@Jackie ********

Yes, sleep there and check-in with hotel staff once a day.

@Thomas *****

Stay in Thailand for over a year on an elite visa and don't visit immigration to get an extension of stay and let me know what happens to you. ;-)

@Marlene *****

Has anybody applied for a Non-O visa in the US *for purpose of being 50 years or over* (not for marriage) and if so which embassy/consulate?

@Marlene *****

You can get annual extensions of stay every year without leaving the country.

@Bonnie ******

Do the SWIFT wire from your US bank to your Krungsri Bank in Thailand. It will show up as an international transfer.

If you use Wise it may or may not show up as an international transfer in your Krungsri Bank. If you have a Bangkok Bank account and you use a Wise transfer "for purpose of long term stay in Thailand" it will show up as an international transfer in your Bangkok Bank. People have been doing this for over a year.

@Bonnie ******

Sending the money to your Krungsri Bank account via SWIFT wire from your US Bank should work just fine. It will be labeled correctly as an international transfer originating outside Thailand. It's only a problem using Wise with Krungsri Bank.

By the way, Krungsri is an easy bank at which to open an account (maybe the easiest) and they have a really nice savings account Mee Tae Dai paying 1.00% APR interest. Money transfers visa Wise are just not reliably marked as being international. With Bangkok Bank they are (as long as "for purpose of long term stay in Thailand).

Wise does not use Krungsri as a Thai partner bank and therefore Wise transfers from overseas are more than likely going to show up in your Krungsri Bank account as domestic transfers from another Thai bank. This leaves you in a position of explaining to your immigration officer that while it's labeled domestic in your passbook/bank statement it's "really" an international transfer. I would not relish being in that position. With Bangkok Bank that is not a problem.

Please see the TransferWise Solutions Thailand group for the lengthy explanation and the gory details of why this is the case. The short synopsis is that Wise is able to do transfers economically because in many cases it is able to accomplish your "international transfer" by doing a domestic transfer between its Bangkok Bank Thai corporate account and your Thai bank account. When your Thai bank account happens to be Bangkok Bank this shows up as a FTT, an international transfer. When your bank is another Thai bank it often shows up as a domestic transfer. You then have to demonstrate that while it shows up as a domestic transfer it's really an international transfer.

@Frédéric ****************

If you use Bangkok Bank with Wise all that's necessary is to show your passbook or statement, both will show that the transaction was international rather than domestic.

If your immigration officer is patient enough to wade through a number of transfer orders then I guess other banks might be usable. If instead, you want your immigration office to be satisfied with just looking at your passbook or bank statement then recommend you use Bangkok Bank and chose the "for purpose of long term stay in Thailand" as the reason for your Wise transfer.

Take a look at the TransferWISE Solutions Thailand facebook group (referenced above). 1.8K members with some real-world experience using Wise and Bangkok Bank to demonstrate to Thai immigration that the money transferred into Thailand originates outside Thailand.

Check out this group which specializes in using Wise (formerly Transferwise) to bring money from overseas to Thailand and have it show up as an FTT (Foreign Telegraphic Transfer, something recognized by immigration as being an international transfer from outside Thailand) in your bank book. It's a private group. Their take is that this only works reliably with Bangkok Bank.

6

@Garrett **********

regarding item 2: I think that will only work if your Thai Bank happens to be Bangkok Bank. That is to say, Wise seems to have a relationship with Bangkok Bank that allows Bangkok Bank to consistently mark the transfer as FTT or international in nature. While Wise uses other banks it doesn't seem to be able to offer any sort of guarantee that it will be marked correctly with respect to those banks.

And just to be clear you would need to indicate the reason is for "long term stay in Thailand" in addition to using an existing Bangkok Bank account.