I took 3 months at Duke, it was worthwhile. Group classes, ~8-10 students. They did a little language quiz first to slot me into the right starting class. Their classes do fill up, so you need to check availability.
I use Chase also. Just sent a transfer yesterday from a Chase checking account to Kasikorn bank. Initiated @ 7:07 am, complete @ 7:08 am. In reality it took 10-15 seconds. One time I sent from a savings account and I think it might’ve taken longer. Lots of variables (banks, account types, authorization methods, transfer reasons, etc.). You need someone at Wise to look under the hood and see what’s going on.
one of the banks in your transfers may not support the fastest transfer methods. Or you may need to do something to enable the faster transfers. I would contact wise support and ask what you can do to speed up transfers.
the speed of a wise transfer can vary with the reason you select. when I choose “personal expenses”, transfers from the US to Kasikorn Bank are almost always completed in less than 30 seconds.
I have an iphone with US e-sim (AT&T) and a Thai physical sim card (True). Both work fine in Thailand. The Thai sim does not work in the US (I don’t need it to,so I’m not sure if it can be enabled for use in the US or not).
The answers to these types of questions can change over time as immigration policy changes. So there is value to asking the question again even if a person has done some searching. It’s certainly useful to learn if one or more people had recently faced greater scrutiny on entry - not something you can learn from older experiences.