I applied online successfully at the DC embassy. I went the soft power route. Took 9 business days, no additional documents were requested. Was not asked for tax returns, receipts for hotel bookings/, proof of onward travel, etc. Was a very straightforward process.

@Ehab *****

The application cannot be altered once submitted electronically.

Unfortunately, if you made your submission electronically, you forfeit the visa fee if an error is found in your application.

@Gregory ******

You just have to know yourself and see if it’s for you. I absolutely loved living in Delhi. Others thought it was hell. We each have to find our own corner of this earth. Enjoy the ride!

People become oddly tribal on social media, and there’s a weird possessiveness when it comes to Thailand. A lot of people have a lot of complicated reasons for being there.

I can offer this advice for you. As someone who first lived in Thailand with a Thai family in a suburb of Bangkok as a 20-year-old, and later worked there, there was a lot I initially struggled with. That included the pollution, corruption, and what I initially felt was a sense of moral nihilism.

I was and still am an overly serious person in some regards with a strongly-defined sense of how things should be.

Thailand will challenge that. If you brace against it you’ll break. So as the cliche goes, bend like bamboo.

Now it’s the place I want to spend the rest of my life. I study Thai everyday and feel a sense of deep well-being every time I return. But I had to invest a lot of time to get there, and I had to confront a lot of static in my own soul about meaning and this whole act of living.

Not everyone wants an existential trip. You’re perfectly within your rights to not want to see how you may have to change to see Thailand as some do.

Some people want nothing more than a nice beach to telework on, or a not so nice brothel to get worked over in.

There’s a lot of beaches and brothels in the world.

The gem of Thailand is Thai people. I’ve never met people so capable of finding joy in the moment no matter their circumstances. And the chaos becomes quite orderly once you start to pick up the patterns.

There aren’t a lot of options in terms of big cities, but there are lots of mid-sized towns which may look the same on the surface, but have very specific vibes due to the cultural differences of the peoples there.

Pick some places in different geographical regions of the country and travel. WiFi is pretty decent everywhere, except for some of the smaller islands.

The only way to see if Thailand is for you is to, well, see it. Good luck!

You should really reach out to the embassy and ask them what the deadline is to submit those documents. Anything else is just guesswork.

@Sergio *****

It depends on the address you’ll use for your proof of residence. If your residence is Chicago, but you’re staying with your sister in LA right now, you’d still apply at the Chicago consulate.

I previously switched a work visa from an old to new passport. You cannot cancel the old passport before switching out the visa because once your passport is canceled, your visa is cancelled.

My embassy (U.S.) allowed me to keep two active passports and asked me to return the old one for cancellation after I got the visa transferred.

I did that and it all worked out fine.

@Brian ***

I feel like folks are being too loose with their terminology.

A visa extension happens when the term of your visa expires, and you renew it. A marriage visa is one year, so if you extend it for another year, then yes, you have to show all of the necessary documentation, financial requirements, etc. to renew it for another year.

These are not things that immigration officers deal with at border crossings.

The DTV is a 5 year, multiple entry visa. Leaving the country after 180 days, and then returning, is not a visa extension. You are returning under the terms of your active visa.

To my knowledge, there has never been a visa where people were, after the fact, forced to meet new requirements to keep an existing visa.

Yes, you may be excepted to meet new requirements to extend your visa, but not to keep an active one.

If Thailand ends up granting tens, if not hundreds of thousands of DTVs, it would create an incredible burden to have immigration officers at border crossings vetting people. There’s a reason it’s taking 10-15 business days at embassies.

It is a border officers job to see you you are entering the country legally. It’s very difficult for me to believe they’ll be forced to check through bank statements, etc. for DTV holders.

What’s the benefit of it?

People are anxious because the visa seems too good to be true. And they might stop issuing them one day.

But staying in Thailand has always required flexibility.

So instead of worrying about imaginary futures, just enjoy your time, live your life, and adjust to changes as they come.

@Roberto ******