moana

KL is one of the worst embassies in the region. Avoid, avoid, avoid. They will make up impossible rules on the spot, reject for no reason, force you to go to your own embassy to verify unverifiable things, etc. Just research a little and go to a reasonable embassy. Vientiane, HCMC, Phnom Penh, Manila are all alright.

That's not the reason. I'm in the same situation - never borrowed or leased anything. I only use credit cards. My credit score is 820+. Look at your utilization rate stats, that's probably the reason (unless you have some late payments or worse in your history).

Nan provincial office. I certainly do know that if I were to renew the license while on a VE or TR visa it would've been a 2 year license, regardless of any other paperwork I may have possessed. I agree that a newbie without any additional paperwork is likely to incur more scrutiny.

Supplied copies of my pink ID, yellow tabien baan, passport info page, visa page, and stamp page. Showed the QR code from their elearning course, and handed in the original doctor's approval that says I do indeed have a pulse. I then played the silly colors and sticks games, took a photo, paid the fee, and was finally provided with a shiny new DL that will expire in Sep 2030.

I renewed my 5-year license today on a DTV visa, and got another 5 (well, almost 6) years. I saw a few people here wondering whether the DLT will issue 5-year licenses for DTV visa holders, so thought it's worth reporting. Of course, since this is Thailand, YMMV.

Huai Kon in northern Nan, yes. I entered with my car at Vientiane. Got the DTV there and then traveled around Laos for 2 weeks or so. On the last day I drove from Luang Prabang to Nan. Unfortunately the car ferry in Luang Prabang got cancelled due to flooding, so I couldn't use the short route (4B) and had to go the long way around.

Entered back at Nan. I was their first DTV but they managed just fine. No issues at all. Friendliest border ever (probably because it's impossible to bounce there).

Showing ฿500k wasn't the issue. I provided a statement + balance confirmation from my HYSA showing significantly more than required. I applied under the workcation category. In order to prove that I work remotely, according to the consulate's own website, I needed to provide an employment contract OR an employment certificate OR a portfolio of clients. I provided a stamped+signed certificate from one of my customers AND a contract with that customer AND invoices to the customer. Apparently this stack of documents still wasn't tall enough, so it was rejected and my ฿10k was refunded (best thing about applying in person - they refund your fee!). I was told the officer wants to see a bank statement showing those invoices being paid into my checking account. It wasn't an unreasonable request, I guess, but it just wasn't a requirement anywhere I looked earlier. Oh well. Other than that unwarranted (imo) initial rejection, I have to say the experience at the consulate is... lovely. No huge lines (6-7 people at most whenever I was there, and I arrived at my leisure way after they open the gates), no standing in the sun/rain endlessly, consulate employees are helpful and calm. Very relaxed and enjoyable in comparison to pre-appointment years.

Another success from Vientiane. Super happy to be rid of my non-o woes. Appointments are easy to get if you keep the website open and wait for them to release some slots. I booked mine just 3 days before arriving. My first application was accepted at the window but later rejected because the reviewing officer wanted to see an additional bank statement that shows my "salary" going into the account. I was able to get a next-day appointment (!) and submit everything they wanted. Result:

Are all of these reports from visa-exempt bounces? Are people with valid visas being forced to spend the night too?

1. Because this thread started when the visa was just announced, way before the rules were published. 2. Because this is the ThaiVisaAseanNow forum where every snowflake has an opinion, even on simple facts.

I flashed (via UART) a nightly snapshot which was working fine at the time, but it can get a bit risky with those as you've seen. You can use one of the linked working builds from that forum thread (e.g. ImmortalWRT seems to be working well) or you can wait for the next stable OpenWRT update with official support for AX3000T (~2 months wait). Regardless, it's pretty difficult to hard-brick it, and soft-brick is easy to recover from via TFTP. 160mhz works fine once you set country to one that allows it (mine is set to philippines) use AX and channel 36.

1. I cited Mexico, Georgia, Philippines, and Cambodia and can easily cite numerous others. Such "open border" policies are not rare at all and are actually becoming more and more common as countries compete to host digital nomads (search for "digital nomad visa"). 2. I wasn't making an argument. I was citing facts to a poster who claimed that no country has ever offered such open ended visas/policies. Poster has been proven wrong. I believe Indians of the sort you are worrying about will find it pretty hard to come up with a 500k baht proof of funds without falsifying documents, or the 10k fee for that matter, but who knows/cares. This move will certainly benefit me personally, and I welcome it.

What are you talking about? Many countries opted for a similar policy. Mexico for example has a 180 days visa, which can easily be converted to a perpetual residence permit by showing sufficient funds. Georgia has a 360 days visa exempt policy that you can renew with a simple border bounce. Philippines allows a 3 years continuous stay via extensions of a single tourist visa-exempt entry, renewable with a simple flight out and in. Cambodia allows perpetual stay on "business visas" that do not require the applicant to perform any business. I can go on and on. Personally, I'm glad to see Thailand joining this list and will gladly stop using Non-O based on marriage extensions, which keep getting harder and harder with mountains of documents and repeated visits to immigration for literally no reason.

I bought a Xiaomi AX3000T off Lazada for US$29 a few weeks ago and flashed OpenWRT on it (the stock firmware is actually OpenWRT based too, but no SSH access). It's the best bang for your buck in the market right now, imo. RAM is a bit limited, but I haven't seen it affect performance yet. It's also a filogic CPU (weaker naturally) with hardware offloading capabilities and 160mhz support.

When you pay 1800 it stays with the immigration folks and no visa is issued. When you pay $40 it goes to the bank next to the gates. Nuff said.

This is the way! +1 Why not just use Schwab's debit card (or any other card that refunds ATM fees) and withdraw right at the ATM? Eliminates the human factor, available at all hours, saves time. Btw, one of the benefits of using a card to withdraw cash is that it allows you to withdraw at the peak rate. The card networks set the rate only once a day, based on the previous day's lowest interbank rate. So, if it's not an emergency withdrawal, you can just wait several days until you see the current interbank rate drop below the card's day rate, and only then go and withdraw (=getting the previous day's rate, fully knowing tomorrow's card rate is going to be worse). Of course, there's no guarantee beyond those 24 hours (it might climb right back up a day later), but it's still a huge perk, especially when the rate swings wildly.

The 14% tax is applicable to non-residents, not "foreigners". If you can prove to the bank that you're a resident (not necessarily citizen/PR holder) then you get the 6% tax rate. I've been able to convince all but one bank (out of 5 accounts) that I'm a resident and my 6% tax rate has never been questioned since.

If you're not using a company to go then there's no reason to prefer CK (or, at least, no one provided a good one). CS is 30km closer and might allow USD on the Laos side.

This is about Laos immigration officers not accepting USD at Huayxay (=Chiang Khong), which goes against their own rules, in order to make a quick buck by demanding THB instead at an inflated exchange rate. See @elektrified's post in the previous page. I really don't care whether it's by bus or boat. I just want to pay USD and optimize for time. If there are no special reasons to go for the Chiang Khong border then I'll definitely go for Chiang Saen.

In this particular scenario (in and out, no time for anything else) I would only care about the "friendly immigration officers" part, but not accepting USD is the opposite of friendly. Any actual immigration/border reasons to prefer Chiang Khong over Chiang Saen?

Any reason to choose Chiang Khong over Chiang Saen for a border hop? If Chiang Khong really doesn't accept USD (per @elektrified's post) AND requires an extra hour of drive time (+30 minutes x2) then I don't see why anyone would choose it over Chiang Saen. Ideas?

Pretty sure it was in Hua Hin. It's actually 100 issuing fee + 380 every 3 years. I guess it is technically not an annual fee, it's a triennial fee, but it's not great compared to 200 flat for 5 years. Btw, if you try to get the TTB Lite card they will probably try to upsell you on the All Free account + card. Stick to your guns and take the Basic account + Lite card, a much better deal.

I have it. As with any bank here, it's a luck-of-the-draw thing. In my case all they wanted to see was a passport with a one-year visa/extension and proof of address (=pink Thai ID). In and out in ~20 minutes or so. Edit: Opened back when they were TMB, pre-merger with Thanachart.

If you must have a physical debit card then the best deal I know of is the TTB Basic Account + TTB Lite Debit Card, which is 200 baht for 5 years, no annual fee. TTB also doesn't impose the silly cross-province fees for their own ATMs/branches, so you win twice.