@Jón *************

the op doesn't want to use 800,000 he wants to use 400,000. Therefore he needs to be married.

@Pete *****

you can do your plan if you can find an agent to open a bank account for you. Or you can get married then go to a neighboring country and apply for a marriage visa there using your home bank account.

No, because you need the money in a Thai bank account in order to apply for the non-O visa inside of Thailand. And you won't be able to open the bank account yourself if your entered Thailand as a tourist.

The only way to use income to qualify for the non-O or first 1-year extension is through embassy certification. The US embassy does not offer that, which means your income is irrelevant and you cannot use it. That means the only way for you to qualify for the initial non-O visa and first 1-year extension is going to be through showing 800,000 baht in the bank. You can use money in the US for the initial 90-day visa application with the embassy, but for the first 1-year extension in Thailand, you will have to show the money in a Thai bank account. That means you'll need to get the visa in the US, travel to Thailand and open a bank account, then transfer the funds for your extension. During this first year you can simultaneously transfer a minimum of 65,000 baht per month into your Thai account. Then for your 2nd year extension, you can show proof of 12 months of international transfers of 65k into your account as proof of income and you can stop using money in the bank. It will require a lot of planning to make it work, but it's the only option you have other than using an agent to "bypass" the financial requirements.

There is no "caregiver" category for DTV. For a dependent visa you must be married and submit proof of the marriage as part of the application.

Don't know where you're getting your information from, but it's all wrong.

First of all, Thailand hasn't change anything about tourist visas. They have been 60 days for many, many years, and that's not going to change.

You're most likely asking about visa exempt, which is not any visa, it's a free stamp you can receive if you're from a qualifying country and arrive without a visa. That was increased from 30 to 60 days in July last year. There was a government proposal to change it back to 30 days but so far nothing has changed. It is still 60 days.

The ETA system was put on indefinite hold about a month after it was announced. There is no ETA system and might not ever be one.

There are many immigration offices in Bangkok, but they are all for different things and are not interchangeable. The main office is the one at Chaeng Watthana and that's the only one most people are able to use.

@Rick ********

it's easiest to just leave it at 800,000 so you don't mistakenly screw up the timing and be rejected for your next extension

No. You're either in Thailand to apply for your extension or you're starting over from scratch when you return.

If you're out of Thailand when your extension expires and it's convenient, I would apply for a new 90 day non-O visa from a Thai embassy before returning. It'll save you at least 2 trips to immigration and will free you from the requirement of showing your 800,000 was in the Thai bank was an international transfer.

Are you actually on a 90-day non-B visa or are you on an extension of stay? If you're on the visa, you can just leave and return visa exempt if your passport qualifies for that. You won't be returning with a tourist visa unless you apply for and pay for one from a Thai embassy while you're out of Thailand.

If you're on a work extension (the stamp in your passport says extension of stay) then you need to get paperwork from your employer that states your last day of work and take that to cancel your work permit and then your work extension. You can do this 1-2 weeks ahead of time in most places. If you fail to do this then you're not abiding by the documents you signed stating you would notify immigration of any change in your status. That means you won't be able to get another long-term visa or extension in the future until you do cancel your work extension, and you'll be fined 500 baht per day up to a maximum of 20,000 baht when you go to cancel for failing to do so on time.