Access 80, family 28, path to citizenship 20. It takes you in for a long time, but not for good and not with your family.
Easy entry to Thailand exists, but not for people who want to work. The most accessible door, the DTV, explicitly bans work for Thai companies, while the door for workers needs an employer willing to hold 2 million baht of capital and 4 Thai staff for each foreigner. 39 occupations are closed to foreigners, and the Foreign Business Act limits what foreign-owned firms may do.
Pressure on legal workers is real. From late 2024 to mid-2025 the Labour Ministry's Trai Thep Phithak task force inspected more than 38,000 businesses, checking among other things for work beyond the scope of a permit and in closed occupations; penalties reach an 800,000 baht fine, up to a year in prison and a two-year ban on applying for a work permit. In May 2026 the checks were extended to all 76 provinces. Some permits were cancelled because actual duties did not match the permit. From January to May 2026, 14,161 people were detained for deportation, but mostly people without legal status.
The status is fragile. On dismissal the employer notifies the Labour Ministry, and the work permit and visa are cancelled at the same time; immigration may, at the officer's discretion, give 7 days to leave for 1,900 baht. Changing employer means a new permit under the full procedure, and working for the new one before it is issued is a criminal offence. On the plus side, while a yearly extension is under review you get an "under consideration" stamp and may keep working.
Rules do change: since 1 January 2024 foreign income brought into the country is taxed, with no transition for people already living there. The 2025 changes on the work route made life easier: work permits are now issued online without visiting the Department of Employment, and 17 non-immigrant visa categories were merged into 7.
Daily life means reporting. The landlord must report where you live within 24 hours, with fines of up to 10,000 baht; every 90 days you report yourself, with fines of up to 2,000 baht. Banks readily open accounts for Non-B holders with a work permit. Your diploma must be legalised in the issuing country in advance. A spouse gets a Non-O visa with no right to work.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
Since 15 September 2026, visa-free for up to 30 days, for tourism only and no more than two entries per calendar year. The work permit minimum salary is the top tier, about 50,000 baht a month, as for Canada, Japan, Australia and European countries.
The work permit minimum salary is lower: 45,000 baht for Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea; 35,000 for China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Middle East; 25,000 for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Africa. The permanent residence quota of 100 people a year per nationality bites hardest for large nationalities.
Since 15 September 2026 Ukraine is on the list of countries with visa-free entry for up to 30 days, for tourism only and no more than twice per calendar year.
The 60-day visa-free entry ended on 15 September 2026, but under a bilateral agreement you may stay up to 30 days without a visa.
No change: visa on arrival at designated checkpoints, stays of up to 15 days, a 2,000 baht fee.
The place interval 89-95 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Access to entry: 80 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 65.7. The weakest is Path to citizenship: 20 against 57.1. Above the world average: 2 out of 7.
The widest entry in the whole bottom ten, and the widest gap between entry and everything else. The work permit is issued for a named employer and a named workplace; when you change, the procedure is repeated in full, including a check on the new employer: 2 million baht of capital and four Thais per foreigner. A spouse's right to work scores zero.
Citizenship is possible no earlier than five years after holding permanent status, that is, more than ten years after arrival, and at every step there is a quota and discretion. Pressure on newcomers scores 23.
UpsideUnder Thai labour law wages must be paid into a Thai account, so a work visa together with a work permit is the profile banks in the country accept most readily.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
The standard is 10 working days; in practice 7-30 working days: 1-2 weeks in Bangkok, up to 2 months in busy provinces such as Phuket. No processing time is published for the Non-B visa.
You can live there on a DTV, a retirement visa from age 50, Thailand Privilege or an LTR with income from $80,000 a year, but none of them lets you work on the Thai market. Working needs a Thai employer.
Work permit 3,000 baht a year, extension of stay 1,900 baht a year, Non-B visa about 2,000 baht, re-entry permit 1,000 or 3,800 baht. A permanent residence application costs 7,600 baht plus 191,400 baht on approval.
Yes, together with your job: on dismissal the visa and work permit are cancelled at once, with about 7 days to leave. Leaving without a re-entry permit also cancels the visa.
You can apply for permanent residence after 3 years with a work permit, with income of 80,000 baht a month or tax of 100,000 baht a year, within a quota and with an interview in Thai; realistically in year 5-7. Citizenship 5 years after that, so 10 years or more.
Visitors and remote workers are welcome; people working on the local market are kept on a short leash: the status is tied to the employer, mass inspections are under way, and the road to permanent residence is long and quota-bound.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.