@Rene *****

no, apparently it's due to legacy systems and maybe soon they will be upgraded. There is way more money moving instantly in any given second than what us plebs might want to transfer, and a lot of it is dodgy AF, but we have pleb rules.

@Pablo *******

fair questions. I have read in forums (sadly, the best source of info right now) that Vientiane wants to see six months. Based on the vibe of the interaction I strongly suspect that if I'd been able to transfer the money to my private account *in that moment* and then run across the street to photocopy my mobile phone screen -- saw a guy run to do just that -- then it would have worked. But that was not an option for me.

And based on the same, I strongly suspect that if I'd come back in five days she would have just jabbed her finger at the same line-item which doesn't say anything about personal account nor six months, and said "six months."

Some embassies are asking for three months, from what I've read, and others for six. IIRC somebody got accepted with zero months but I wouldn't take the chance. At least in Vientiane they sent me packing without first taking my money.

Good to know, thanks for adding this info! Chicago would be a consulate, same as Los Angeles. So I assume it gets processed in DC, or is that not the case?

Did they ask for tax returns?

@Samuel *******

dude, no way! Thailand offers many visa options and they all contain a little uncertainty, but having dealt with immigration in two different European countries, I'm still a fan. I thought I had the DTV sussed out and I was wrong and I ranted a little but if you follow this forum you'll see lots of success stories. I ended up with some hassle and some expense but in the end I'll still have a pretty good deal, compared to most countries.

@Ahmed ******

it's six months in Vientiane.

@Werner ***********

yes but that's not what the instructions say, it's what the lady at the counter said. See the "TikTok moment" in my description. :-)

For the curious: yes, you go to the same line for eVisa and Visa on Arrival, however you go to the eVisa line *after* getting your VoA if you need one.

Which can take a while: I had about 30 people in front of me, almost all Chinese. If you happened to hit a bunch of well-prepared eVisa holders I could see it being slower, but when I was there it was about 100 people for VoA and about 5 for eVisa.

Also: the VoA price is posted as $40 but they guy really didn't like my USD so to speed things up I paid THB which was 1700 and boom, you're back at your eVisa price.

@Ning *****

noooo, bad advice. Our driver needed us to show him on Google Maps. Was not a language question. But definitely good to memorize "sathan toot" just in case!

@Shaun **************

no, the other guy finished before I did, we were going to swap numbers but it was all pretty fast-moving. Probably not hard to get if you know expats in Phuket.

@Bob *********

I was quoted north of that for actually coming with you to Lao and walking you through it, which I think is not crazy if you need that much help.