Phillip9

I don't see how a border bounce helps you. I think Thailand (and almost every other country) requires you to have a minimum of 6 months before your passport expires to enter the country. Canada is likely the only country that will allow you to enter with your current passport.

I'm curious then why they would be so picky about a tiny hole from a staple in a passport. I can't see any other reason. I am sure it is BOI that is getting most of the 50K agent's fee the OP mentioned.

I would submit the renewal application ASAP at the embassy. That is really your only option other than flying home.

You can't extend without your passport. Any extension is only valid until the passport expiration date anyway. Either try to renew your passport by Post and hope it gets back to you in time, and then do the extension, or fly back to Canada and renew it there.

Anybody who will only have 500k to spend for 5 years very obviously would not be able to get that much in a bank account all at once. That kind of person would barely ever have 10k in a bank account. Any serious criminal could very easily get 10x that amount if they wanted to. Raising that threshold is not going to keep out any criminals.

Are you sure that approval is still good when you have a new passport number? I have a feeling you are going to show up with your new passport and they will tell you it isn't. Just another hoop to make you jump through to try and force you to use an agent.

The fee for the visa is 10,000 baht. It's a 5 year multi entry visa. So for me, that will work out to be much cheaper over 5 years than a retirement visa with yearly extensions and multiple re-entry permits. You need to have 500,000 baht or equivalent in any bank account. That can be in your home country bank. You aren't required to have any money in a Thai bank. And once you get the visa, there is no requirement to maintain that balance.

I doubt they ever fine at the airport. I've never seen any report about it here. We would have heard about it here. I'm sure people depart all the time after skipping 90 days, and it would be a big problem and well known if they started fining people at the airport because many won't have that much baht when they get to passport control.

National parks in Thailand aren't worth visiting even if they were free. The few nice ones are so crowded that they have been destroyed. So just skip the parks and don't stress out about the extra fee.

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This whole thread is about dropping below the required 800k. Any talk of an agent here would not be just for hand holding.

Also depends on your passport country. Those of us with first world passports are very rarely if ever asked. If you had a third world passport, you would be asked sometimes even if well dressed.

There are lots of older condos in Hua Hin. Most of the large buildings right on the main beach between the malls and cicada market are "older", and I'm sure most or all of those have larger rooms than a typical new tiny condo.

A 16% decline in exports would certainly be a catastrophe. That would be about a 10% decline in total GDP. That would be worse than if all tourism ended in Thailand. So even worse than covid.

ONLY??? 16% makes the US by far the largest export market. Second place is China at 12%.

I would recommend trying the official site if you haven't done so. It's relatively easy to use. I just got an Evisa there and it took just a few minutes to submit my application. The only problem I had was that it will only accept small file sizes for the required photos. Once I figured that out, and reduced the photo file size, the rest was simple.

The difference with those abuses is that immigration is making a lot of money off of them, so they tolerate it. Immigration seems to make nothing off the DTV and that alone could lead them to hassle DTV holders.

So just change back to a retirement visa if that ever happens. No big deal.

I would first try with the other documents you mentioned, but if you find out you really need a residence certificate, why not just tell immigration that you want to open a bank account?

Do you think Thai real estate will out preform the S&P 500 over the long term? It certainly never has in any 14 year period in history.

That first picture of the ocean is way zoomed in and deceptive. I doubt you will even notice the ocean from the balcony without a zoom lens. From the other pictures, it looks like the only view you actually have is of several other very close condos. Go look at in person before even thinking about it.

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Yes

Every country that I have been to that has a similar ETA system just asks you to certify that you have all the required documents to enter the country. It's just a bunch of check boxes--yes, I have accommodation, yes I have a return flight, yes I have money....You never have to upload any documents. I'm sure Thailand will be the same if they can ever implement the system.

You've been lucky. There are not many 24+ year old condos in Thailand I would want to live in. None of the factors you sight would affect my decision. It's Just way too much risk for me to consider buying something that is so hard to sell and can change suddenly.