What does emigrating to Thailand cost?
Answer four questions and you have an honest range for your situation. Every item shows whether it's a checked rate or an estimate. Daily life is cheaper here than in the Netherlands. The items you don't see are the health insurance and the money that has to sit locked.
Looking for the whole route to Thailand, not just the costs? See the steps, the order and the paperwork →
A rough indication for your situation
A few short questions, and you get a range instead of an amount. That's deliberate: an exact figure would suggest a precision nobody has.
Count on a total of
€ 2.700 – € 11.100
Where does that difference come from?
- Health insurance, first year€ 700 – € 4.500
- The first months€ 1.200 – € 4.500
Below you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 300 – € 1.000
- De verhuizing
- € 500 – € 1.100
- De eerste maanden
- € 1.900 – € 9.000
Every item, one by onePer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- Visa fees and the extensions(estimate)€ 150 – € 450
This item counts the first year: the O-A visa application, the first extension and one multiple re-entry permit. The O-A visa is the retirement visa for a long stay. The visa and the annual extension at Immigration, the Thai immigration service, are both modest items, but they come back every year. Alongside them is the re-entry permit: it keeps your stay valid when you leave the country. It comes in a single-entry version and a dearer multiple-entry one. The Thai government publishes the amounts in baht, so the exchange rate moves with them. The item applies per person: your partner has their own visa, own extension and own re-entry permit, and so does a child, usually on a student visa through the school.
- Medical certificate and certificate of conduct(estimate)€ 60 – € 200
- Legalisation and sworn translations(estimate)€ 100 – € 350
The amount depends on the number of documents, and there are more than you think: marriage, birth, and for a family those of the children too. Thailand falls outside the EU public documents regulation. So the multilingual standard form, which makes a translation unnecessary within the EU, does not work here. Each certificate goes through the full chain: legalisation in the Netherlands, then legalisation by the Thai representation, and a sworn translation into Thai on the spot. An apostille is only enough from 28 February 2027, when Thailand joins the Apostille Convention.
De verhuizing
- Travel(estimate)€ 500 – € 1.100
The price depends strongly on the season: the European Christmas and summer holidays are the dearest, May and September the cheapest. The range assumes a one-way trip to Bangkok, eleven hours' flying, plus the domestic leg to your final destination. For a one-way trip with a lot of luggage, count the cost of extra hold luggage. On an emigration that is rarely avoidable.
De eerste maanden
- Health insurance, first year(estimate)€ 700 – € 4.500
This is the largest recurring item of this destination, and the premium depends above all on your age. Around fifty it is a modest amount, above seventy a multiple, and pre-existing conditions are often excluded. For some people this route is not sustainable because of it. There is no S1 and no treaty contribution, the arrangements through which your Dutch healthcare continues in a treaty country. So you buy an international or Thai policy yourself. Since October 2021 the O-A visa requires cover of at least 3 million baht (US$ 100,000) for all medical costs. That is a government minimum, not a guarantee. The bottom end here is a policy at the legal minimum, the top end a comprehensive international policy for two older people.
- The first months(estimate)€ 1.200 – € 4.500
The spread is wide: central Bangkok and the tourist coastal towns ask a multiple of Chiang Mai or the interior. Renting is cheap in Thailand by Dutch standards, and the advice is to rent for the first year before you buy anything. Count on a deposit of two months and the first month in advance, plus the connections. Also count the weeks without household goods: you bridge them with local purchases. And the air conditioning, which in the hot season is the largest item on your energy bill.
Deliberately no amount here
The 800,000 baht: locked up, not spent
This is not a cost, so there is no amount. But it belongs in your planning because it affects your liquidity: the money you can use right away. For the annual extension on retirement grounds, 800,000 baht must be in a Thai account in your name. As a rule that is two months before the application and three months after the extension is granted. After that the balance may drop, but not below 400,000 baht. On the O-X route, the ten-year long-stay visa, it is 3 million baht within a year of arrival. That money remains yours, but it earns no return and you cannot touch it.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 4 to 6% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 10.000 to € 15.000.
The transfer costs 2% transfer tax and 0.5% stamp duty. If the seller sells within five years, he pays 3.3% specific business tax instead of the stamp duty, a tax on quick resale. In practice that often ends up with the buyer. With the tax withheld from the seller, that comes to 4 to 6% of the appraised value together. Who pays what is negotiable and is not fixed in law.
Note: buying isn't simply allowed here
A foreigner may not own land in Thailand. A flat, yes, and then outright. Under the Condominium Act, the Thai law on apartment ownership, no more than 49% of the floor area of a building may be in foreign hands. If that quota is full, only leasehold remains: a long-term lease, and that is not ownership. The purchase sum must moreover come in from outside Thailand in foreign currency and be exchanged there. The bank issues an FET form (Foreign Exchange Transaction) for this, which you need at the transfer.
An order of magnitude based on averages, not a quote. The real amounts depend on your occupation, your route, the season and dozens of choices you still have to make.
The rates in this calculation haven't been checked against the official sources yet.
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One thing you can sort out today
Closing down the Netherlands is the same work for everyone, wherever you're going. With the letter pack you enter your details once, and every cancellation and notification letter is ready: health insurance, rent, employer, bank, pension fund. Each comes with the date by which it has to go out. € 49 one-off, and it's also included in every plan.
In Vertrekklaar you get the complete picture of your own costs, with your route, your documents and your deadlines.
From range to your own budget
The calculator above works with four questions, but the journey itself knows more. In Vertrekklaar the same model calculates with your real situation: who's coming, whether the household contents come along, and which visa route. It also watches the four clocks: the annual extension with its bank conditions, the ninety days, the re-entry permit and the 180 days that make you a tax resident. A one-off € 399, no subscription.
Leaving with AOW or a pension? Compare how countries tax your pension
Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Thailand: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Thailand change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
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