I thought Thailand would be a much easier place to reside. There are thousands of foreigners residing in Thailand. You can choose to stay in city, Island, our mountain or whatever.
Sure, HK and Spore sound better in that case. You are right afaik about the corporate way, you'd need to be able to show you had been running a similar business before, or worked ina senior position in a similar company, not sure about the employment and capital requirements, but generally things have only grown harder in HK during the last few years. Nowadays i'd be much more inclined to go the Capital Entrant scheme way, especially that those funds could be invested in the stock market, but that's no longer an option unfortunately. About Malaysia i was thinking of My Second home program, if it has been discontinued than that may no longer be a great choice. Philippines are a mess, EXCEPT at least Bonifacio Global City, a safe and very modern part of Manila where you will also find the best international schools in Manila. i inquired only a few months ago about the retirement programs as I like that area (outside Global city is quite different ime), if you are in your 40s you would need to deposit over 100k to get a visa with your family, it is more if you are 4 ( I have more details on an email from the Phills agent, just need to dig it out). One issue is in theory you can get those funds back once you give up that scheme and the associated residence permit, but in practice, it might end up quite tricky. https://www.google.com/search?q=Bon...eAhVFVbwKHZJIBG8Q7Al6BAgAEA0&biw=1920&bih=966 Having said all that, i'm now looking forward to move back to Europe...
I don't want to derail the this thread too much, but if you want a safe environment, no taxes and rather easy residency requirements and first world facilities, Dubai is very good, it is also very kids friendly. You get residency through a corporate set up, but requirements are very easy. Edit : about the British overseas territories in Europe, you can have a look at the thread below, the information is quite recent, although i'm wondering what effects Brexit might have. It also talks about jersey and guernesey https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/gibraltar.319989/
@maxinger: I want to send my kids to decent english-speaking schools so Thailand isn't really a good choice. Plus aren't those foreigners in Thailand mostly just tourists? I am not aware of any ways to get a tax residency there. There are ways to buy long-term tourism visas but it's not really helping on the tax planning. @Quiet1 & @luisHK: Thanks for the great info on Gbraltar, UK crown dependencies, etc. I've thought about those before, but Asia is my wife's preferred choice...
You will actually find tier 1 international schools in most asian capitals, including in some secondary large cities, like Shanghai. My kids are in one of those schools and I trust the education they receive is better that the one they would receive in Gibraltar... although i'd trust equally the main international schools in european capitals. Before Jsop jumps in again and screams it's expensive, I'll mention the costs are often 30k+ a year plus enrollment expenses per kid (very variable, we paid around 15k per kid but read about much higher amounts in sought after schools in HK and Shanghai). Tier 2 schools tend to be somewhat cheaper, and some countries offer cheaper options than others. Also in some places the schools are lacking of western kids to show an international atmosphere and it is much easier for them to get a spot. there are actually many long term expats in Thailand, lots and lots of broke, strung out and dodgy characters, but also many serious entrepreneurs as well as wealthy retirees. I mentioned Shanghai earlier but I knew several westerners who had factories in China but preferred to run their business from Bangkok as it is MUCH MORE western friendly than probably anywhere in China, including Shanghai, and it gets much worse outside Shanghai. Still ime (spent years there) Bangkok is like a huge gettho zone, there are wealthier areas but there are still not really liveable, poor choice to move with kids although I wouldn't worry about the education level in the top schools there. Besides about residency, and I suspect similar set up work in other developing SEA countries, 10 years back, the capital requirements were just on paper, there was no need to actually wire the funds into the corporate account , and the employment requirements just involved taking pictures of 4 thai folks pretending to work in the office. Than just had to keep paying minimal social taxes on those 4 phantom employees. Speaking from personal experience here, I don't know whether requirements evolved much. Once you are director of the company it is easy to get wife and kids get a dependent visa. Worth checking with an agent in any country you are interested in. In Mainland China I have acquaintances who spent years there on a 1 year business visa they would repeatedly buy from agents in Macau or HK, they managed to send their kids to international schools there as well during that time - adn they just moved to Vietnam, where a bunch of factories have been moving over the last few years
What has changed for sure in the last 10 years is banking controls and CRS, business and life in Thailand used to rely heavily on underground banking and offshore accounts, and tax regulations could easily be overlooked to turn it in a tax free country. This might require much more careful planning nowadays.