Basically, agents can and do promise many options. But the minimum amount for any visa category is to not only prove that you have the funds but also the ability to have a buffer.

A couple of thousand as pension is great. You could probably be pretty comfortable if you are careful. But what happens if that income stream is taken away? Or if you suddenly need cash for something?

So just like some have said here, maybe it is better or safer to at least gather the minimum first so that once you are here, you still have something to fall back 9n.

I believe that the minimum amount is a requirement so that any one applying is able to at least afford to pay for his or her own stay. It does not matter if you have no liquid cash here and now and need to sell a home and so on, but it is a requirement to show ability to survive.

If you need to show the minimum amount but are unable to and or are unable to show that you can keep it for the time required, then maybe you should approach it from another direction. Meaning to say, rent out the home for a few months to enable you to show a good and stable income. Or save as much as you can and then salt the amount for the required time. And then do your application then. Thailand will always be here and waiting. But trying to come on a budget and or not being able to have the minimum amount will just be hard for you going forward.

You can probably rent a condo with any type of visa, even visa exempt. However, even if you treat it like a holiday place and just spend time in Thailand a while and back in the states a while, there is always a possibility of being denied entry unless you have a proper long term visa that allows you to enter and exit at will. And the consequence of being denied entry is that the place you have rented and probably left your things will just be taken back by the owner and rented out again. And if you are lucky, they will not ask for remaining rental as per contract.

He was most probably denied entry but it would have been entered into the system. His passport should also have been stamped with a reason. With this and also his previous flight into and out of Thailand, it could affect his chances of an approval for any visas going forward.

The reason why you need to. Leave is to stamp out and to stamp in with the proper stamp. So you can just come back within 5 min and should have no problems.

The difference is that while on visa exempt, they may deem that your movement is trying to stay in Thailand long term without a proper visa and they can deny entry. While having a proper DT will allow you to say that you are allowed to come and go as you please as long as the visa is live and they should not deny entry.

Better to check with immigrstions but I am assuming that you will need to change visas because they will be your legitimate reason for long stay. Some companies will do the application for a work visa and it will be pegged to the company while some may insist that the employee does all the process by themselves. But in most cases that I know, even if you have approval and a new visa from within the country, you will still need to do a border bounce to stamp out of the old visa and in with the new.

If I am not mistaken, if you have a proper visa for long term stay and need to just leave Thailand at the end of each 180 day stay limit, you should mot face any issues coming back in. Just make sure all your stamps are in place, the original visa issued is in your phone or a print out is on hand, then should mot have any issues. It is not like the visa runs of the old days where you try to come back with a new visa exempt stamp. You can stay for the length of your visa but it has to be up to 180 days each time.

If you are a business owner, you can try to use your company to apply for her a digital nomad, work from any where type of visa. Whereby she works in Thailand using online or Internet work, show that she has a steady income from overseas.

To be frank, different embassies in different countries have different requirements so maybe try in some other country. However, another issue may be that income derived from investments may not be too useful to the embassy because even if it shows a monthly profit and you do withdraw it, it may not be considered a stable income.