they send you to immigration and let you sort it out there. long lines. additional paperwork etc. I just extended my retirment visa. 600 dollars per year. the service handles most of it. drove me to immigration and handled it all.

policy changes every few months it seems.

tried with agent. its easy. tried doing it alone. its a lot of b.s to deal with. and a lot of conditions for its use. check in check out. pay fees before visiting abroad. etc. etc.

take the test. . or just use your international liscence as a supplement to your home driving liscence. it costs 25 dollars at aaa. in usa. If you already have a valid one.

I used an agent. without an agent, they require you to show proof of funds in a thai bank account. over a certain amount. which I can do. and or a statement from the us embassy verifying that you have sufficient monthly income. You write a statement. the embassy stamps it. It costs 60 dollars for them to do that. plus trip to bangkok. appointment in advance etc. in pattaya the immigration clerk gives people a hard time. maybe not so hard in hua hin. where they might accept a gift. or tip.

seems like they would prefer to steer you towards a retirment visa. which is about 30,000 baht a year. I only like to stay 90 days at a time maximum so it makes sense for me to do one visa run every 45 days. and one on arrival. thats over 90 days.

if you get married. you show the marriage certificate to your embassy and she gets a visa . if it all looks legit. after that. anything can happen.

use agent its a thousand dollars for the year. maybe better to just get three 60 day visas. or just visa on arrival 45 days. then one extension. 60 bucks at immigration. then go on a visa run for another 45 days. then go back home for a while. I find 3 months in thailand enough for a while. then go back to usa for 3 or 4 months. repeat.

immigration agents. real estate agents. travel agents. money transfer agents . all needed. they have connections to sort it all out much easier.

the thai courts favor the thai partner . many houses in my village are now bank repo. Its in thai wife name. she takes out equity line of credit and adios