Rob Browder

This is what "extra requirements" are always really about. Even some "real" requirements are skipped for agent-envelopes.

A lease and landlord's ID should be all that is required. You are applying for an extension of your permitted-stay from immigration - not working as an agent of the revenue dept, or whatever. They can (and sometimes do) come to see you "really live there." And, if they think they landlord is doing something wrong, they can take it up with them - has nothing to do with the applicant living where they say they are.

Yes - and, ideally, their HR will have an agent who will find out how-thick of a brown-envelope is required to change from your Non-ED extension to a Non-B extension. This is completely legal to do, but Immigration sometimes refuse to do them without a payoff. The employer may decide sending you out on a visa-run (with the required paperwork for a specific embassy) is simpler/cheaper (for them).

Only caveat I would add - get the account moved 90+** days before you plan to apply for the extension. This will make the account-balance seasoning proof simple and straightforward. ** (I know the seasoning is officially 2 months, but out in the sticks some IOs sometimes demand 90 days - happened to me, which luckily I had).

... on a "first entry ever" from a higher-income country passport, it is never asked. Infrequent short-stay visitors would also not be asked. If he did a fly out/in to stay longer, it might be - unless using Immigration's agent-services.

Chonburi being one of those - as in, all other IOs are jealous at how much brown-envelope money they bank, so will tell you your "in the office / legit / no agent" extensions were "fraudulent" - just because you got them in Chonburi. I've experienced this. Similar is true with Non-O-ME stamps, because Immigration didn't control that system - really gets them into a lather.

On the contrary - a person with an income of multiples of the average wage in my country could easily get a tourist-visa to visit there.

Living out in the sticks? Are Indians moving up there on fake-marriages to work illegally, now? I doubt it. And they can / often do make a home-visit, which would erase all doubt. And, if one is over 50, they know one can "buy" an agent-extension based on retirement from their partners, for a fraction of the cost of paying for a fake Thai wife (plus 2 witnesses for the home-visit). They know the source of "scams" are primarily of their own organization's origin. Only a few agents will do them, and the cost was quoted at something like 50K Baht, last report I saw - a big piece of the action going to the district-level official, for their sign-off.

Yes - but for a marriage-based extension, which they hate doing. This is the first I have heard regarding a retirement-based case. It would seem the agent-money coffers are coming up short, so they are pushing more legit applicants to their agent-buddies. I would try to find an agent who will factor your actually meeting the financials in, and offer a cost short of the 15K (in Bangkok), which bypasses the financial requirements.

If you have been out of Thailand for 6 months, and do not have a history of longer-stays or more than 6-mo/year in Thailand as a tourist in the last two years, and no ED or Volunteer Visa history, and no long-stay during Covid, you should be OK coming in on VE. Granted, that's just my guess based on reports. Good luck with the TR Visa.

I would just suffer the tuk-tuk mafia, until you make payment at the consulate, which should be possible the same or next day after you apply via the eVisa site, before final approval..

The comparison is: They are let into our countries - by traitors, who only want their cheap labor - and make us poorer, wrecking our lives, futures. We come to Thailand, and even when we are not "rich," we earn more than Thais, and do not compete with them for jobs, so make their country wealthier - raising their standard of living. If the issue was "helping" people from poor countries, that would be much more efficiently-accomplished by helping them in their homelands, where the costs of supporting per-each are much lower. Clearly, this is not the goal - just a line of propaganda, playing upon our inherent good-will, to import cheap labor. Those pushing this do not care about "them" or us. ... hopefully, to support them, where ever you live. I am with you on taking responsibility, but ask the question: What % of Thai wives of foreigners are "worse off" than they would be without them? Even sampling the sub-set making less than the required-minimum for an annual extension based on marriage? If you are making the argument poor(er) people should not have children anywhere, that's a long tangent - but, suffice it to say, that POV is why I never started a family back in my passport-country. Earlier generations had a very different situation; things have changed.

You seem to think people's financial-status is static, such that one should abandon their Thai wife/kids if they have to use their savings to help them. I am fortunate, in that my finances have only improved since I came to Thailand, but I know of others who had to deal with family-emergencies. "Going home to make money to send back" doesn't work any more, generally, given a higher-cost-of-living country where millions of poor were invited-in to flood our labor market, at multiple skilll-levels. That said, if one doesn't have skills they can sell via Internet access, they may be stuck in their passport-country.

This is an important, if true - please clarify: You were able to apply for the METV, successfully, via the eVisa system, without showing "residency" in the Philippines? This would make logical-sense, as the DTV can be applied-for without residency in the country of application, but would be a change from previous policy.

If you use your salary, you will need to supply all the paperwork for a Non-B (company documents, etc) PLUS all the paperwork for a Marriage-Based extension. It's not like the good old days (~5+ years ago), where you only had to show your tax-payments for the salary. If you can put 400K in the bank for 2 months prior to application, this makes the process MUCH easier, as you only have to provide the marriage-based documentation, which is a 1/2 ream of paper, by itself.