Caldera

More quality tourists. Just send immigration around to check if a TM30 notification has been filed for them for the night. If they aren't registered at a hotel, fine them for the missing TM30 notification and for littering.

It would be fair to say that Lao immigration there is a lot more familiar with the process now that rejections at Nong Khai happen more frequently. You could consider traveling to another border town in Laos and crossing there. For example, if you travel to Savannakhet and cross back into Thailand at Mukdahan, your trip won't look like a border bounce, but like a touristy excursion to Laos.

Indeed, the temporary license used to be valid for only one year, nowadays it's two years. It's unfortunate that they don't allow 5-year renewals for people currently not on a non-immigrant visa or extension thereof, as their sensible original intention was that newbie drivers get a temporary license first. For renewals, giving out temporary licenses doesn't really make sense, regardless of visa status. But it is what it is.

Say no more.

It has my name in the "First Middle Last" order.

A few are brilliant, some are mediocre and most are shyte. I think it's great that people can do this, it just doesn't mean that everyone should.

The nearest one to where I live is a major obstruction on an already narrow sidewalk. All that to provide a whopping THREE seats to whoever wants to catch a bus from there. What a waste of space and money.

That was a great press conference to watch. I'm sure the good people of Palestine will thrive wherever President Trump will choose to send them, free from the terrors of "home".

If your address is in Pattaya, you have to get your Certificate of Residence from Chonburi immigration (Jomtien office). Any immigration office elsewhere in Thailand will require you to have a local address within the jurisdiction of that office. At the very least, you'd need a current TM30 notification for that address.

My current license is from the Chatuchak DLT office in Bangkok. I did need a Certificate of Residence to renew my license (issued by the Chaeng Watthana immigration office, also in Bangkok).

Interesting! Looks like someone made a mistake, or the system failed to catch it. I wouldn't rely on being able to do that again.

I'd guess you were on an extension from a non-immigrant visa, you didn't actually have a non-immigrant visa that was still valid when you entered with your DTV? Or maybe one of them was an eVisa and the other one wasn't; I could imagine that there were quite some transitional issues or loopholes. I think the most likely scenario is that the embassy will cancel your DTV when you'll apply for a non-immigrant visa. So the first part of your plan would work, but when you'll attempt to enter on your DTV later, there's a good chance that immigration will tell you that it was canceled.

I'm not sure if that actually works in practice, but with a few notable exceptions, you're not supposed to have two valid Thai visas at the same time. Now that it's all eVisas, it's conceivable that you could obtain a non-immigrant visa while your DTV is still valid, but I could also see that you might run into a problem at some point.

Any non-immigrant visa is sufficient. You don't need to be on an annual extension.

It's inconsistent. My current Thai DL lists my name in the "First Middle Last" order (which I prefer), but I previously had one that listed it in the "Last First Middle" order. I doubt they'd be willing to "correct" it if you don't like the order they choose. Ultimately there's nothing incorrect about it that needs to be fixed.

They will definitely expect a Certificate of Residence. Where do you plan to renew your DL?

Quite shameful to milk generous donors like that. They could cremate him here in Thailand and just repatriate the ashes, if they don't have the funds to repatriate his body.

Who to believe, tough one! A quality tourist vs. one of Thailand's finest.

Thanks for your report! How long did it take to get the eVisa?

That will be interesting! My Thai SIM card is registered in my name (and has been for a very long time), or should be, but you just never know how exactly they conducted the name matching, especially with foreign names. There also seems to be no way for me to check my actual name registered with AIS in their app, unless I'm missing something. I just remember that they took a picture of my passport.

I use the Western Union Thailand app and all my transfers are paid via QR code from one of my Thai bank accounts. You don't need to link a specific Thai bank account to the app - whenever you make a transfer, the app will generate a PromptPay QR code and you can pay from any of your Thai bank apps. The Western Union app asks for the purpose of each transfer, you just select it from a list. As far as your Thai bank is concerned, that is just another domestic PromptPay QR code payment, no questions asked.

I have a newer version (3.39.0) than yours since early December and it's been working fine. Which version of Android do you use? I'd guess this should be moved to the banking forum.

For a small amount like that, using a service like Western Union would be a better option than a SWIFT transfer.

As far as I know, nowadays agents can only help with opening an account at Bangkok Bank. If you want an account at another bank as a tourist, you're out of luck. That's quite a limitation, especially when you consider how much trouble Bangkok Bank's debit cards have caused many of their customers in recent years. I for one am certainly glad to have cards from other banks as well.

WAS, yes. That used to be the case. Nowadays? Not really.