I did my driver's licence in Samui earlier this year and it took a lot longer than 2 hours. 4 hours of watching videos before you were allowed to take the written test, then come back the next day for the actual driving test.
"Extensions for DTV, nobody knows the requirements yet but only permitted one per 5 year visa. So at some point, a bounce or travel will be required. And will need several over the 5 year term."
I don't think this is correct. It's 1 extension per entry, not 1 per visa. So in effect you only need to bounce once a year.
And yes champ, I do know the cost. You're looking at a minimum of 12,000 baht to fly return to Singapore or KL out of Samui. Can go up to 20,000 at busier times. Not to mention 6+ hours turnaround. Or 18 hours if you want to go by bus. That's significantly more time and money than extending no matter which route you choose.
Anyone typing "just do a border run" obviously has not considered that a lot of people in this group live in Samui/Phangan where border run is always the worst option.
this is only really an issue for soft power DTVs because you'd have to purchase another 6 months of whatever soft power option you went for.
For people on remote work/online work DTV, assuming they still have their job then showing updated paperwork isn't an issue at all, and is certainly much easier and cheaper than sitting on a bus for 16-20 hours which is what you'd need to do if you were border bouncing from Samui or Phangan.
