Bear in mind that for the US, the consular officers are required by law to assume the applicant intends to skip out and live in the US illegally, however irrational that may be. It's not personal, it's a requirement of their job. Your girlfriend has to show them proof that this is not going to happen: a good middle-class job in Thailand, kids she would return to, money in the bank: good reasons to not stay in America. You, as her American boyfriend, work against this narrative: why would she not just stay there with you? There is no US equivalent of the European idea of "sponsorship."

None of this is impossible, but the fact that you're asking on Facebook implies that your GF doesn't have this set up. Plenty of Thais travel to America, with ease, even YouTubers! But you have to be able to honestly, legitimately prove you will come back. I don't see what value the agent adds here, other than making sure your paperwork is correct. Coaching someone on interview questions is a bad idea in my opinion: the person interviewing her will be trained to look for inconsistencies, and lying can get her blacklisted.

I'm on AIS and quite happy with it, I could probably get a cheaper deal but the coverage has been mostly great, with high speeds even out in the boonies. But compared to the US, I don't think there's a "bad option" here. Whenever I go back I'm kinda shocked at how bad the service is, for 3x what I pay in Bangkok.

One sort-of "life hack" here is you can get a very nice prepaid plan at the airport, and use that for the first month while you get settled, unless you really need a stable number from Day One. Which you probably don't because people like to use Line, Messenger and WhatsApp (etc) instead of regular phone.

@Brian *************

I have found that if I have the $10 roaming turned off (as in, not auto-activate) and then put the SIM in and get on the network (using WiFi for data) then I can usually receive an SMS. I can not however receive any calls nor send an SMS back. That's with Verizon. In practice this means I cough up the $10 if I need to do anything more than get one simple SMS notification that I'm expecting. Sooner or later I will find a better solution but on my last trip back, Google Voice wouldn't let me activate for some reason.

I see you already knew about the "non-imm" part, sorry, but you did say you want to become "residents." Best of luck to you, sounds like living the dream!

Worth noting that the "non-O" we all talk about is actually a "non-IMMIGRANT O" meaning people on retirement, marriage, Muay Thai, etc extensions are not collecting any time towards permanent residency. Same is true of DTV and even the Elite, but I *think* you are on track if you get the LTR visa, which in your case would require setting up a company and other expenses. But if you can afford it and that's really your long-term goal, maybe look into it.

FWIW most Western foreigners here long-term never get PR, because it's super easy to get by on one of the easier visa/extensions, and during Covid we all saw how much PR was worth when push came to shove. But there are other advantages to LTR if, again, you qualify or can afford to make yourself qualify.

If it's a NZ passport then the issuing country is NZ. Which is good news since (I hope) it means you can just fix that and get your visa.

Interesting to see it's issued by "Department of Internal Affairs" considering it's rather "external" by nature.

Someone told me that you own a condo in Bangkok the way you own a car: it's a depreciating asset but you can get a lot of enjoyment out of using it.

Now, high-end stuff probably does go up, and I think *my* landlord has a nice business going, but it'd probably take him a very long time to sell it at a good price. I figure I'll buy someday but not for my primary residence and definitely not with money I couldn't afford to lose.

The good news is there's lots of supply and much of it's relatively cheap. The bad news is you can end up with a place you don't want to live in.

My advice: buy with money you could afford to lose, but only if the freedoms of ownership are more valuable to you than the freedom to bail out if you don't like it.

Assuming you have the money and the patience, it seems like DTV is an excellent fit for you. Create a company in the EU (your home country, or Estonia), "season" it, and Somchai's your uncle. Someone else with a WP cancelled it to get DTV.

Of course you'll be losing your shot at permanent residency or citizenship, but I guess you know that and don't mind.

Congrats, and thanks for the details! Re: canceling your work permit, was that a requirement? I would have assumed whatever visa you have gets auto-canceled when you get the DTV, but in this case if you had been denied the DTV you'd have been stuck without the work permit, right?

Modest life in Bangkok but totally doable, *or* a very nice life in a smaller city with few expats if you're comfortable with that. (Think Buri Ram, not Hua Hin.) Or split the difference and go to Chiang Mai but then you've got poison air a few months a year. In any case I hope you like Thai food and/or cooking.

Don't touch your nest egg: it's not that much but you'll really need it if this doesn't work out and you have to go back to UK. Also: plan in advance for health insurance, for little things it's fine to pay as you go but you'll lose that nest egg real fast if you're hit by a moped and go to the private hospital uninsured.

As others have noted: watch out for the booze and the babes, either one can torpedo your budget before you realize what's happening. The good news is that with a little patience you can find a partner who carries her own weight (or his, whatever) and drinking like normal Thai people is actually pretty cheap. You just have to like highballs. :-)