Who can file here from 31 August 2026
Citizens and residents of Belgium and Luxembourg who are in one of those countries. Brussels is the only channel for both: the honorary consulates in Antwerp and Luxembourg have carried out no consular functions since June 2021. The post puts its condition plainly: Belgians and Luxembourgers who are currently in Thailand or in a third country cannot file, they “need to return first”.
What Brussels will count as “permanent residence” the post has not announced. Belgian residence cards split into limited and unlimited: B, K, L, EU+ and F+ grant unlimited or permanent stay, while A, H, EU and F do not. That is our reading of Belgian law, not the embassy’s position: an EU citizen holding an EU card for the first five years we do not treat as a permanent resident until the post says otherwise. In Luxembourg permanent residence is evidenced by a titre de séjour marked “résident de longue durée – UE”, an attestation de séjour permanent or a carte de séjour permanent; the attestation d’enregistrement looks open-ended, but it is the registration for the first five years. We have not had a single Luxembourg case.
The post’s checklist from June 2025
The embassy’s only document about the DTV is a trilingual PDF, and the file has not changed since June 2025. Everything in it is the old world: an electricity, phone or internet bill no older than three months for EU citizens, a titre de séjour for everyone else, and not a word about a criminal record certificate. Since 31 August the e-Visa form has required proof of permanent residence and that certificate. Anyone who assembles a package from the PDF will turn up incomplete. We assemble the package for the form.
How filing works
- Everything runs online through the e-Visa portal: applications are not accepted at the embassy or by post under any circumstances. Payment is by Visa or Mastercard only — Bancontact and Maestro do not go through, and that is the everyday trap for Belgians.
- The fee is €350. Timeline per the embassy site: about four weeks, four to five in high season; file three to eight weeks before departure. In our cases, 19 days and a month and a bit. We have seen no filing completed after 31 August.
- Finances: €15,000 in the account — at the ECB rate on 3 September 2026 about 575,000 THB, above the general threshold of 500,000 THB. The PDF asks for a statement covering the last 30 days, the form for three months; we prepare three. A sponsorship letter is allowed only for children under 18, never for an adult spouse. The French block of the PDF omits that caveat; the English and Dutch ones have it.
- Work: a contract or a letter from the company in Belgium or Luxembourg confirming that you stay on the payroll and keep drawing a salary while in Thailand; otherwise, a portfolio.
- Dependants: a spouse and children under 20.
Brussels’s standard document requests: a certificate of address from the commune or a rental contract, last year’s tax return, and a letter setting out your five-year plan in Thailand. The post’s weak spot is foreign companies. Both refusals we know of went to Belgians with American companies: in one, the embassy demanded a legalised company registration and refused with the wording “did not provide legalised documents”; in the other no explanation was given, and the applicant himself puts the refusal down to uncertified company papers.
A visa that expires with the passport
A Brussels quirk, confirmed by two applicants and by the embassy itself: the visa is issued not for five years but until the passport expires. One applicant with a passport valid to February 2031 got a visa to February 2031; another ended up with four and a half years. With less than five years left on the passport, it makes sense to renew the passport first and file after.
The embassy issued the visa only up to the passport expiry date. I wrote to them directly and they confirmed it: that is how it is meant to work. — ask.in.th forum, August 2026
The criminal record certificate
In Belgium this is the extrait de casier judiciaire, model 595: ordered from the commune where you are registered, through eID or itsme, free of charge. Anyone no longer registered applies to the Casier judiciaire central. The everyday “certificat de bonne vie et mœurs” is the same document — at the commune you have to ask for model 595 specifically. It is issued in French, Dutch or German; neither the issuing time nor the validity period is officially published. In Luxembourg it is the bulletin n° 3 through MyGuichet, free, in French.
Whether Brussels will ask for the certificate in practice, and in what form, the post has not said: it is not in the PDF, and the form requires it. If legalisation is needed, the chain runs like this: on direct request the commune uploads the certificate to the eLegalisation platform, the Belgian foreign ministry legalises it for €25, and the Thai embassy accepts only the paper sticker, collected in person by appointment, charging €15 per document and taking 5–7 working days. In Luxembourg, legalisation at the foreign ministry costs €20 and takes three working days. An apostille does not work for Thailand yet: the Convention only enters into force there on 28 February 2027.
What else matters
The embassy site is in English and Thai only; French and Dutch get an FAQ and the visa PDF. Judging by the e-Visa master data, Brussels does not accept filings through agencies: the applicant files from their own account. From 15 September 2026 visa-free entry for citizens of Belgium and Luxembourg drops to 30 days.
What we track here
The first decisions after 31 August: which cards Brussels will read as permanent residence, whether it will ask for the certificate and for legalisation, which Luxembourg documents it will take. And whether “a visa until the passport runs out” is a rule — we are putting that question to the post in writing. We check the post’s page and the PDF every week.
A package you have assembled yourself we check before filing — the Preflight Check: $300, a written report within two working days. Full support all the way to the visa is the Solo Route and Family Route.
The state of every consulate is on the live board, and the consulate assigned to your country is on the map.