I can't say I am particularly surprised about this because almost every long-term visa that this country has ever offered for non working purposes has ended in failure or used by so few people that they may as well not even exist. This was especially true when digital nomad visas were introduced only to have the requirements be so crazy that almost zero actual digital nomads would actually be able to meet the requirements.
Not that long ago Thailand unveiled the "Destination Visa" that was valid for 5 years and initially some people were excited about the prospect. However, and kind of unsurprisingly to people that have been here for a while, this visa has basically crashed and burned right from the start.
On paper the Destination Visa sounds like a dream come true for people who have a bit of money and don't want to have to bother with border runs to obtain new visas every 90-180 days. The announced requirements for eligibility were relatively low for a lot of people that just want to live here and either work online or just for people that enjoy spending long periods of time in Thailand without doing visa runs out of the country. They were announced as follows.
- You have to show that you have access to 500,000 Baht (around $15,000)
- A detailed history of where you live, what you drive, etc
- A police report from your home country showing that you are not a criminal risk
- some level of proof of ability to obtain money via online employment such as a work portfolio for digital nomads or a recent paycheck from anyone employed by a singular employer
While that already sounds like a headache, especially since it isn't terribly clear what the last one in particular even means, this was something that via the assistance of an agent was easy to get done. For the few people that I met that actually obtained this visa with an agent, the process was pretty "cut and dry" and they had no issues actually obtaining the visa from an overseas consulate. The process of converting a regular tourist visa into this extended tourist visa in-country, was a pain but technically possible.
The problems with this visa are rooted in the fact that it is still a tourist visa, and various immigration offices around the country are notorious for doing everything in their power to reject extensions of tourist visas for some reason that I am not aware of. It's a funny little paradox actually: This country is always vying for additional tourism revenue and attempted to lure new tourists into the country constantly, yet at the same time they actually discourage people from staying here for long periods of time even if they are legitimately spending money and helping out the economy and not working illegally. It never really made much sense to me that the various offices were like this, but that does seem to be the case here in Chiang Mai as well as anywhere else. I've been told that the Bangkok immigration is a lot more transparent and streamlined because of their position of being the "head" office, but there are problems there as well.
The main issue is one that has appeared in the past with other visas outside of business or employment visas such as the one that I have: The various immigration offices around the country seem to operate by their own rules unless there is a governmental decree dictating how these types of visas are meant to be handled and therefore the individual offices determine on their own what requirements they are going to have in order to renew them despite the fact that by applying for this visa in the first place, you were promised that you would get 5 years of visas by having gone through the process.
Going to immigration already is an extremely frustrating and intimidating procedure, because it seems that they are impolite on purpose, and are treating everyone in line as if they were a criminal that is trying to get a visa by nefarious means. You will arrive there early in the morning and be forced to sit around for hours upon end, only to be mistreated by the people that work there who seem to be attempting to find any reason they can think of (or perhaps just reasons made up on the spot) in order to reject your visa extension request. I have witnessed many people losing their cool and shouting at the officials - which by the way is a fantastic way to ensure that you definitely are not going to get your visa.
So this Destination Visa has been a complete bust because apparently, the various immigration offices don't agree that this sort of visa should exist and therefore will work overtime in order to reject your request for an extension every 180 days and ultimately they are not required to extend it since it was never decreed by the central office in Bangkok that they must. Everyone that I know that had ever applied for these visas has abandoned the hope that it will work for them and has returned to simply doing visa runs 2-4 times a year.
Immigration is never apologetic about these sorts of things happening and when they do bother to talk about it someone, somewhere will say something about how this visa was originally intended for people who frequently visit Thailand, not for people that are looking to live inside of it. Well if that is the case they probably shouldn't have advertised it in such a way that would attract people wanting to live inside it, which is what they did.
This advertisement, for example, specifically targets digital nomads. What sort of digital nomad is simply going to be "visiting" Thailand several times a year and not living in it? I know a ton of digital nomads... I am one! I don't know a single DN that just tools around the planet living in various countries occasionally revisiting a few of them. Digital nomads, just like anyone else that works in any field, are normally looking for a comfortable place to call home while they work. They are not looking to completely uproot their lives every 3-6 months and move to another country.
So the moral of the story here is to be very apprehensive if you are told or are under the belief that the DTV (destination Thailand visa) is something that is going to be an easy way to seamlessly live in Thailand for the long-term. The experience of anyone seeking to be here long term with this visa is almost certainly going to be a bunch of headache, a bunch of rejection, and eventually completely bailing on the visa and losing the money spent on acquiring it in the first place.