@Jona****

just going off what you posted: "I’ve lived in Thailand for the past 5 years on a Non-Immigrant B visa." People have switched from non-immigrant to DTV, depending on circumstance DTV may be a better fit for them.

@Jonathan ********

if you're currently working on a non B you wouldn't qualify for a DTV, for what you're on your employer needs to be inside Thailand while for the DTV your employer needs to be very specifically not inside Thailand. Unless it's a job you can switch the employer to one outside Thailand, then DTV would be an option.

@Jonathan ********

you don't need a return flight with a non immigrant visa. If you have a non immigrant long term visa you don't need the DTV. What's not an option is continually border bouncing on tourist entries. Non immigrant B is not a tourist entry.

@Gr**

neither was immigration, it seems. This is just how the Thai government works, there are different factions with their own ideas about things.

@Gr**

Elite is not a private company, it's a state enterprise 100% owned by the Thai government.

@Mic****

Elite themselves (who are part of the Thai government) promote the visa for remote work.

And this is a prominent legal firm (Siam Legal) giving the same opinion.

"While holders of a Thailand Privilege membership aren’t allowed to acquire a Thai work permit or work for a company based in Thailand, they are still permitted to work remotely for international companies."



I know they are an agent with an incentive to sell you a visa but they are also a prominent legal firm. When both legal opinion and the Thai government itself is saying you can do remote work on a visa, you probably can do remote work on the visa.

I think the Thai government simply doesn't see remote work as the sort of employment that is prohibited on any visa. I don't actually think either Elite or DTV are legally distinct in this regard, DTV was just the first visa they really started to promote widely for this. Elite had actually promoted Elite for this a bit before DTV came out, DNs were was one of the target categories in their re-launch (when they bumped the prices).

@Gr**

Thailand Privilege Card (the company that runs/sells Elite) is also a state enterprise 100% owned by the government, it's part of the tourism ministry. Elite do explicitly promote the visa for digital nomads, and the DTV says "employment prohibited" like any other visa... it's not clear they are any different in this regard.

@Ci***

it is best, also because there things you may need to go back to your original branch for. For the withdrawals, with most if not all banks if you use cardless ATM withdrawals with the bank mobile app, there's no outisde-province fee.

@Elie ********

Moreta allows top-up by ACH (US domestic bank transfer). It charges 3%. Alternately, you can withdraw cash at an ATM with any card and then top up with that. You won't likely find a free solution for this as the Thai QR system is totally free to both merchant and customer. While credit/debit cards have fees to the merchant. So it's not economical to allow free top-ups of a cash wallet with an international debit card, someone has to cover the fees.