@Samurais ***********

Yes, Krungsri (while a fine bank) is not one of Wise's partner banks and so I'm not at all surprised it showed up as a domestic transfer rather than an international one.

I believe you can only be (reasonably) certain that it will show up as an international transfer if you use Bangkok Bank as your Thai bank. I don't believe it will work correctly, as in marked as an international transfer, if you use Krungsri bank.

In view of your needing to do this quickly if there's not much of a financial advantage to using Wise over doing your SWIFT wire transfer directly from your US bank I would tend to think doing the direct SWIFT transfer is a better move. It will certainly (almost certainly) show up as an international transfer which is what it is. This is true of Krungsri Bank or indeed any other Thai bank I believe.

@Bonnie ******

I think I'm right about the Thai bank not charging a "conversion" fee when receiving money from a Wise transfer for a couple reasons.: one as explained above the final transfer to your Thai bank happens from one of Wise's Thai bank accounts so it's not really a conversion just a straight deposit from one Thai bank account to another all in Thai baht. No conversion takes place.

The other reason is that Wise gives you an indication that XXX.XXX baht will be deposited to your Thai bank account if you go ahead with this transfer. And my recollection is that number is exactly correct, that is to say, it's not missing 250 baht, it's right on the money. Wise is good about accounting for any fees and charges so the fact that it doesn't mention this charge indicates to me that it doesn't impose this fee (or pass it on to you. Probably because as explained above it's a conversion fee and they are only really doing a deposit rather than a conversion).

@Bonnie ******

Ahh yes, that's the danger of seeing guidelines for a different immigration office than the one you will be using. There are unfortunately differences. In this case, if you will be using Bangkok and you know they only require 15 days then that should be what you need to do. With respect to this deadline you can safely ignore the rule in Phuket as it won't apply to you.

@Bonnie ******

Interestingly, yes it can. The easiest way for this to happen requires that you use Bangkok Bank (because it's one of Wise's Thai partner banks) and most importantly when you indicate the reason for the transfer you have to pick the one that says "for purpose of long term stay in Thailand." If you do it that way the transfer gets marked FTT in your Bangkok Bank account passbook (meaning a Foreign Telegraphic Transfer) which is one of the codes immigration looks for to be satisfied that the transfer came from overseas. As far as I know, this works for none of the other Wise Thai partner banks which will show the transfer as domestic.

In reality, the transfer (at least the last part of it) is domestic as Wise transfers from one of their Thai bank accounts into your Thai bank account. However, conceptually the overall transfer is international because you are having your money sent from the US and it ends up in your account in Thailand (which is what happens actually in a SWIFT wire transfer). So it's a legitimate international transfer and if you use Bangkok Bank as your Thai bank and use the "long term stay in Thailand" reason it will turn out in such a way as to satisfy immigration.

Just as an added prod to get on with the transfer, using the covid extensions (if allowed) will end up costing your 1,900 baht/person as that is the cost of applying for a covid extension (any extension, actually). Getting the transfer done promptly avoids this extra cost.

By the way, this is how people should be making the decision about whether to use SWIFT transfer or Wise. Get a spreadsheet or a piece of paper and figure out what your US bank is going to charge you, what your Thai bank is going to charge you, what fees Wise is going to charge you, what exchange rate is going to be used by your Thai bank (the TT rate), and what exchange rate is going to be used by Wise. You'd be amazed at the number of people who don't look at some of those components and make less than optimal decisions.

Wise makes it very easy for you to determine these costs, you have to figure it out for your US bank and Thai bank yourself.

@Bonnie ******

yeah, I would have no worry about doing this kind of transfer. To be honest the US government can look at anything they want to and given an interest on their part they absolutely do. You will likely be reporting the $10,000 baht equivalent balance in your Thai account as part of your 2021 year FATCA FBAR report due next year. The US government sees a lot of stuff because they are extremely nosy. I think red flags is the wrong way to look at it. If you're not laundering money and I doubt you are you have very little to worry about beyond what every American citizen needs to worry about already. ;-)

@Bonnie ******

Better to try to make the deadline. You've analyzed the situation (which method is cheaper in this case) well and it's time to pull the trigger, in my opinion. I would make August 31 your deadline, as that leaves 15 full calendar days before your current permission to stay expires. If you initiate the transfer today I think you have an excellent chance of having the transfer complete successfully by or hopefully before August 31. Don't delay with the transfer would be my advice.

The covid extension is a possible plan B but I hope and expect it won't be needed if you proceed in a timely manner with the transfer.

Obviously, you can do almost all the paperwork for the non-O visas beforehand and only need the bank letter from the bank.

Also, unless you have specific guidance from the immigration office you plan to use, the guidance from the Phuket Immigration Volunteers is pretty comprehensive. I would take a look at that if you haven't already or have better information from your local office:

@Bonnie ******

The only thing I see that is wrong with the above (or contrary to my experience) is that I do not believe you will be charged 250 from the Thai bank for the transfer. The 250 fee allowed by the Bank of Thailand is to *convert* money from a foreign currency into Thai baht. That's not what Wise does. It transfers Thai baht already in Thailand into our account. I do not believe your Thai bank charges anything for the transfer of Thai baht into your Thai bank account.

The 250 baht charge will be made by your Thai bank if you transfer USD to Thailand and your Thai bank is responsible for doing the conversion into THB.

Assuming your other numbers are correct then as you say in this particular set of circumstances with your relatively low US bank wire transfer fee ($15) the relative closeness of the exchange rates for your Thai bank and that used by Wise, then it does seem that not using Wise to make the transfer would be the wiser (pun intended) choice. Don't think that's universally true but on this day with these banks and this amount it seems to be.