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The SMART visa is a long-stay Thai visa under a BOI programme, aimed at startup founders, specialists, investors and executives in target industries. For a startup founder or a family member, confirm with the BOI's SMART Visa Unit which categories currently accept new applications before you prepare any documents. If you are considering SMART as a specialist, investor or executive, ask the same Unit whether your category is open, and look at the separate LTR programme and its eligibility requirements as an alternative. If you already hold one of the SMART categories, the Unit is also the right place to ask about your own status.
Where the SMART visa comes up
You'll usually meet the SMART visa in comparisons of Thailand's long-stay options, alongside DTV and LTR — see our overview of Thailand visa options for 2026. It also comes up in discussions of Thai startups and BOI programmes. A third group who ask about it: people who already hold category T (specialist), I (investor) or E (executive) and want to know what happens to that status now.
For readers from Europe, the US and Australia, this matters most if you previously looked at SMART as a route for a tech specialist role, an investment, or running a company as an executive. That door has closed to new applicants, and LTR is now where that interest goes.
How it differs from LTR
Category S is for founders of a certified startup in a target industry; category O is for their spouse and children. Ask the SMART Visa Unit whether your category is currently open, and what happens to a T, I or E visa obtained earlier. If you are considering SMART as a specialist, investor or executive, confirm with the BOI's SMART Visa Unit whether your category accepts new applications. You can also review the separate LTR (Long-Term Resident) programme and its eligibility requirements. In February 2025 the BOI eased LTR's own criteria: it dropped the income test for the Wealthy Global Citizen category. If you once considered SMART as a specialist or investor, LTR is probably the programme to look at now, though its conditions are its own and we don't cover them here. DTV sits apart from both; we compare its requirements in a separate guide to the DTV visa.
What to check: category and BOI endorsement
Before applying for SMART, check three things. First, whether your category is open to new applications — today that means only S and O. Second, whether your startup is certified in an industry the BOI treats as a priority, which is one of the conditions for category S. Third, if you already hold a T, I or E visa, what your options are — this is a question for the BOI's SMART Visa Unit.
