@Brandon ***********
If you are going for a retirement visa, you need to plan ahead a bit. After comming to Thailand with a 30 days visa excemption, you go straight to immigration, and extend it by 30 days. Give you 60 days alltogether. On the same day, you get a residence certificate, from immigration direct or from an agent. I woukd the cimmend staying in a condo instead a hotel. Next day you apply for a bank account in bangkok bank. After open this, you transfer 800.000 thb into your new account, and let them print out a certificate for it. With that you apply for retirement o visa 3 months, which you can extend then to a year