

Jobs are limited so it’s all on savings and your pension funds you have to maintain your lifestyle

International schools cost between $10-$40k USD a year per child usually a lump sum cost no financing for foreigners…so that means more money needed

Good luck

I dibt know what you are trying to run from or escape from but even with a lots of money you will be putting your children through a quantum cultural shift….

You will qualify if you have your children in school. However, international school is extremely expensive for all your kids. That could easily cost you 3-5k usd a month.

This does not sound workable for you.

Tuition at international schools in Thailand are hundreds of thousands of baht per year, per child. Each one would require their own education visa, which means each one would have to attend school.

One child on an ED can allow one parent to qualify for a non-O based on foreign child attending school, and each parent would have to show 400k or 500k (I forget which one) in your Thai bank account in order to get your extensions.

Unless you have a few million baht laying around, which doesn't sound likely because you said you cannot qualify for DTV based on bank balances, I don't think you will qualify for ED either.

And retirement visa is not a good option if funds are limited either, as your mother will need to have 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account, basically forever as long as she remains in Thailand.

There are more nuanced responses to many points of your post, but at a macro level, moving a family that large to Thailand will be prohibitively expensive.