gorshar

Wife got her tourist visa in 2006 on the first try, a 10-year multiple entry. Slamdunk easy. Easier than what we've gone through to get me a one-year extension on a Non-Imm 'O' in Thailand.

2010 finally finished the immigrant visa process to the USA. A bit of a hassle, but not as to whether they would give it to her or not, but simply jumping through the bureaucratic hoops.

I have been doing business in Cambodia for over ten years, in Siem Reap. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY I know either running a small business or working for one has bothered with a work permit. While the law does state you must have one there is still zero enforcement of it. About four years ago in Siem Reap, the local labor office did go around to the foreign-owned businesses attempting to get everyone on work permits. Nobody bothered and the office gave up. About the same time the main office in Phnom Penh announced and it was published in the English-language news, that work permits would be required nationwide, other than the announcement nothing ever came of it, either.

My advice is not to bother with it until or unless someone from the government makes you get one. Given that almost nobody has them, the only risk in not having one, is to be told you must get one. So save your money and the hassle.

SnookyGirl, the $5 labor books, I hope your staff paid for them and not you - as that's also the law! And like work permits, very few Cambodians carry these. When the labor dept tried to get my staff to have them they all kind of shrugged their soldiers and grinned and that, like the work permit for me, was the end of that.

Welcome to Cambodia!

I don't have link as I was thumbing through for info and it was late, but it was clearly stated on the Us embassy Visa site as a link it stated the difference when you've been married 2 or more years as I recall and reside out of country.

Right. Less than two years = CR-1 visa. More than two years = IR-1 visa.

But this is still an immigrant visa. The difference meaning that if you've been married more than two years she receives permanent residency (her green card) as soon as she clears immigration. If you've been married less than two years, the green card is conditional and at a later date must be upgraded.

But you still need to complete the full immigration process including the acquisition of an immigrant visa.

See this: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_2991.html

And excerpted from that page:

What Is Conditional Residence?

If you have been married for less than two years when your foreign citizen spouse enters the United States on an immigrant visa, his or her permanent resident status is considered “conditional.” The immigrant visa is a conditional resident (CR) visa, not an immediate relative (IR) visa.

You and your spouse must apply together to USCIS to remove the conditional status within the ninety days before the two-year anniversary of your spouse’s entry into the United States on his or her immigrant visa. The two-year anniversary date of entry is the date of expiration on the alien registration card (green card). See Remove Conditions on Permanent Residence Based on Marriage on the USCIS website.

And from this page: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1315.html

Spouse

If you are an American citizen you have two ways to bring your foreign spouse (husband or wife) to the United States to live. They are

Immigrant visa for a Spouse of a U.S. Citizen (IR1 or CR1) - An immigrant Petition for Alien Relative, Form I-130 is required.

Nonimmigrant visa for spouse (K-3) - It is important to note that application for the nonimmigrant visa for spouse (K-3) who married a U.S. citizen must be filed and the visa must be issued in the country where the marriage took place. After the visa process has been completed, and the visa is issued, the spouse can travel to the United States to wait for the processing of the immigrant visa case. Two petitions are required:

Petition for Alien Relative, Form 1-130; and

Petition for Alien Fiancé (e), Form I-129F

So, she DOES NEED A VISA.

Actually though I did get some information and having been married for this length of time the site said that a visa was not necessary but to apply directly for a green card instead..

From WHERE did you get this piece of information?

I was not aware that any potential immigrant to the US could ever enter the US without an immigrant visa.

I'd hate to think that having been with my wife for 13 years now and married for seven years and having two children that we wasted incredible amounts of time and money on obtaining for her an IR-1 visa......

...though I suspect it wasn't wasted and the OP has received some bogus information.

First try, on her own, 10 year multi-entry.

Immigrant visa approved three years later. Not a big deal either, just a bit of hassle with getting the paperwork right but nothing major.

Wow. Where do I begin? The amount of misinformation that has been posted here is mind boggling.

First of all, as of a couple of months ago, Thais are now visa exempt to enter Cambodia to a maximum of fourteen days. They still need a passport to enter, but no need to get a visa.

Visa on arrival: so long as you do not get suckered into buying an over-priced visa at the bogus "Cambodian Consulate" which is located in Thailand before you've even been stamped out of Thailand... and ask yourself why am I buying a visa on arrival when I haven't arrived yet... you won't get scammed now. The correct Visa on arrival building is located on Cambodian soil. AFTER you've been stamped OUT of Thailand you walk a hundred meters or so and over the small bridge that crosses a garbage strewn creek that divides the two countries. You pass a health screening station where they may try to get you to waste time filling out a form saying you're not sick ... no you do not give them any money for anything here... then cross the street and enter the new building on the right. Inside they give visas for $20 US (about 600 THB). They are more than happy to settle for a 100 THB tip on top of the $20. The process takes only a few minutes and you will hardly delay anybody.

Angkor tickets for one day are $20 not $25 as someone said above.

Flying to Phnom Penh and taking a bus up to Siem Reap:

Since the road from the border to Siem Reap is now finished, this is a complete waste of time and money. You can take a taxi from BKK to the border, get through immigration, and then take another taxi from the border to Siem Reap and knock off the entire journey in six hours and pay about $120-130 combined. My personal record door to door from an apartment in the Suanphlu area of BKK to the front door of my business/home in Siem Reap is five hours and twenty minutes.

An a.m. flight from Suvarbabhumi to PP, and a bus to Siem Reap will take in the neighborhood of ten hours and with four people cost much much more than the overland trip.

Taxis from the border to Siem Reap:

Taxis from the official stand to Siem Reap - this involves the shuttle bus at the border - should cost you no more than $48. You will however be dropped in the middle of nowhere and have to fight with tuk-tuk drivers for the last 5 km into town - free ride, sir, yes, free. Oh you don't go to my brother's guesthouse, okay I charge you $5, what you don't hire me for Angkor, okay $5 then. It's a hassle, but you'd get that coming off a bus from Phnom Penh as well. There are a handful of guesthouses in Siem Reap that will pick you up at the border for around $45 and get you transported to their front door so you can skip the song and dance with the tuk-tuks and also reduce your scam exposure at the border to almost zero. Two Dragons Guesthouse is one that does and its got an American/Thai operation that might make your companions happy.

The buses to Siem Reap from Poi Pet are pretty good. A cab in which they will cram 4 passengers (plus the driver) is $25 per person. As I recall, the but is $9.00. The last bus to Siem Reap leaves Poi Pet at about 2:00, so you will need to arrive in Aranyaprethet by about noon to get the bus.

Buses aren't that good - they are exclusively backpacker scam buses. Taxis are not $25 per person, but $48 per car (though touts may try to up the price). Last bus does not leave at 2 pm, it leaves when the last backpacker is loaded on.

If you book hotel or guest house in Siam Reap, they should be able to collect you at Poipet for 25 USD for 1 car. Journey tales 1 hour 30 mins max.

More like two hours. It's 155 km, ninety minutes is a highway to hell (or heaven). $25 seems highly optimistic given the backhanders that have to paid at the border to make pick-ups. Taxis operating *legally* have to pay $10 per car back to the "Association".

Back in the 1990s I worked at a public institution (an RIT school) in Bangkok that had a vocational division.

Brawls on the soccer field were frequent. If you were lucky it was only sticks and knives, but guns were drawn from time to time and I witnessed gunfire on more than one occasion and did once see a kid get shot in the stomach. Fortunately the kid that was shot survived, but we also had several kids from the school that were not so lucky when gunfire was exchanged off-campus and yes, on a bus.

The shootings on campus never made the news media. There were no police cars. No ambulances. Nothing. It never happened. Injured kids were quietly taken to the hospital and nobody talked about it. During my tenure the school director was even voted RIT Director of the Year despite the soccer field hosting as many brawls as it did football games.

The brawls were always between departments in the school, i.e Automotive vs Welding. The school's response was to suspend every kid in the department for two weeks. Well, who did the shooting? Never mind, they are all equally guilty so everybody gets a two-week holiday to cool off.

I wondered, and still wonder if maybe the kids didn't spend every waking minute together but actually had the courses mixed up with other kids there might be less violence? Imagine if for non-department courses, i.e. English, history, etc the automotive kids were mixed with the welding kids, mixed with the masonry kids, mixed with the HVAC kids, etc and they actually got to know each other has someone other than the "enemy" they might get along better. I mentioned this once to a few of the Thai teachers around me whose response was along the lines that such a move would be a terrible complication of scheduling, entirely too much work for someone, and why are you even thinking about it? Yes, I know, gin kao de-gwah.

I also found remarkable the awareness or lack thereof of what bullets can do. One time I was walking along the edge of the soccer field, our office over-looked one end of it, when from the north side of the field (the vocational side of the school) one group of students began chasing another onto the field. Myself and a few other teachers stopped to look. Then we heard the sound... pop... pop... pop... pop... pop... I ducked behind a cement pillar. The other teachers stayed where they were. Several laughed that I ducked for cover and was yelling for them to do the same. "Mai bpen rai" they said, "they are not shooting at us'" Amazing Thailand indeed.

You will have to prove that your income was 125% over the poverty level for the last year (maybe last 3) when you file the I-864 etc. If you can't meet this requirement, you can get a co-sponsor in the US. They will not consider foreign earned income.

Nope. All my income is foreign and it was accepted for meeting the 125% requirement.

Both my wife's non-immigrant and immigrant visas were virtual slam dunks.

In 2006 she got a 10-year multi-entry non-immigrant visa. Getting it was easier and less time consuming than me getting a one-year extension in Thailand on a non-imm 'O'.

In 2009 we applied for an immigrant visa. Not counting down time while I sorted out my tax situation the active processing time was less than three months. I've never nor ever expect to go through the Thai permanent residence process but from what I've read and heard from others there's no way it could be any easier than her IR-1 and it certainly is a lot more expensive.

Horror stories of visa woes always make for popular posts. Yet for every horror story there seem to be far more successes, problem is, they don't make for very interesting reading and when such a post appears here nobody pays much attention to it.

Much more fun to write "US sucks!" "US Embassy sucks!" "US visa process sucks!" than to write "well done!".

You've all missed the point...

Tourist arrivals have been decreasing steadily and Thailand can't (or won't) do anything constructive about it.

So instead announce a plan that you will concentrate not on numbers but on quality visitors and presto the problem of declining numbers ceases to be a problem but instead becomes reflective of your new strategy and if anyone cites the decreasing numbers you've already devised a face-saving way of getting out of it. And if someone challenges TAT as to whether they've succeeded with their new plan to attract quality visitors they will probably find it far easier to manipulate (or outright invent) statistics on tourist spending habits than the arrival figures.

Overall, it is a classic Thai approach to a problem they can't (or won't) fix. Everybody will save face and look good and nothing will improve except their image which is all that matters, anyway.

Congratulations. We went through the IR-1 process this year, and except for a delay while I sorted out my tax situation so I could file the 864 doc, our process was about as fast, easy, and straightforward as yours.

What? They schedule these things now...?

This is a good website:

http://www.usvisa4thai.com/index.php

We completed the IR-1 process less than a month ago. It was for the most part, a slam dunk.

I posted about it here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Immigrant-Vi...ed-t320780.html

If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to help.

But as another poster said, do the I-130 first. They are really picky about crossing all your t's and dotting all your i's so don't be surprised or let it frustrate you too much if the application gets kicked back. Just do what they ask and be calm about it. Once they accept it you may get approval in as little as four days even if they tell you four weeks. You will then be mailed an envelope with a pile of forms and instructions that may seem daunting at first but if you sit down and look it over carefully, it's not that complicated. You definitely do NOT need an attorney to do this. Follow the instructions exactly as they are presented and you can get through this in as little as two to three months.

Today my wife was approved for an immigrant visa (IR1 class) to the USA.

It was not difficult nor particularly time consuming.

Here’s how things went…

Well, first let’s back up to 2006 when she received her non-immigrant visa – a 10-year multi-entry. At the time I assumed the worst, heard all the horror stories and expected nothing but aggravation with the added consequence of putting my wife off to the process and prospect of even a simple visit to the US, never mind any thoughts to living there which at the time we had none.

Did the on-line application, made the interview appointment, paid the $100 fee at the post office, assembled the documents and showed up at the embassy at the appointed time. Three hours later she was called to her interview – this was back when spouses could still accompany the applicants in the waiting room – and after about 45 seconds she was approved and received a 10-year, multi-entry non-immigrant visa. Huh? Too easy.

About a month later I ran into an on-line acquaintance who at the time was finishing a stint at the US consulate in Vientiane. I asked him the hows and whys of how and why it was so easy…

How long you two known each other?

Eight years.

Married?

Two years.

Children?

One.

Educational background?

University degree.

Work? Well-known international corporation.

Slam dunk. Interview was so short as she was already approved. All the interviewer wanted to see was that the person at the window resembled the person described in the application. And by the way, if and when you ever go for an immigrant visa, she’ll be a slam dunk as well.

…She was.

Fast forward to January 2009. We decide to start the immigrant visa process. Step one is the I-130 to be filed at the USCIS/Dept of Homeland Security Office across the street from the US consulate. Probably the biggest initial hassle were the touts who hang around the lobby of the building accosting any western male/Thai female couple who might be starting the immigrant visa process – need assistance? An agent? Help? Good rates, guaranteed visa, yadda, yadda, yadda. Please shut up and go away.

There was one initial stumble. Once in the office, the lady (Thai woman, 50ish) behind the window said she couldn’t accept the I-130 application here on account of the fact we worked and more or less lived in Cambodia and we should submit the application to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh (we live in Siem Reap, 315 kms away) and they would forward the application.

Wrong, I said. My wife is a Thai citizen and the US Embassy in Phnom Penh only accepts applications for Cambodian citizens.

I can’t authorize this, she said again, you’ll have to get authorization from someone in authority, I can’t do it.

So we returned to the in-laws house in Thonburi and I called the USCIS office in Chicago and was greeted by an extremely pleasant woman who did everything she could to be helpful which unfortunately despite her best efforts (hearing her try to pronounce “Guangzhou” was worth the cost of the call alone), amounted to nothing more than reading an information sheet that was exactly as I had in front of me from their website. But she did go so far as to then give me the names of the director and deputy director at the office in Bangkok and suggested we call them.

The next morning I did and was told in a matter of seconds that of course the office would accept the application and to bring it straight down.

So we arrived with our application, money, and supporting docs and met the same woman who well, had that look of “oops” on her face. She proceeded to examine every single pen mark on the application, documents, and translations and found a handful of instances that essentially amounted to dotted t’s and crossed i’s and we had to fix them all. So it was back to fix all the t’s and i’s and back to the office a third time, again encountering agency touts and the like (don’t they have soliciting rules in Bangkok office buildings? Apparently not. But I digress…). This time the application was accepted and she said we could expect an answer in about four weeks.

While we were waiting another man (US) and his Thai wife presented themselves at the window with their application. He asks right away how long this will take. She said about four weeks. The man immediately slammed his fist on the counter, declared this an outrage, said as an American citizen he deserved better, and would be in touch with his congressman to sort out this outrage. The woman behind the window had this look like, oh great, here’s another one, go ahead buddy, call your congressman, call your senator, hey, you can even call the President for all we care. I thought to myself, probably going to post on Thaivisa tonight about how awful the system is, blah, blah, blah. For ****’s sake, buddy, give the system a chance. Your applying for an immigrant visa, not a member card at MK.

Anyway, the outrageous wait for approval, in our case, was not four weeks but about four days. Well done. The next packet of materials arrived – application form, form 864 (sponsor’s income statement), and all the instructions of what to do, where to do it, and what supporting documents to bring.

Now, this whole process, from initial submission of the I-130 to the issuance of the immigrant visa could have been in as little as three months… but there was one snafu. As her sponsor I had to submit a copy of my latest US tax return. Umm, ohh, umm….

Anyway… seven months later I was in good standing with the IRS and we resumed the immigrant visa process. Assembled all the documents, mailed in the application and got our appointment date. We did however request to postpone it on account of the fact that child number two’s birth was imminent and ultimately he was born two days before the original interview date.

A few days before the (new) appointment date (third week of November) we did the medical exam. Easy. Do it at BNH or Bumrungrad.

So we arrive for the appointment, and everything was okay except they needed US passports and CRBAs (Consular Report of Birth Abroad) for both children. Well child number two we don’t have yet as we just put the application in a few days ago.

Okay, no problem, come back when you have them.

As a matter of procedure we were handed the ugly “denial” letter even though we weren’t really denied, only delayed.

I would add, the marital evidence, i.e. photographs, letters, e-mails, names on bank accounts, etc we brought them and none was ever looked at or even asked for.

As an aside... as we had the newborn with us I was permitted to accompany my wife in the waiting room. During our two hours or so waiting, I witnessed dozens and dozens of non-immigrant visa interviews. I would make a rough guess that about 90% were approved. I’ve heard from other sources that this about right. The ones that were having the most difficulties were the ones using the boyfriend line. Students, professionals, families, etc seemed to encounter little trouble in getting visas. As for the dozen or so immigrant visa interviews we couldn’t hear them so well but judging by the looks on the faces… maybe half? But I could be wrong.

Anyway we returned to the embassy today to pick up child #2's docs and walked over to the visa section with them. We were told we’d have to wait a week as the consular officer was on vacation. I complained we needed to get back to our business in Cambodia as soon as possible, and what can be done. Wait a moment, she said and ten minutes later we were told, no problem, you’re approved for the visa.

We did however request a deferral as the visas are good for only six months from issuance and we don’t expect to leave until July. But as we will be in Cambodia for the foreseeable future we wanted to get this process of the way and have the security of an approved application so we can start making moving plans. Again, no problem from the embassy. We were given a letter that stated we had one year to return to the embassy and receive the visa. Come back with the letter and passport and you're good to go. And her non-immigrant visa was canceled with a thoroughly hideous big black ‘CANCELED WITHOUT PREJUDICE” stamp over it.

Overall, it was about three months of actual time in the system (I don't count the time needed to get my own tax situation sorted out), three trips to the USCIS/DHS office and two trips to the embassy (and one more to go for the visa), and $735. And as it’s an IR1 visa she gets a green card on arrival in the US and not a conditional one.

Now compare that to the procedure (AND COST!) and benefit(???) to perm residence in Thailand…. Hmmm..... Both non-immigrant and immigrant visa processes were cheaper and easier than anything we’ve gone through for my visas to Thailand.

So why do we hear so many times about how awful the procedure, non-imm or imm is when at least our own personal experiences with both were anything but? Is it because the successful applications which apparently outnumber the unsuccessful ones nobody bothers to post here about it and instead we hear only about the bad ones, which I do believe, in a lot of cases the posters might not be telling the whole story? I.E. “US immigration sucks they wouldn’t give my wife a visa!!!!!”, which is followed by fifteen “amens” when the poster might have wrote “US immigration sucks they wouldn’t give my wife, who I met last week in Nana Plaza, a visa!!!!!” I don’t know. I can speak only for myself.

No lawyers.

No agents.

No congressmen.

No lost tempers.

No rants and raves.

A few minor frustrations and inconveniences (some of which I've left out from above as they really weren't important and hardly worth losing one's temper over).

Two successful visas…

If anyone has any questions or want of advice, I’ll be happy to answer.

We're done.

I've lived and worked in both Cambodia and Thailand for nearly a decade now, though more time is spent in Cambodia. My wife is Thai and has been in Siem Reap with me for over five years.

I can also ditto Sheryl and dumball.

The ignorance of Cambodia and Cambodians on the part of not only Thais, but expats in Thailand as well, has been a source of both annoyance and frustration on our part. Even my wife, who is not Isaan (as a majority of the Thais in Siem Reap are), but a college-educated Bangkokian, gets tired of it. And she never in her life imagined herself living and working in Cambodia. I'm not going to say she likes it, she doesn't, but her perspective on Cambodia has, predictably, gone through a lot of changes. If only the rest of Thailand would follow suit.

I said AUTO- genocide meaning same ethnic group killing each others

Not comparable... this was unique.

Yes it was indeed unique. But to assume that this represents a characteristic of all Cambodians is a racist, ignorant, disgusting thing to say.

As others, nobody will listen. Just use another airline and be done with them.

If things do escalate further, Thai nationals will not be safe there.

About a year ago, following one of the PV border skirmishes that saw a couple of Cambodian soldiers get shot, the situation reached its lowest point and the situation in Cambodia was for a couple of days, a bit tense for Thais. Oh - I'm an American with a Thai wife with a business in Siem Reap. My wife is one of a couple of hundred Thais living and working there. A fairly high ranking officer in the immigration police arrived at our guesthouse where we also live, he was making the rounds to all Thais registered as living in Siem Reap. He informed us that the police were taking the situation very seriously and that if we experienced any problems, harassment, threats, what-have-you, to call him immediately and police would deal with it. He then reassured us that Cambodia and Cambodians wished no problems for Thais, this was a military issue, and let's all hope the problem goes away quickly.

I wonder if the Thai government/police will extend the same courtesies to the Cambodians living and working in Thailand?

As for the present situation, I can't speak directly because we are in Thailand as my wife just had a baby, but if past situations are anything to go on, your average Cambodian is 1) wishing the situation would go away quickly and quietly 2) laughing at the Thai government (again) and 3) worried that the problem won't go away quickly because once again - when elephants fight, ants get trampled.

Isn't this sh6t hole the only country in history who commited an auto-genocide

Mod, can this guy get banned for this? Can I say what I *really* feel without getting banned myself? What an utterly ridiculous, racist, and totally insensitive, moronic thing to say... (that's only half of what I want to say...)

but do you think there is a chance that borders between the two countries might close in the near future?

I would not count on being able to cross overland if the borders are closed.

I guess my first post was missed or ignored. Even in 2003 when the land borders were "closed", note intentional use of quotations, nationals of nations other than Thailand and Cambodia were still permitted to pass through as normal despite numerous unsubstantiated reports to the contrary. I have the stamps in my passport and the photos of a deserted Poipet border to prove it. The border was closed to commerce and locals, but never to non-Thais and Cambodians. And air travel between the nations was never affected so nobody, even Thai or Cambodian was actually "stuck'.

So basically there is no story and probably never will be.

Even after the 2003 riots in Phnom Penh when the borders were "closed", they in fact remained open to non-Thais and non-Cambodians for passage. Made for some of the quietest most peaceful trips through Poipet ever....

My wife has entered the US twice on her 10-year multi non-imm. AT JFK in 2006 and at LAX earlier this year. Now, in both cases she was accompanied by me (US citizen) and our child (dual, entering on a US passport), which probably made a difference, but at neither entry did we receive anything more than a "How you doing, how long are you staying, where will you go?" Stamped and passed through in minutes.

ATM question has been answered.

Malaria and dengue. Malaria is a rural issue - northeast , northwest border areas, southwest mountains and nowhere near Phnom Penh. Dengue is an urban disease and is indeed a problem in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. While you will have a lot of trouble finding an expat who's had malaria or even knows someone who's had it, dengue you will find many people have had it. Self included. Though my infection in 2001 was relatively mild as far as dengue goes. A week of aches and fever but nothing debilitating. The recovery, about six weeks of lethargy and mental depression, was for me, more of a problem than the disease itself.

Cambodia is a rapidly changing place and though still way behind Thailand in terms of development, is improving rapidly and surprisingly functions much better than Thailand in many ways. And it's much less xenophobic (at least with westerners, let's not talk about attitudes towards the Vietnamese or the Thais, and to a lesser extent, the Koreans).

In about 200(?) airport taxi rides I've only encountered rigged meters three times, all Don Muang.

-one going to the airport. I realized about halfway to the airport the meter was running a little fast but I kept my mouth shut until we arrived. Then I just handed him what the fare should have been (about 180 and not the 245 the meter read) and told him (in Thai) I've done this trip a hundred times and this is what you get. He took the money without a word.

-leaving the airport I noticed every time the driver floored the accelerator the meter spun wildly and in less than a km the meter had already spun to around 2.5 kms. I said something to him about it, he gave a nervous laugh and magically the meter operated normally the rest of the way.

-leaving the airport again I noticed the meter was clocking quickly but as in the first case I decided not to say anything. However, our apartment was about 50m from a police station so rather than having him pull in front of our building I had him stop in front of the station. I handed him 180 baht and told him if he wanted the 300 or so on the meter he could ask the police for it. Likewise the 50 baht airport surcharge. He took the 180 without argument.

Curiously, one time I had a taxi with a meter running *slow*! Arrived at my apartment and the meter was at about 155. I handed him 230 (180+50) and told him his meter was whacked. Hope he fixed it.

Ignore above. The road is finished. Two easy hours by taxi to Siem Reap.

Scams

Only get your visa at the visa services building on the right *after* you've been stamped out of Thailand. They will give you a business visa here but it's unlikely you'll get it for $25, expect to pay around 1500 THB, but if you can get it for or close to $25, good on you. Do not get or try to get a visa at any other location no matter what anybody tells you.

Do not change any money at the border no matter what anybody tells you.

You will be approached by two kinds of touts, some touting for "black" cabs, others touting for the official cabs. You can get a "black" one for a lot less money and so long as you don't pay up front you shouldn't have a problem.

Your business visa will can be extended to 3, 6, or 12 months. 6 and 12-month extensions are multi-entry. All it takes is money and a photo. Any travel agency can do this for you.