Malaysia is my favourite country, but even I’m considering applying for the DTV visa instead of the De Rantau pass.

1. Easier application. Malaysia can take up to 3 months with a lot more paperwork.

2. De rantau is 1+1 year whereas DTV is 5 years.

3. Malaysia has 90 day visa on arrival so I already normally stay 150 ish days per year anyway so why bother going to the extra effort for a longer term visa. Thai was 30 but now 60 so a longer term visa makes sense there.

4. Tourism. Most people from Europe/ “The West” would go to Thailand as their first stop in Asia. They fall in love with it because they party, meet people and see new things the first time. Then just keep returning. Malaysia isn’t on their radar as much.

5. Networking or “monkey see monkey do”. Other digital nomads are already in Thailand so they go visit.

6. Home comforts. People love coffee shops and avocado toast which the thais have catered for. Malaysia doesn’t really cater to foreign tastes in the same way.

7. Like others have said, the availability of cheap alcohol is probably a factor for many.

8. Housing. Cheap condos that can easily be rented short term are already set up for digital nomads in Thailand. In Malaysia it’s very tough to get anything less that isn’t a 1 year lease.

Saying all that, I do still love Malaysia but I do see why people go for Thailand

I find it strange that it’s a visa to target digital nomads and those “nomads” don’t want to travel once every 6 months

@Javier *******

this is something I’ve never got with this visa is how people move to another country but then don’t want to explore anywhere nearby every 3-6 months. Especially for the digital “nomad” people that want to stay put 🤷🏻‍♂️

Ken Gunderson if you’re doing my visa runs for 20 years, you aren’t a “tourist” so you’re probably breaking the rules of your visa.

And what digital nomads do by “living foreign” isn’t what many people do, we are a tiny tiny minority and Thai civil servants are likely to find that very strange