Why Thailand got stricter and more welcoming at the same time
By Kru Chart, Senior Muay Thai Instructor of Sor.Dechapant Muay Thai School in Bangkok
A student walked into my gym last year with a plastic bag of documents and a look I’ve seen before. His language school had closed. Not temporarily. Gone. Immigration had pulled his student visa along with thousands of others, and he had a few weeks to either leave the country or find a legitimate program. He’d been in Thailand for two years and couldn’t speak Thai. That tells you everything about the school he’d been paying for.
I’ve been teaching Muay Thai for over twenty years at Sor.Dechapant MuayThai School in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district. We handle visa documentation for international students through our service, Muay Thai Visa Thailand (MTVT). The camp holds a five-star professional certification from the Office of Boxing Sport Board under the Sports Authority of Thailand and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
Our fighters have competed at Lumpinee Stadium and ONE Championship events. I mention all this because what I’m about to write comes from someone who watched the crackdown happen from inside the system, not from the outside looking in.
That same period, when students were losing their visas, I processed more legitimate DTV and ED applications than any previous quarter. More students, not fewer. Better prepared students. Students who had done their research before they arrived.
Two stories ran in parallel through 2025. Most people treated them as separate news. One was about Thailand getting stricter. The other was about Thailand getting more welcoming. They were the same story. Thailand decided what kind of foreigner it wanted, then built enforcement and infrastructure to match.
The cleanup
Here’s what actually happened, stripped of the panic.
In mid-2025, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation issued a ministerial announcement requiring institutions running short-term non-degree programs for international students to submit monthly enrollment reports, or face having their programs revoked. This wasn’t a suggestion. The Nation Thailand and Bangkok Post both covered it in detail. The ministry then built a centralised database linking those enrollment records directly to the Immigration Bureau, so officers could cross-reference whether a student’s school actually existed as a functioning institution.
By August, the Immigration Bureau had revoked visas for nearly 10,000 foreign nationals enrolled in non-compliant programs. Deputy Commissioner Pol. Maj. Gen. Panthana Nuchanart told the Bangkok Post it was standard procedure. “If someone enters Thailand on a student visa but doesn’t actually study, it’s standard procedure to revoke that visa.” Khaosod English reported the same numbers and confirmed the MHESI collaboration.
Then came November. Immigration Commissioner Pol. Lt. Gen. Phanumat Boonyalak announced enforcement measures targeting the other workaround: visa runs. Two separate mechanisms went into effect. First, officers can now deny entry to anyone using visa-exempt entries more than twice in a pattern that looks like long-term residence rather than tourism, according to the Thailand Government Public Relations Department. Second, as KPMG reported in a separate analysis, visa-exemption extensions were capped at two per calendar year, with the first extension limited to 30 days and the second to just seven. Land border entries became ineligible for extensions entirely.
On top of all this, Bangkok Bank led a wave of stricter banking oversight for foreign account holders. Other major banks followed through the second half of 2025. The legal firm Formichella and Sritawat published a detailed analysis, calling it a coordinated crackdown across visa, immigration, and financial systems simultaneously.
For years, Thailand had a back door. Everyone knew it. Language schools that never taught language. Volunteer foundations that never had volunteers. Agents are submitting documents that nobody checked. In 2025, the government welded that door shut. If you were standing behind it, you would fall.
But here’s the part most coverage missed. While the government was cleaning house, it was simultaneously building new rooms.
What Thailand built at the same time
The Destination Thailand Visa went live in mid-2024 and scaled through 2025. Five-year validity. Multiple entries. Two tracks: Workcation for remote workers employed by foreign companies, and Soft Power for people participating in Thai cultural activities, with Muay Thai training explicitly included.
This came directly from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was confirmed through Thailand Government PRD cabinet briefings. For the Soft Power track, certified schools handle everything from acceptance letters to activity documentation. Gyms that provide Destination Thailand Visa support for Muay Thai students issue these documents under their own government credentials, which is exactly what embassies want to see.
On March 17, 2025, the Thailand Investment and Expat Services Centre opened at One Bangkok. It combines the Board of Investment, Immigration Bureau, and Department of Employment under one roof with a Single Window e-system. File once, online. That’s from the BOI’s own LTR site.
The Long-Term Resident visa got relaxed, but not in the way some coverage suggested. The US$80,000 annual income requirement was removed for the “Wealthy Global Citizens” category and replaced with a US$500,000 Thai investment requirement plus US$1 million in global assets. The “Wealthy Pensioners” category stayed the same, still requiring US$80,000 in passive income. KPMG’s Flash Alert and the BOI Announcement Por. 3/2568 both confirm this distinction. Mixing those up matters because it changes who actually qualifies.
Thailand’s National Soft Power Strategy Committee designated 11 pillars of cultural investment, with Muay Thai as a key sector. The government’s target is 100,000 Thai restaurants and Muay Thai gyms worldwide by 2030, according to the Thailand Government PRD and Surapong Suebwonglee, a member of the committee, quoted in Nation Thailand. The Thai Cabinet approved 275 million Thai baht for the Muaythai Soft Power Project, with expected economic returns of 2.3 billion Thai baht. The Ministry of Labour values the broader Muay Thai economy at over 100 billion Thai baht. And the SAT’s Muay Thai Masterclass roadshow across 10 countries in 2025 alone generated over 3.2 billion Thai baht in economic value, per Nation Thailand.
Thailand also legalised same-sex marriage on January 23, 2025, becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to do so. According to the Library of Congress, the Marriage Equality Act amended over 60 sections of the Civil and Commercial Code. Fragomen, a global immigration firm, confirmed that same-sex spouses can now apply for a 90-day Non-Immigrant “O” visa and long-stay spousal visas through the Immigration Bureau. Over 26,000 couples were married in the first year.
Even the entry process got modernised. The paper TM6 arrival card was replaced by the Thailand Digital Arrival Card on May 1, 2025. Everyone entering the country, by air, land, or sea, must complete it online within 72 hours before arrival. Free of charge.
People keep asking me if Thailand is getting harder. No. Thailand is getting more organised. Those are very different things.
The pattern behind every change
Look at all of these policies together, and a profile emerges. Thailand wants people with documented income or genuine savings. Not a lump sum that appeared last week. The DTV requires a bank statement showing at least 500,000 Thai baht. The official MFA language says “ending balance,” but in practice, embassies increasingly look at how long the funds have been in the account. The Royal Thai Embassy in KL explicitly requires the bank statement to cover the last three months. Other embassies vary. Some accept a recent snapshot. Some want three to six months of consistent balance. It depends on where you apply.
Thailand wants people enrolled in real programs at verifiable institutions. For the DTV Soft Power track, the official requirement is a letter of acceptance from the training institution. But embassies have been expanding what they ask for. By late 2025, Lexology and immigration law firms reported that many embassies routinely request the school’s business registration, the authorised signatory’s Thai national ID, and detailed program information. Legitimate schools prepare all of this under their own government credentials. No agents in the middle.
Thailand wants people who show up. Literally. Attendance tracking, 90-day reporting, and quarterly visa extensions for ED visa holders. All of it is designed to verify that you are where your documents say you are. Muay Thai schools with Board of Boxing Sport certification and Ministry of Education licenses survived the 2025 crackdown specifically because their documentation is verifiable through the Office of the Private Education Commission. When immigration officers check, they find real enrollment records behind real government credentials.
And Thailand wants people to contribute economically, such as training fees, rent, food, transport, and coworking spaces. Not people gaming the cheapest possible stay through serial border runs.
The uncomfortable truth is that this filter disadvantages budget travellers and people from countries with weaker passports or banking systems. That’s worth saying honestly. But it rewards people who plan ahead, document properly, and engage genuinely with the system.
What this means if you’re considering Thailand now
Start your financial documentation early. Some embassies want three months of bank statements showing a consistent balance at or above 500,000 Thai baht. Others may accept a recent snapshot. Check the requirements for the specific Thai mission you’ll apply through before you do anything else. A lump sum deposited the week before your application is the fastest way to get rejected.
Choose your institution first, visa category second. The school’s credentials determine the quality of your documentation. You can verify any Thai private school independently through the OPEC registry. You can check a Muay Thai camp’s certification through the Board of Boxing Sport under the SAT. Do not trust marketing. Check government registries.
Expect reporting obligations. 90-day reporting is mandatory for everyone on a long-stay visa. ED visa holders face quarterly extensions with attendance verification. TM30 and TM47 forms are part of life here. None of this is optional, and since 2025, none of it is treated lightly.
If you’re a remote worker employed by a foreign company, the DTV Workcation track is probably your cleanest path. If you’re training seriously and want the structure of a curriculum with quarterly accountability, structured Muay Thai Education Visa programs give you that framework. The DTV Soft Power track also works for training, depending on your savings and how much flexibility you want. If you’re doing both, pick the category that matches your primary activity. Don’t try to be both on paper.
Banking will involve bureaucracy. Bring every document you have. Be patient. It works. It just takes longer than you want.
I tell every new student the same thing. If you’re organised and honest, Thailand’s system works for you. If you’re trying to cut corners, 2025 made sure you’ll get caught. That’s not unfair. That’s just how a country grows up.
Still open
Thailand didn’t close, it curated.
The infrastructure for long-stay foreigners is better than it has ever been. More visa categories, digital systems, a one-stop centre, and government investment in cultural exchange that runs into the billions of baht. But the implicit contract changed. Thailand expects you to be who your documents say you are. Train if you say you’ll train. Study if you say you’ll study. Work remotely if that’s your visa category. Be present.
At my gym in Chatuchak, fighters from more than twenty countries train side by side every morning. All verified. All enrolled. All documented. The gym floor doesn’t care about your passport. Immigration cares about your paperwork. Both systems work when you show up honestly.
That student who walked in with the plastic bag of documents? He enrolled in a real program. Trained two sessions a day for six months. Passed his quarterly immigration reviews without a problem. He’s still here.
The system filtered. The right people stayed.
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