Why is the Thai consulate in Washington DC asking for 550,000 baht for the DTV visa?

Best policy is to always have the cash in your account. Most of the time, they tell you to shove your monthly income up your Azz! Sucks to tie up soo much capital in a dead account. But as the saying goes "you gotta pay to play". Or rather leave your money for dead in a .25% interest account.

The visa requirements are backwards. They don’t care about income they just want to see the 500k in a bank account so theoretically you could be unemployed. It’s a remote worker visa surely evidence of income is all they should need. I’m a remote worker and earn 90k baht per month but because I don’t have 500k just floating there I can’t get the visa. It’s pure bs and penalises a lot of remote workers meaning legit long term visas are STILL out of reach for the majority. And they wonder why people abuse the tourist visas.

Some consulates are asking for 6 months of statements

only the US wants 16K,

apply for the DTV in Jakarta (there is no consulate open in Bali)

The Thai Consulate in Jakarta is not a hard core consulate at all and they only want the 500k