Rob Browder

First application is 25K, because it includes the initial Non-O 90-Day visa. A "renewal" application is only 12.5K baht. In another thread, a poster noted the savings of having your own 800K with them was minimal.

Yes - saw a report here of Non-Imm visas being issued the next day via email. So, he entered Laos, filed online for the eVisa, went to embassy to pay, then got it the next day (a Saturday). An agent on-site offered him "same day" for 5K Baht. That said, I would not count on such speedy service - but good to hear, and hope it lasts. Note that DTV applicants report being denied in Laos, to spite having all the requested documentation, so best to go elsewhere for that one.

Really? You must have a very friendly office. Most would just reject the application - maybe telling you to pay overstay of a few days when returning, if you waited until the last minute.

Was this increased with the 60-day change for visa-exempt? It has always been this amount for a Tourist-Visa entry - is what I used to carry in travelers checks to show, if asked.

Yes - same with retirement - can just leave before the "permitted until" date - no "cancellation" is needed.

Sometimes this is accepted, but other times they want a bank-stamped statement. The OP is getting the bank-stamped one, which will definitely work.

Yet, that is exactly what they told me. My income was multiple the minimum, and I could prove it with foreign-transfers into my Thai bank. Thank goodness for the Non-O-ME Visa, available at that time (not anymore). Ubon Joe also got hit with the "show the source" question, at a friendly office, where he had been extending for years, prior.

Unfortunately not. Failure to cancel your ED or Work (B) Extension before leaving can result in future problems trying to get a new extension at immigration. One can be fined up to 20K Baht, as if they had overstayed, even though they were not in the country during that time. Some folks have reported "getting away with" a new extension after failing to adhere to this policy, but others have reported problems. Easier to just do it and be on the safe-side.

No, it doesn't make sense - what if you have investments? But, at some offices, they demand a pension-letter to prove the money is "from a pension" - especially for marriage-based extensions, knowing younger folks won't be able to supply it. They hate doing that type, and look for any way to get out of it - less likely to be forced for a retirement-based extension. I recall there is some wording about "pensions" as an example in the regulations, which they extrapolate (at some offices, sometimes) to mean "only a pension."

I used TR visas when this was en-force before. You have to show it "in the bank" for the TR-Visa at the Thai Consulate. THEN, you have to make sure to have it in cash or traveler's checks when you get to the entry-point. Immigration will refuse a bank-statement. Consulates won't allow you to show it in cash (back when it was in-person applications).

Simple. Impose such rules only on visitors from countries where the minimum wage is not 2x+ what an illegal-worker can make in Thailand.

Yes, it's impossible to know if a school's "police fees" are paid-up. If not, as with most any business here, there will be problems - no advance-warning of a raid, etc. A foreign teacher w/o work-permit will be arrested, jailed, and deported "as an example" to others, to pay the police-fees - just like those "denied entry" at airports are used to "encourage" paying via agents for "safe entry." https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2957366/thailand-tightens-grip-on-undocumented-foreign-teachers On Thursday, IB police raided two branches of a language school on Ratchadaphisek Road and arrested eight South Korean nationals for working as language teachers without permits. Foreign teachers found working without a valid work permit will face a fine of 5,000 to 50,000 baht and deportation. Any school found to have employed undocumented foreign teachers will be fined 10,000 to 100,000 baht per person. Notice that with the schools "examined" after this raid, there were "no problems found," meaning they got the message, and paid the protection money.

A few offices have demanded 3 months before - but I haven't seen one of those reported in some time. The "12 months" is probably checking compliance with the previous year - kept no less than 800K for 3 months after the last extension began, then no less 400K for the rest of the year, until time to "top up" to 800K two months before the next extension. The only recourse in cases where an immigration office will not follow their own written rules, is move to another area served by another office, or use their agent to "fix" the "problem." You can try speaking to a supervisor at the office, first - mixed reports of success/failure.

I would ask the bank to provide "credit advice" statements for each transfer not marked FTT - not wait on immigration's response - just in case it takes time to get it all together.

1) It is illegal to work w/o a work-permit. 2) It is illegal to work while on a visa/extension which prohibits working. 3) It is "common practice" to hire foreigners and tell them "not to worry about it" - often during a 3 month "probation" period. Most foreigners do not get caught. But, if you get caught, they won't be able to help you from being arrested, jailed, deported, banned - all possible outcomes. IMO - if living in Thailand is not a high-priority, vs somewhere else (Cambodia, etc), then maybe it's worth the risk. Alternatively, one can get that type of work in Cambodia, Vietnam, etc - then come back to Thailand afterwords.

What you need to understand - Thai Immigration don't "really care" if you live here 360+ days/year, IF you pay them off via their agent partners - either safe-entry by air, or a agent-van border-run. They simply are not "allowed" to shake-down the short-term tourists, because that would anger "deep pocket" people (big hotels, etc). If you don't have the 20K, OR a flight-ticket out, you are (bleeped) if they single you out - then airport-detention, forced to buy a flight to Vietnam, then who knows what they do when you get there. Even meeting all requirements can fail if "coming too much/often as a tourist" - without paying agent-tribute. Back when I was here on tourist-entries, I carried 20K Baht in travelers checks, purchased from Bangkok Bank. They do not care if you can prove you "really have" the money in a Thai or foreign bank - will not even let you get it from an ATM to prove it beyond all doubt. They are just using these "requirements" as a rationale. On several (reported here) occasions, they have even refused to let the foreigner prove they met them - just "not a tourist" and denied.

I always considered that instruction a set-up - so they can lock you up, and boot you from the airport. If told this at a land-border, what one should do is enter at a different land-border - not walk into that obvious "must fly in" trap.

This is all for show. Why is that evident? When did they stop him country-banning the Caravan Hordes in 2018? The SCOTUS had just re-affirmed that law in 2017, but he refused to use it to stop them. As a result, the flood was even worse than under Obama, up until he turned the WH over to Fauci for the "pandemic" (sic). When did they stop him from enforcing the Felony prohibiting employing Illegal-Aliens? They never did. But he WANTS those ~50 Million keeping American wages in poverty, so he won't order it enforced. Instead, we get Obama's "Bad Hombres Out" policy, of which he said correctly in 2016, "If we only enforce the laws against crime, we have an Open Border to the Entire World." Sadly, even lousy Obama and Biden deported more. Now, he says he wants to give the illegals a "stipend" to do a "touch home base and return" Amnesty, to make absolutely sure Americans can't have their stolen careers back - and our wages remain in the toilet.

"Odds Are" he will get in ok. They may not even ask any questions. But I would not roll the dice - it's simply not worth the potential trouble. By air is the worst choice. If refused, you get locked in airport-detention, and forced to fly back where you came from. If denied entering by land, you just walk back and cancel your exit-stamp from the other country, and sleep in a hotel that night.

In this case, I think you got so much doubt, because you reported two "seemingly unlikely" things - quick-service for your eVisa (DTV people had reported delays there), and not needing a printout of your eVisa to enter Thailand (from a paper-obsessed bureaucracy). Both results are good news, of course - and thanks for reporting.

I would say it is more likely Trump asks them to Play Us with "maybe promises," in exchange for whatever favor. If Trump cared about Americans, all the traitor-visas which replace Americans with cheap labor would be rescinded, so that the 3/4 of American STEM workers could return to their former jobs. And, we would be watching the felony-busted employers of illegal-aliens (existing law) being perp-walked on television right now in orange-jumpsuits - then, the illegals fired en-masse across the country, and millions of Americans returning to their former middle-class jobs in food-packing, construction, etc.

... and, after 2 months, that is somehow proven? After 15 years together (he showed them pictures), they are going to file for divorce within 2 months of getting married? No, this is not logical IO thinking - it is an excuse they made up. And,, so what if he is getting "legally" married for the extension, after his job ends - so he can stay with his 15-year partner? My wife and I "legally" married for my then-extension. The Buddhist ceremony was for her and her family. We are still married - ~15 years later - but would be living together, regardless. Given how easy a divorce is here, "legally married" is not even that much of a "commitment." Putting up with immigration's abuse, to stay with your Thai wife/gf, is what shows "commitment."

Do you mean a 12-month extension-of-stay, based on retirement or Thai-family, with a multiple-re-entry permit? Per comment above - a potentially good option if planning to do this annually. This seems to be getting confused with 180 days for "tax residency," which has no relation / effect vis-a-vis immigration policy.

Most "tourists" would have no idea how the system works here. Even many expats are in-denial about it. But, yes, there is "sharing." They literally "buy" their jobs, with the expectation of ROI from brown-envelope money (not only immigration). Funds collected are shared locally (incentive for local offices / entry-points), with a share going up the pyramid-scheme to the top. Those not sharing "properly" get busted - such as the Sadao entry-point a couple times, and some "rogue" IOs who tried something "on the side." Big Joke's contribution was cleaning up the "optics" of the operation, with "no tips" signs, shutting-down the "too obvious" antics of the Chiang Mai office, and similar. Contrast to "our" passport-countries, where the low-level apparatchiks get good pay and benefits in exchange for NOT engaging in such activity, so that all corruption-money goes directly to lawyers, campaign-contributions, govt/private revolving-door employment -> govt-contracts, etc.

That massive rise - about 1/3 of total debt (the graph does not go to zero on the y-axis) was not due to people begging for handouts. Rather, it was due to the govt buying into a lying narrative, spread world-wide, about a virus which was only ever dangerous to the very old and very sick. They literally forced people to stop working for literally no good reason. The elderly/sick could have quarantined, with a fraction of the damage to the economy and govt-debt - and only even that, until the effective treatments for the old/sick were determined, which was about 6 months after the "event" began. Of course, anyone "noticing" the treatments since-proven to actually save lives were banned from speaking about them, at the time - because they were "off patent," and would have interrupted the great "global experiment" in mass-psychological-manipulation of masses - then, in-progress. From my observations, we now know exactly how Pol Pot was able to do what he did.