Carmine6

Hello Sean, Thanks for the interesting angle although Carmine seemed to think it wasn't much worth exploring & my situation probably really squashes the idea. I never travel to Canada. My mom and Dad live two streets away from me here in Lake Tahoe. (both still canadian) and my Aunt who lives in Vancouver (and owns real estate in Australia) stops in Bangkok to see me every year. Now if I can only get her to invest in Chiang Mai real estate with Pocky our Visa problems would be solved for sure. It all really just comes down to money. Thanks for your advice and let me know if you think of anything else. Good Luck in bermuda! Any surf there? I sure wish there were some waves in thaiand. (other than the one big one)

thanks again,

Christy

Money as far as I know isn't the major factor. Its whether or not your sig other will return home after the completion of his trip.

Where else has your sig other worked? Does he have a university degree?

Do you pay any Canadian income taxes?

Despite everything you have, how big your business is, how much cash you have in your account the most important thing you have to prove is that your sig other will return.

Understanding more about your situation, if I were you I would get married.

You can kind of imagine what the questions during his interview are going to be like and can see why they would (if they did) deny a visa:

1) What do you do for work - I send products to an american girl I met X years ago. She sells them in lake tahoe.

2) Are you married to this american girl? No - Why? Explain Explain...

3) Where are this girls parents? In the usa. They live accross the street from her.

From everything I understand about US/Canadian immigration right there you would be denied. You've been together for X years, have not married and own a business together.

I feel like I should start a new post, but I'll see if I get any answers adding to this one. My big question is Should Pocky and I get Married before I get my U.S citizenship? If we get married this winter and then apply for a visitor visa to the U.S with me still a canadian citizen w/ a green card in the u.s what will that do for us? Will us being married make his visitor visa application stronger?

Is there any truth to camsters post above that they will look down upon us if we are unmarried after 6 years? Any help would be great. I'm leaving to come back to thailand in 3 days!! Yeah! It's snowing here right now.

I think starting a new topic with something catchy like "Should we get married to help with tourist visa?" will get enough eyeballs that you'll get a more authoritative answer. There're actually more Brits and Australians on this board than Americans. So you'll have to dig the experienced US folks out of the woodwork.

Again, just my opinion, but it seems that the length of the relationship is more of an issue for a fiancee or marriage visa, not a tourist visa. The concern with a tourist visa is that they'll return to Thailand, while with a fiancee visa the concern is more the legitimacy of the relationship. Half kidding here, but is it surprising if a guy isn't married after 6 years? Now if you want to use this as an excuse to get married...

Have a great trip. That's a long trip out of Tahoe, but I guess living there makes up for it.

Here's the transaction record for a 5K baht ATM withdrawal I did on January 11th:

01/11/2006		  ATM W/D 00:19 01/11/06 191974	 	-$125.77		   	 	
	 	002299000018	 	 	 	 	 	 
	 	BANGKOK BANK/BR.339	 	 	 	 	 	 
	 	0000000000TH	 	 	 	 	 	 
01/11/2006		  ATM W/D 00:19 01/11/06 191974	 	 	 	 $0.77		   
	 	SURCHARGE REFUND

The initially charged me $125.77 for the 5000 baht but later issued me a credit for $0.77 as a "surcharge refund", so the net cost of the 5K baht was US$125.00, or exactly 40 baht to the dollar. That's a pretty good rate for that date and I don't think there is any 1% foreign exchange fee involved.

Incidentally, the "surcharge refund" is normally a refund of ATM fees charged by other banks. I really don't know what it represents in this case. On January 4th I withdrew 5K baht and got a surcharge refund of $2.58.

I don't want to ask the bank what it means because they might stop making it!

The exchange rate for purchases is about the same and does not, AFAIK, include any sort of fee. We spent 902 baht at Lotus on Thursday and they debited the account $22.67, which is an exchange rate of 39.79 baht to the dollar. Not bad.

BOFI calculates ATM fee/Surcharge Refund based on the last 3 digits of charged amount. They substract 0.00 if amount is less than $5.00 and they substract $5.00 if amount is more than $5.00 to calculate refund amount.

Example:

Amount charged $322.88 Surcharge Refund is $2.88

or

Amount charged $328.81 Surcharge Refund is $3.81

Thanks, that totally makes sense. Their computers are assuming that the machines are giving bills out which wouldn't be anything other than 0 at the end, or apparently also 5. Works great if you only use US ATMs. Lazy programmer.

Short what? The US market already reacted somewhat to the Merkel/Bush speeches. Short the dollar? Short the market? Short the Baht? Short the Iraian Rial?

Short EVERYTHING.

But buy gold coins... they will survive the nuclear holocaust.

I'm going to buy cockroaches so that I have friends to play with. They'll survive too.

well, im thinking of visiting thailand for the 1st time

so im wondering if i should take dollars from here? or should i get THB?

It does depend on where you are to some extent, but generally you will get a better rate changing here. If your base currency is not dollars and you change into dollars and then in to Baht you will lose out twice on the exchange rate. ATM's are everywhere and easy to use so why bring lots of cash?

Yup, ATMS's are the way to go, unless your bank has high fees. If you have to bring cash, bring 100's instead of 20's. You get a slightly higher rate. Bangkok bank currently shows .45 more Baht, or 45 Baht on changing $100. That'll buy lunch in a lot of places.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/Bangkok+Bank/We...es/FX+Rates.htm

In case I lose my ATM card, I carry some cash and several hundred dollars in traveler's checks, split among my luggage and my pocket. Actually have an extra ATM card too, but I'm the type that took 4 pencils to big exams.

Carmine, want me place your trades for u too?

Yes, thanks. Just send me the profits.

Here's the transaction record for a 5K baht ATM withdrawal I did on January 11th:

01/11/2006		  ATM W/D 00:19 01/11/06 191974	 	-$125.77		   	 	
	 	002299000018	 	 	 	 	 	 
	 	BANGKOK BANK/BR.339	 	 	 	 	 	 
	 	0000000000TH	 	 	 	 	 	 
01/11/2006		  ATM W/D 00:19 01/11/06 191974	 	 	 	 $0.77		   
	 	SURCHARGE REFUND

The initially charged me $125.77 for the 5000 baht but later issued me a credit for $0.77 as a "surcharge refund", so the net cost of the 5K baht was US$125.00, or exactly 40 baht to the dollar. That's a pretty good rate for that date and I don't think there is any 1% foreign exchange fee involved.

Incidentally, the "surcharge refund" is normally a refund of ATM fees charged by other banks. I really don't know what it represents in this case. On January 4th I withdrew 5K baht and got a surcharge refund of $2.58.

I don't want to ask the bank what it means because they might stop making it!

The exchange rate for purchases is about the same and does not, AFAIK, include any sort of fee. We spent 902 baht at Lotus on Thursday and they debited the account $22.67, which is an exchange rate of 39.79 baht to the dollar. Not bad.

I wonder if they're setting a certain rate and then assuming that a difference is an ATM fee from the bank in Thailand. That's a fantastic exchange rate. Might try these guys out, since the rebate might be giving a better rate than than the banks are getting.

Thaigreg, Fidelity gives me what looks like 100% of the exchange rate (sometimes 99.9% and sometimes 100.2%, etc.) but they'll charge an ATM fee if you don't qualify for a waiver. It's a Visa debit card off my brokerage account and issued by PNC bank. The other ATM cards that I've used (1 Visa and 1 MC) gave around 99%. I always assumed it was the exchanging bank (in NY?), not Visa or MC that took that 1% since it's not processed through the Visa or MC process. Credit card transactions seem to be a worse rate and Amex totals a 2% fee.

Traders,

The US launched a new aircraft carrier group and a swarm of warbirds to the Persian Gulf today.

My brother in law, a pilot, was activated and took off this AM with his group.

War = Short

Short what? The US market already reacted somewhat to the Merkel/Bush speeches. Short the dollar? Short the market? Short the Baht? Short the Iraian Rial?

For my money this is mostly to do with US debt and the Chinese stating they are no longer going to buy as much of it. The Chinese will diversify into other currencies and I guess other Asian countries will follow this lead.

We will see more angry comments from the US as this news hits home, after all if no one else if paying for US debt they may have to do it themselves

Sorry to be dumb, but, how does that work? Are the Chinese paying the US debt in exchange for the trade?

Here's what this is describing. The Chinese receive US dollars for much of their exported goods. They then take some of those dollars and buy US Treasury debt.

Why do they do this? Because they are trying to keep the Yuan in a tight trading range to the dollar. Otherwise there would be so much demand for the Yuan versus the dollar that the exchange rate would adjust to a very strong Yuan (bad for exports). The Chinese could buy other assets to accomplish this, but politically, US Treasuries make the most sense. They couldn't buy a lot of US real estate for example.

Until last summer it was a fixed exchange rate, but they've been "floating" it a bit since then, although they won't disclose what's in the currency basket they're floating against. But basically, they don't need to buy as much US Treasuries as they let the exchange rate float. Their growing middle class is also buying more US products (like Motorola phones, Starbucks, McDonald's) which takes some pressure off the government to fill that role.

I don't buy all the concern about them dumping treasuries since they'd be hurting themselves. If the US economy goes bad, all those exports dry up. Lots of unhappy citizens isn't good even in China. Plus they'd have to sell at a loss to have an effect. There's a whole lot of money here looking for even small yields, so I don't expect a lot of complaining if yields go up. Get's that inverted yield curve talk off the table too. Don't forget China has the 2008 Olympics so they're trying to be good world citizens.

Dear Auntie TV,

I prefer Burger-King to McDonalds, when eating burgers, but my friend tells me this will screw with the global economic balance, and calls me an economic sabateur. Is he right ?

Will the FBI or CIA come after me ? How many should I plan to cater for ??

Worried of Chiang-Mai.

Start counting backwards from 10 and wait for the knock at the door, because now that everyone knows it's you....

Maybe I am all wet here but knowing for years the Yuan has been complained about as being undervalued meaning it is less in parity to other currency. It seems it needs to increase per USD to have parity. Likewise the Thai Bhat.

I think you have this backwards. If the yuan is undervalued against the dollar at 8.06 yuan per USD, then the yuan needs to move towards a lower number per dollar to achieve equilibrium.

My reading of the Big Mac index is that if the cost of a Big Mac should be equivalent around the world, then the $3.15 that a Big Mac costs in the US should be equivalent to the approximately 10.5 RMB that the same Big Mac costs in China (in other words, 3.15 USD equals 10.5 RMB). Therefore, the yuan should be valued at 3.33 to the dollar.

Using the baht, if a $3.15 Big Mac costs roughly 60 THB ($1.51 at 39.8 THB/USD), then the value of the baht against the dollar should be 19.05 THB/USD.

But the Big Mac index can be very misleading due to many local factors that do not get taken into account in such a rough measure. The Economist freely admits this.

Anybody else have a different interpretation?

I love it. Flashbacks to Econ 101. Ovenman, I think you're right. Since it's roughly half the price, the currency should be worth about twice as much (so 19 instead of 40 Baht per $) for the Big Mac to cost the same.

But I hope the Economist piece was a little tongue in cheek since my econ prof went on to explain why there isn't really Big Mac parity. For example, why is it much cheaper to buy one in say Iowa than New York City? What's undervalued in that situation? Iowa dollars versus NY dollars? No, it's that the Big Mac can't be transported to where you can get more for it, or the costs to do so outweigh the difference.

Now, Starbucks parity, maybe I can buy into that.

Only pregnant female mosquitos are hungry? Or the other mosquitos eat something else?

Yes. AFAIK, only pregnant mosquitos need to drink blood. But I remember trying one of this gizmos about 30 years ago and the problem was you could hear the supposedly inaudible sound and it was very irritating!

There's a device that some malls in the US were trying out to keep teenagers from congregating in certain areas. It's at some high frequency and low volume that most kids can hear, but most adults can't. Maybe your experience was an early example of this.

I've seen all the websites saying these sonic mosquito things don't work, but I'm going to give one a shot the next time I'm upcountry, or the next time I'm backpacking (California). 3M Ultrathon is the best repellent I've found, but with all the DEET I wouldn't wear that stuff every day or while sleeping.

My GF was just granted a tourist visa, the embassy called her today and told her to pickup tomorrow and they told her it was a 10 year visa. What exactly does that mean? Can she come to the USA multiple times and stay each time the maximum amount of time? I think this is good that they gave her 10 year, but I'm not sure?

Sounds like your girlfriend did good. Guess you'll know soon whether it is it single or multiple entry, but seems like they wouldn't give her a single entry that's good for 10 years. Found this on a website since the State Department search is terrible.

http://www.murthy.com/vista.html

"Generally, visas maybe granted anywhere from 1 month to 10 years, depending on the category of the visa and individual person's eligibility. What this means is that one can travel to the United Sates from abroad at any time during the time that the visa is still valid and has not expired. It does not mean, for example, that an individual can stay continuously for ten years if s/he has been issued a 10-year visa stamp in the passport. Generally, a tourist who enters on the 10-year multiple entry visa, is only given six months to stay in the U.S. If one wishes to stay in the U.S. longer, s/he has to file for an extension of status with the USCIS.

Visas may be granted for single or multiple entries. With a single entry visa, a person must reapply for the visa after leaving the U.S., when s/he wishes to return. The multiple entry visa allows the person to travel to the U.S. as many times as required within the duration of the visa. H1Bs are almost always multiple entry visas for beneficiaries from most countries, though the B-1 or B-2 business or tourist visa may be single- or multiple- entry."

Hi guys – anyone got any idea on how you work out the value of a business?

My partner wants to sell his 40% share of our business here in Thailand.

Can anyone provide a calculation for working out the value of the share- I know this 5 year thing but need to know, should I include:

* salaries

* Advertising

Running costs

….and should these also increase 20% year on year?

Cheers!

If there's a lot of money involved, you may want to spend a little money and talk to someone like maybe Sunbelt about your specific situation. I've seen some unbelievably lopsided deals, and most of those wouldn't have been had the screwed side just gotten a little help.

I have a GF in Thailand who is about to try and obtain a tourist Visa. She is 33, family from Udon but she now lives in Bangkok. She owns some land in Udon, a Food Garden in Udon, and a house as well. She has about 200,000 baht in the bank and I will probably catch shi_ for this but for the past 7 months I have been sending her 40,000 baht per month, which she desposits in her bank account and then withdraws monthly for her living expenses. Please hold the comments on what I send her, first, I can afford to do it and secondly I want her to live somewhat comfortably. In any case, I am sure she could say this monthly money is income from her Food Garden to show some history of income. Can anyone comment on what you think the chances of her getting a tourist Visa? And, do you think she could do this on her own or should I contract with one of those Visa companies? One company quoted me $1,600 for the Visa, but it included RT Air from Bkk to New York so it didn't seem to bad. All comments appreciated! Thanks in advance!

****Update**** Visa was granted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her meeting lasted on 5 mins, but she waited for an hour before going in due to the que.

They asked her 4 questions

1) Where will you be staying in the US

2) How many people work in her Food Graden

3) How much money she makes monthly

4) Shit, now I can't remember

After the short Q/A, they told her to come back in 2 days and she can pick up her visa!!!

For your reference, I did use a company called Easy Visa. Not cheap at all and I am not sure under the circumstances how much they helped, but they are very professional. They have a very very nice large office across from the US Embassy. Total cost was $1,600.00 USD, but as I indicated it included RT airfare from BKK to NY/ NY BKK. Which if you price out could be as much as $1,300.

I think we had a strong case, but none the less, you always worry.

Thanks for comments!

What did Easy Visa do for you? Did they help with forms or the process, or suggest edits, give a list of interview questions, etc.? Could you call up and ask a lot of specific questions? My guess is they were glad when you came in the door because it was easy money for a strong case. I'd have no problem with a pricey service if they really helped out.

Was it the full $1,600 if the visa wasn't granted? Lot more risk with a tourist visa.

I worked with a guy who was paying $200/hr for an attorney to get his Canadian! wife through the immigration process. She had to go back to Canada for a year after they were married. Not sure what the problem was, but clearly he would have done better by getting some help up front.

Hi.

I'm looking to get a few USB headsets for small office LAN to talk with their head office via skype & MSN etc. Sound quality is important in this instance, can anyone recommend a model/manufacturer?

Also looking for a recommendation on a bluetooth model for laptop users.

Finally does anyone know a Bangkok provider/consulatant for VoIP gear? (eg SIP phones, ATA adapators, switches with Power over Ethernet). Links to any website would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Well if money is not an issue, I am very satisfied with my Sennheiser PC155 headset. (Regular connector and comes with a USB adapter.) Just north of US$100 and I have no idea about availability in Thailand. Sennheiser also makes one that's closer to US$40, as well as more expensive models too. The gaming sites give the 155 headset good marks. Good source for reviews as they are pretty demanding of their hardware. This is probably overkill just for VOIP and I'm sure you'll be fine with a cheaper model.

Another reason I went with Sennheiser is that a voice recognition website rates a Sennheiser microphone as "Unequivocably the best headset microphone we have ever tested in terms of accuracy and noise cancelling." That one runs about US$150 and is a microphone only though.

http://www.emicrophones.com/microphones/pr....asp?subcatID=1

Using Skype and calling from California to a Thai cell phone, the call quality with my PC155 is fantastic. My girlfriend actually sounds different on this compared to my regular phone. It has a good frequency range including nice bass. Her voice is richer and I make out things in the background that are just noise on my regular phone. I can hear people talking nearby and understand them if they're close enough. Can't do that on the regular phone, its just mumbling.

If she's on the bus, I can actually have a conversation over the background noise. I can understand her and she can understand me as if I were sitting there. On the regular phone her voice blends into the background noise and I can't understand very much so I end up calling her back. She also never seems to say, "can you speak up please" when I use the headset, but always does on the regular phone.

Some of their lighter models are probably just fine and better on the hair than this over the head model.

I believe the cheapest way would be to buy a BKK - LA return ticket then once in LA you can buy a ticket to South America. You can get a 6 month ticket via Taipei to LA with EVA or China airways for around 30,000 Baht including tax. Costs around the same with Philippine Air through Manila. Once in LA you would be able to buy a ticket to south america from much cheaper than in europe. It's so much closer too. Maybe a member based in America could help you with finding the cheapest option for the LA - South America leg.

Once in a while, flights from LA to Central or South America will be on sale for about US$300. But I don't know that there's any pattern to time of year or anything like that. Some travel site or airline will just send an e-mail. There were some deals in early December for example, and 2 years ago there were some in February, but not yet this February.

Figure $500 to Central America and $700 to South America. Prices vary greatly by country and city and I believe it's possible to do better if you look hard and time it right.

But, terdsak_12 is right, factor in the time too. A fairly direct flight from Asia to South America may be expensive and long, but flying from LA is a long flight in itself. LA direct to Costa Rica (Central America) is close to 6 hours. Places in South America are more like 12 hour flights on the short end. Almost all the flights connect at least once out of LA and the cheaper ones are even more likely to have multiple connections.

Which terminal do you both arrive in?

I only now terminal 2 so once you come out of customs through the sliding door you take a left and after 50mtr there's a cafetaria on your left. Cannot miss it.

That was my first thought since I meet my girlfriend at the ATMs right outside this place.

But since you are both flying in, you actually have the option of meeting before that (assuming you land in the same terminal). If your planes land on time, I think your mother will still be waiting for her luggage when you get to baggage claim. So if she sees another group come down the stairs into the area she could hang out and you could look for her until your plane's luggage started unloading. If your plane is late, or you otherwise don't meet up, she could then just head through customs and past the money changers to have a seat at the cafeteria.

http://www.airportthai.co.th/airportnew/bi....html#terminal1

List of airlines and the terminal they're in. Although that may not mean they arrive in those terminals.

http://www.airportthai.co.th/airportnew/bi...4.html#airline2

jaiyen17, luckily someone else mentioned the US Bangkok embassy website in another post.

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/services/visa/

This document is "New" on the website and is pretty specific about what types of evidence would be helpful and also what forms to fill out.

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/services/visa/NIVChecklist.pdf

Have either of you contacted Asia Rooms for an explanation about why your reviews were removed?

I guess I can shoot off an e-mail. They do request a review for every reservation so they're at least not made up. Most other sites I've seen with reviews were pretty skimpy so I think it's good info to have even if it's skewed positive. I've seen a lot of sites where I think the editing was way more blatant.

Actually, maybe some others should just e-mail them asking why their reviews aren't there. If it's a widespread practice, there's no way they'll know you weren't an original reviewer.

I haven't tried to withdraw more then 20,000B in a day at Bangkok Bank for 2 or three years because that was all I could get before. But I just looked at their website and it states this:

"With a Bualuang ATM card you can withdraw or transfer to other Bangkok Bank accounts or transfer money to third party accounts at any Thai bank up to 50,000 Bt per day, or transfer unlimited amounts between your Bangkok Bank accounts registered with the same ATM card, and pay for your utility, mobile phone and overseas telephone bills."

Has anyone tried ATM withdrawal from BB for more then 20,000B successfully (in a 24 hour period)?

My Bualuang ATM card allows me to withdraw up to 150,000 baht per 24 hours.

My limit has been increased over the years without my authority or the bank even informing me.

It is most definitely worth getting Internet Banking; you are able to do a variety of transactions such as 'tywais' has alluded to and more from the comfort of your armchair.

I was inquiring about using a foreign ATM card (such as my USAA ATM cd) not using a Thai Banking Çard which would probably allow you to withdraw more money expecially if using their ATM

thanks I think the questins has been answered quite thoroughly - and I guess I can alway use my debit card to charge against my checking account which would probably be less hassel.

I have USAA too and you'll be fine all over the place. There are lots of big Thai banks and I don't recall any ATM's that weren't on Cirrus(?). ATM's I've used are Bangkok Bank, Thai Military Bank, Thai Farmers, and maybe others. I've also used those purple and yellow ones by 7-11's, although maybe those are one or two of the names I remember.

You may want to call USAA before you leave and let them know you'll be using it overeas. I had trouble the first time (Hong Kong, not Thailand) and I'm not sure if it was because I was taking money out of my savings account or it was international. The CS rep told me that both could have been the reason, so they noted I was traveling and no further issues. Supposedly you can't take out of savings, only checking, but I haven't tried since.

I've never tried to take out more than 12,000 Baht, but I've done it the same calendar day in the US so I think a higher amount will go through. I've always gotten about 99% of the currency exchange rate with no bank fees so I don't think it'll be any more economical to take out larger amounts. Sometimes you catch a better rate and sometimes it slips. Don't use it as a charge card since I think MasterCard will take another percent.

...This is the cool part - apparantly because of NAFTA your sig other will automatically be entitled to a USA visa.

Not exactly sure, but thats one possible way of attack.

Sean

There's no way it'd be automatic. That'd be the loophole of the century.

I think wherever you heard this was talking about the provision of NAFTA that allows family members to join professionals working in the US. But it's a limited list of professions, and the Canadian citizen has to have entered with a visa under that provision. It also doesn't rely on the family member having gotten any Canadian visa either.

Here's more info:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1274.html#20

Sorry jaiyen17, your situation doesn't qualify for at least 4 reasons I can see there, and only 1, marriage could be changed easily. But I still think you've got a good case for the regular tourist visa.

Baht 50,000 in one day?

Thought I spent too much, but you all must be fun to hang out with.

I hope your frustration is due to the process and not a previously denied visa. My opinion below is only based on research and not any actual experience yet.

He has to qualify on his own for the visa, but it seems that your info is pretty integral to his story. Not necessarily your financial information, but if he says he wants to see the Grand Canyon and Disneyland, but they find out the real story, it could get messy. My (completely inexperienced) opinion is that you should build a strong case for his compelling economic ties to Thailand with all the bank statements, lease info, partnership docs, etc. and then have some info on visting you, his business partner and girlfriend. That way all the info will match the story and if they asked questions there won't be some surpise new info, it'd all build on the basic story.

I know some folks will just say they're sightseeing and it'll work. But whenever I've heard stories like that they're usually in between University and work or University and grad school. Or they have a nice middle class job for a big corporation. In your boyfriend's case, where he's exporting to CA and he's flying into CA, it raises questions. And you want those questions to be answered by the application and docs.

I've never researched business visas, so hopefully that'd be a simpler application.

This is from a website is run by the US Dept of State which is a good read for general info:

http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/

"Applicants must demonstrate that they are properly classifiable as visitors under U.S. law by:

* Evidence which shows the purpose of the trip, intent to depart the United States, and arrangements made to cover the costs of the trip may be provided. It is impossible to specify the exact form the documentation should take since applicants' circumstances vary greatly.

* Those applicants who do not have sufficient funds to support themselves while in the U.S. must present convincing evidence that an interested person will provide support.

* Depending on individual circumstances, applicants may provide other documentation substantiating the trip's purpose and specifying the nature of binding obligations, such as family ties or employment, which would compel their return abroad."

It does seem like your boyfriend has a good case. Good luck.

....

Why they include BB as one of their corresponding banks, I have no idea.

....

I think they include it since it is US located and it would be ok to send the money to an account at that branch (NY).

I think some transfers go through because as far as the system knows, the account is in NY. BBNY figures out it's a Thai account from the account number and forwards it on, but the BofA system won't know this. Above a certain dollar amount someone at BofA must eyeball the transactions and that's when they'll identify the wire as going overseas. Up until that amount it's all a routine, mostly automated setup and transaction process, or the volume is so high it gets past whoever is screening.

Right on, all of that helps. I've been watching and reading this forum for the last month, trying to absorb all the information. I'm ready and I can't F'ing stand it anymore, BKK here I come!

Mickmac is right, it's the airline you'll have to convince. I had a gap in my itinerary once and had to buy the cheapest, fully refundable ticket so they would let me start the trip. Immigration occasionally has asked when I'm leaving, but I've never had to show any proof.

I'm not sure if you're just winging this trip, but make sure you're knowledgeble about visas before you get there. Overstaying could create a mess and it's easy enough to legally get a new one.