I am not sure the ansers so far really cover your case / your idea. Form what I understand you want to do a border bounce into Laos to spend more time in Thailand after your return, right? And you don't like having to pay 2000 baht for a 30 day Lao visa on arrival for just a 5 minute stay in Laos. I get that. I don't like that, too. So your idea is to get a Lao transit visa beforehand instead - which you claim is cheaper or free? I like the idea. But I don't know if it works. Maybe someone else does.

If you go down this road, make sure to have "preferential shares" considered. This way, while not having majority shares (which cannot happen in Thailand with a normal comapny as a foreigner), you will preserve majority votes for yourself. Still, it remains risky. Because should authorities / courts deem that your whole construct is only to circumvent / achieve owning land - then they are within their legal rights to take action. Not sure how much enforcement happens - but rumors have it more and more.

If your pension (+ passive income) is high enough, get the LTR visa in the pensioner category - comes weith a guaranteed tax exemption for foreign income.

@Henrik *************

Sure. But it might have been “used” at that entry. Exactly my point. It might have been used - and likely so when it was handed over to the IO. Then the IO probably just used the stamp for visa exemption (30 days) instead of the 60 day stamp by mistake.

@Henrik *************

Bad advice. Just because merely 30 days were stamped in the passport does not mean the e-visa wasn’t invalidated in the system at the time of that entry.

@Nongnuch *******

Agreed. The details aren’t clear, yet. I doubt it will end up being 180 days per entry. Then again, the Elite getting obsolete would be a good thing. Ridiculous to ask people to pay that much (Elite) for the privilege to spend money in the country. In parts they made the Elite obsolete with the LTR already - which in many ways is the better deal already.

@Nongnuch *******

Give it (them) time to present the final details. In general, the Destination Thailand Visa goes in the right direction. It is just a shame that they always invent new programs, instead of just improving / iterating existing programs (like the LTR Visa).

@Nongnuch *******

That, plus wait for the details / fineprint. There are for example rumors that 500k THB have to be available throughout the whole stay. That could mean having it sit in a Thai bank account (like with Non-O marriage or retirement). That in turn would yield the chicken-egg problem of needing a Thai bank account for a visa, but not getting any without that respective visa in the first place. TIT.

@Sacher ******

Let's wait for the details to come. 180 days a year would still be a good deal for a multiple entry 5 year visa at 10k THB. There is other places in the world that are nice to - especially the less nice other 185 days a year.

@Jo *********

I work with many big / listed companies. Only I refuse to be directly employed by them. Instead, I invoice them through a corporation that I own. Almost all smart "remote workers" do it like that - if for tax reasons alone.