GGfromUSA

This is a well-known problem- see below from a post I placed at a Thai Visa advice group on FB.  GL to all.

Re: Evidence of foreign $$ transfer- Transferwise. This is not a question- just some information that might be helpful to others as I went through a ton of trouble and many sent me questions when I recently posted on this. As many of you know, Transferwise has at least 3 banking partners in Thailand- TMB, Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn. ANY time you transfer money into Thailand, they may FIRST transfer to any one of those 3 banks, then do an inter-bank SMART transfer to your bank. This causes a huge problem- Non-O visas require "Evidence of foreign currency funds transferred to Thailand." Normally that is in the form of a bank letter confirming funds came from an foreign account. Because in my case Transferwise first transferred to TMB, then to my Bangkok Bank branch, Bangkok Bank WOULD NOT issue immigration a proof of overseas transfer letter. Some potential ways to deal with this... First, contact Transferwise and ask them to tag your account so that transfers are settled ONLY with your bank (no intermediaries). They will tag your account but DO NOT guarantee it! You are taking your chances! With my bank- after a lot of groveling and hours- they ended up issuing me the standard letter but stipulated on the letter that it was an inter-bank SMART transfer. I figured (correctly) that immigration would not pay attention to the details. My Non-O went through without a hitch. One theoretical consideration- the language for the foreign transfer requirement used the word "Evidence" it does not specifically stipulate the need for the standard bank letter. Theoretically, if you have evidence (statement screenshot) of $$ coming out of your foreign bank account from Transferwise, then printed a detailed transaction report from Transferwise (.pdf detailed transaction are available for download from Transferwise web site) and had a copy of the $$ landing in your Thai bank account, these things should constitute "evidence" of a foreign $$ transfer. I kept these documents on the ready in case I needed them, but in the end, did NOT use them- immigration was happy with the bank letter. Really, since Transferwise ONLY does international bank transfers, the Transferwise transaction detail SHOULD be sufficient "evidence" on its own but don't count on it. I have not tested if other forms of "evidence" would work. The net of it- you are taking a chance using Transferwise no matter what you do, but I am reasonably confident that you can deal with contingencies, but can provide NO GUARANTEES. Hope this information is helpful- it was hard-earned.