Smart Visa is a new type of visa specially designed with the aim of attracting highly skilled manpower, investors, executives, and startups entrepreneurs who want to work or willing to invest in targeted industries in the Kingdom of Thailand.

Overview:

There are 5 categories: SMART T (Talent), SMART I (Investors), SMART E (Executives), SMART O (Other), and the visa for startups SMART S (Startups).

The SMART S (Startup) visa mainly targets 3 categories:

• Technology-based startup entrepreneurs in the targeted industries Application for a 2-year visa
• Application for a 1-year visa: Foreigners who have attended an incubation or accelerator program or any other similar program in the targeted industries or received joint venture funding from the public sector or endorsed by relevant government agencies.
• Application for a 6-month visa: Foreigners who plan to set up a startup company in Thailand or engage in promotional activities for startups or Startup Camps.

Qualifications and criteria:

You are qualified for a 6 months startup SMART S visa if:

• you have a plan to set up a tech startup in Thailand, which must be endorsed by relevant agencies such as the National Innovation Agency (Public Organization) or if you are engaged in an activity that aims to promote startups, or an activity similar to Startup Camp, endorsed by government agencies such as the Board of Investment and National Innovation Agency (Public Organization).
• you have health insurance that covers the entire period of your stay in Thailand.

Read more about the criteria and the privileges related to all 3 categories here.

Application process:

To apply for SMART S startup visa you need to:

1. Register for online qualification endorsement application for SMART Visa on https://smart-visa.boi.go.th where you will need to activate an online account through a confirmation e-mail.
2. Complete an application form by choosing the SMART S visa type and attach the required documents to your application.
   Once you complete the online application, you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted the qualification endorsement requirements.
   After having received complete documents, OSS will notify you, within 30 working days.
3. Start applying for SMART Visa issuance, once you are a qualified applicant, within 60 days from the issuance date of the endorsement letter, which will be used as one of the supporting documents for the application.
   You can apply in one of these places:
   – The Royal Thai Embassies/The Royal Thai Consulate-General
   – The Immigration at One-Stop Service Center for Visa Work Permit(OSS), Chamchuri Square Building, Bangkok
   – EEC Labour Administration Center in Chonburi

Application fees:

The processing fee is 10,000 Baht per year of visa permission (cash only).

Required documents:

To apply for a SMART visa S (Startup) you will need to provide the following:

• Personal documents
• Evidence of employment and corporate
• Additional information

You can find a detailed list of all required documents here.

Source: Smart Visa

Last updated: 2019