Slosheroni

US citizen with just under four years remaining on my passport. If I had two years or less I think it would be a no brainer to renew it now before leaving the States. But with four years I'm wondering if that's not unreasonable. Part of the issue is, will it even be possible if the federal government is gutted?

How does one even time this to take full advantage of the six month validity? The Thai consulate in L.A. says it takes a minimum of 15 business days to process. If you book a flight for say, November 15th, would you apply on October 25th (fifteen business days)? That'd be a little nip and tuck. Giving yourself more wiggle room and applying October 2nd should work but then if it is approved in 15 days you end up losing two weeks of time.

So to pull together the information from this thread. Please correct any of this if I have it wrong. Wells Fargo - need to maintain a US address. Will do SWIFT transfers for the time being. State Department Credit Union - on the surface they look promising as they claim to support expats and no need to maintain a US address but their more recent reviews are brutal with something changing with them over the past few years. The reviews are so bad I'm almost regretting giving them the confidential information required to open an account. When my account opens I think I'll give customer service a call and see what type of responses I can get from them. Chase/Bank of America/Citibank/1st Bank- I think will work about the same as Wells Fargo with some issue with Citibank's transition to another bank in Thailand. All require maintaining a US address. I think I'll keep my Wells Fargo bank, try to find a virtual mail box as I live in a no state income tax state but all reliable friends and family live in state income tax states. I have opened a Schwab account and also am familiar with Wise but was hoping for a couple of backup banks in case one of those two options fail.

So I went through the process and my application is being reviewed. Have you done any transactions with them recently? I've seen a lot of recent reviews and they're saying things have changed for the worse.

Good to hear. I may keep them then as another option. How have they been to deal with as far as maintaining a physical address in the States?

Awesome thanks. I think that was the last selection on the menu but I didn't go any further. I'll take a closer look.

I looked into them yesterday but I thought they had restrictions like needing to be a relative of someone who worked in the State Department and such. They had a list of criteria and I didn't meet any.

Actually I'm going to have to look into that a little more. When I called about this before I was told they didn't send to Thailand but looking at their website now it appears they send to over 200 counties so I'd have to assume they would send to Thailand. They do say they will not send if you are residing outside the US so maintaining a US address and phone appears to be key

My bank Wells Fargo will not do transfers to Thailand

I'm looking for a bank that is somewhat expat friendly that will do SWIFT transfers to Thailand. This would be as a backup to using services such as Wise or brokerage accounts like Schwab and Interactive Brokers. I know some people love Capital One but their website says, and everything I can find, that they do transfers within the US and I think to the US but not out. So I'm not sure what the upside to Capital One is over the brokerage accounts. I think I'll need to keep a mailing address in the States if that helps. Thanks

Thanks for all your help. I was just looking at this thread when your reply came in. https://aseannow.com/topic/1277873-brit-travelling-to-thailand-for-around-90-days/ I have time to get this done. I'm just trying to get everything figured out now. I'm trying to tell myself not to go too far down the rabbit hole because in a month everything will probably change. It's really mind numbing after awhile. Depending on how work is going it could be anywhere from April to September before I make the move. So still a ways off. I'm going to have to dig into the e-visa site and see my options. I'm now wondering if the best bet might be to see if the 60 day, multiple entry tourist visa is still available. It's listed on the LA website but who knows? I'll be close to the border so no problem leaving and entering. That would give me 120 days to get everything in order. Although this will involve one more step in getting my one year extension by having to get a non-o in Thailand. Yeah I've heard LA is pretty shoddy. That's a big reason why I was trying to avoid it by doing the visa waiver route. Just looking through the two websites, I can see the DC consulate is far better but I'm in the LA jurisdiction. An email to DC can't hurt though.

I think now, after your advice from the other thread, that it's probably best to apply for a 90 non-o evisa from the US. Then extend it in Thailand after that for my long term stay goals. Two issues I just ran into. One is I'm not sure the evisa system issues 90 day non-o's. I briefly went to their website and when selecting "over 50 based on retirement" the system takes me to a page talking about visiting family. Nothing about retirees Then when trying to find the document requirements "over 50 based on retirement" is grayed out. Meaning you cannot open a link with information on the documents required. I haven't set up an account yet. Maybe after I do that I'll find my way and information in the application process. I noticed in another thread that people from the U.K have been able to do apply for a non-o evisa. Since the evisa website seems to be centralized through Bangkok I'm guessing I can apply online for a non-o 90 day visa. The other issue is back to the banking. Does anyone know how long one typically needs to be in Thailand before you can open an account with a non-o? And also how long those funds need to be in the bank before applying for the first non-o, one year extension for retirement? With only a 90 day visa, if the funds need to be sitting for 60 days prior applying for an extension, that only leaves 30 days in country to get an account opened. If there's a waiting period to open an account I'm wondering if I need to see about a multiple entry visa if that animal exists

This would be Sisaket. I thought about applying for a non-O here in the US too but then there's the insurance requirement and I'd also have to deal with the Los Angeles consulate. Proof of funds from overseas I plan to do via using Wise. The issue will be if I get a bank opened quickly enough to have the funds in for 60 day if they want that.

I'm actually looking at staying long term and was going to apply for a 90-day non-O in Thailand and then get the one year extension. It might be better to this with the 60 day tourist e-visa instead.

Thanks. I've enter by air and then by land twice in the same year before but that was in 2019. I'm now hoping to enter by air then by land to stay 90 days while also applying for a 90 day non-o based on retirement. I was more curious as I just read that the rule was unlimited by air and two by land in a year which is what it was before. When I read in this thread that two by air might be an issue I thought "now what changed again". It's hard to keep up.