@John *********

No, I don't think that's the correct way of looking at it. Besides, even with a retirement visa, you have to renew it every year and that usually involves going in to immigration twice, as first you get your conditional approval and then the final approval a couple of weeks later.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think the DTV is as good as it was initially made out to be. However, don't assume that a retirement visa guarantees your status in Thailand. Unless the government changes it's policy, being a retiree will never qualify you for PR, for citizenship, for land ownership or anything more than a DTV does, except for owning a bank account and getting a 5-year driver license extension (although for DTV holders, this is also possible depending on which office you use).

BrilliantMouse3131 I've not seen anything to that effect. Exchange rates are fine (except in Myanmar, but that's a junta policy).

The MAIN concern you have with using a foreign debit or credit card to withdraw cash from a Thai ATM are the fees charged by the ATM (now 250 Baht at most banks and soon, all of them will increase from the previous 220 to 250) plus the 3% foreign currency conversion fee your home bank will charge (depending on your bank, it could be as low as 1% or as high as 3.5%, but most are charging 3% these days) plus the foreign ATM withdrawal fee your home bank charges, which is usually somewhere around 5 USD / AUD / SGD / CHF / EUR / GBP.

Some banks might reimburse these costs, but not many and depends where you're from. I've seen debit cards that don't charge these fees, but then charge you like $10 per month as an account maintenance fee.

Anyway, that is your MAIN concern when it comes to using a foreign debit card in a Thai ATM. If you're paying for goods and services using your card, then it's not so bad. Quite a number of credit cards offer an international fee free option.

@Bill ********

Either one is fine for remote work in that sense. Neither are work authorized for Thailand. Remote work is permitted though.

@Pedro ******

Yes correct. Both are employment prohibited for Thailand but remote work is OK in either case.

@Richard *******

Online work is fine same as the conditions for a DTV. Absolutely no difference.

@Neil ****

Nonsense. You've just made that up. Both visas have a "employment prohibited" disclaimer. There's no difference between the two in that respect. A DTV is merely being promoted as being suitable for remote work, but a retirement visa will allow the same.

@My **********************************

Actualy it isn't.

@Pete ******

That's not true. It depends on the office. Some give 2 years, some 5 years.

YES if you already have a 5 year Thai license.

@Henrik ****

Unlikely and not a big deal. It's not a competition to get past immigration. You're not going to win any awards for doing so and no one cares.

Also immigration processing these days doesn't take nearly as long as it once did. Everything has improved in terms of efficiency.