Who said to bring nothing? Nobody ever said that.

Or you will see people like Michael who also got con, who can't accept what happened to them and try to denied that they paid for something they didn't have to.

The 5.9k baht fee is a common scam, you do not need to pay anything to open a bank account while on visa exempt, especially in a touristic city like Pattaya. One thing that most newcomers don't know is that Bank, Hospital, etc, will sometimes try to pull stuff like this if they perceive you as naive (new). You seem unwilling to listen to people who have posted so far that have been here for 10-20-30 years, so I won't even try to convince you that you are wrong. All I can say is... you will probably get scam again in another context. People like you tend to never learn due to their ego getting in the way.

@XI ***

The people you spoke to have zero experience, sorry to say.

@Stuart ********

This!

@Kool ******

is capping.

As I said for the past 2 years... as long as border run is not as smooth as pre-covid, they will extend the Covid extension.

If you are married, you already have the marriage certificate translated and certified into Thai, so you do not need to do it again. I'm married and on the marriage extension so I speak from experience.

I'm not sure what Kool Breez is referring to, but I have left Thailand by land before in 2018 with an old + new passport. On the Thai side, upon leaving, they transferred my last two pages from old to new passport. It's a straightforward process that many have done since. You can do it at immigration or upon leaving at the airport or border.

The story is missing information. Someone in the US since he was a baby getting deported I assume 15+ years later is weird unless he is a criminal.

I disagree. You don't need to project your own thought into others. This group is filled with some low-level humans, the bottom of the barrel, but that does not represent your average family coming into Thailand.