@Michael *******

but bringing a child into this world you can afford no problem ? I guess you don't know the cost of international schools then ?

@Bradley ********

thai tax system is of a voluntary nature, which might seem bonkers to many farang, me included. Buy to say nobody pays tax in unless they work for a large corporation is not so true. Anyone wanting a mortgage or other financial credit product will know rhey have to do a tax return to do so. And there is also another 'tax' paid by small businesses with a visible presence, in the form of protection racket payments to local law enforcement. Which is odd, as last week the police chief said that his staff are all heavily in debt. But if you know where your local police chief lives, go and take a look at his driveway on Friday and see the typical cars owned by his deputies. It doesn't look like they are in debt, but if so, these cars are the cause.

@Pat ******

but return to your home, or just floating between different countries?

This is a plan for permanent retirement ? Or just for the first few years of retirement ? Or just for a year or two of travelling ? As I think you'll run into problems with immigrations, probably Thailand first. But that's not certain, but will you be leaving a home and possessions in either country, in which case a denial of entry could be more of a problem. Or if you will pack up your life and stick it on your back each time, then its less of a problem. But packing up and carrying your life will become difficult as your possessions will increase with time. With my recent experience of visa juggling, I didnt realise the consequences of doing so until it was too late. Long story short, I now have the Elite Visa, and the sensation of security and permanence when I got the acceptance letter was pretty nice, and made me realise in the years previous I had 'built my castle on sand, and it wasn't going to hold up much longer.

@Declan *********

but some embassies are now limiting visa issuance to 1 per person per year, as Brandon states.

@Simão ***************

so is it every 30 days or every 90 days ? As that's quite a difference in effort and days spent boarder bouncing. And "since 2022', that could be as shorter time period as 14 months. Not reasoning I would use when planning my retirement or relocation.

@Kenny *****************

2nd largest economy in SE Asia behind Indonesia. 10th largest economy in all Asia, (50x countries, including Middle East and Turkey/Cyprus). 29th largest economy in the world. But don't have a knife in the cutlery on the dinner table. Use hand signals to becon you towards or away in the complete opposite to the rest of the world. That still blows my mind everytime I see it. And they pull out turning left onto any type of road including motorways, without looking right, ever. But depending on what you read, Thailand is a 'developing' country, an 'advanced developing' country, a 'Middle income' country, an 'upper middle income' country, or an 'industrialised' country, amongst other titles.

I think this is the third post recently about demands for cash being made at immigration at BKK (Suvarnaphumi Airport). I thought it would be the last place that IO's would be blatently asking for cash bungs, but it appears some officers are. Maybe rogue IO's trying to make a quick buck under the noses of their superiors, or maybe with their blessing. And I think if you pay as requested, and you're not a total dick, they haven't got much reason to put a marker on your file, and they wont want to draw attention to your file either, as they certainly won't be recording the transaction of 2000 baht cash payment. So maybe you were just unlucky, got the bastard IO, and the next IO will be more forgiving. I would recommend strictly a land crossing. Infact I'd speak to a visa run agent, and they want to pre-screen you anyway, they'll send copy of passport ahead to be ok'd. This will tell you if you are able to visarun/border bounce. You can use a visarun agent also to arrange to do more than the yearly 2 land crossings limit, you just have to ask and get a confirmed yes. And many can accommodate a little overstay too. But a few don't.

@Blade *******

speak to an agent, all can fix it for you. I'm sure there are different ways to structure it, but I was told a start up of 80k, and 70k a year, so 150k year 1, then 70k a year after that. Others may say differently.

@Jay ****

if the company is not trading genuinely, then that too, is abuse of the system. And all the old boys that use an agent to get past the retirement visa requirememt for 800,000 baht bank deposit, is also abuse of the system.