@Matt *******

About a week beforehand is a good idea but Thai immigration may advise you to do so 2 weeks beforehand.

@Alessandro ********

Indeed, especially if applying using the e-visa portal, processing times are unpredictable.

If applying in person, it's more predictable but you should still allow extra time in case you need to go back and submit more documents, which will cause processing to be delayed until such time as all documents are satisfactory. In most cases, this is just one extra business day, but do prepare to stay a couple of days extra.

If flying in to a walk-in consulate, I'd allow 5 days if the standard processing time is 3 days (meaning submit on Monday, receive your visa on Wednesday afternoon).

If it's an e-visa consulate, allow up to 2 weeks.

it's less stressful if you travel by land, without a fixed outbound ticket. From Thailand, you really don't need to fly to Cambodia or even Vietnam. Saves you a lot of headaches having to purchase new tickets in case your originally purchased fare is non-changeable and non-refundable (except for airline taxes).

@Matt *******

They send you a receipt a couple of weeks later.

@Deepak ******

LTR holders do it once every 12 months.

Unsure why they get this privilege, it just shows how much of a farce this reporting thing is.

Flemming Rønnow You have to do it via post or in person after every re-entry so the online thing isn't useful for DTV holders as it can only be used once before you're required to leave the country. If you get an in country extension, then you'd do a 90 day report in person (since you'd be coming in for the extension anyway) and then you might be able to do 1 online 90 day report before being required to leave the country.

Too much hassle given how limited the system is. Easier to just do a mail in report for the first 90 days, in person for the second and mail in for the 3rd one. There won't be a 4th one as you have to leave the country by then anyway.

Unfortunately, no. You need to hold a Thai work permit.

@Jason *********

Yes, that's what I thought. Someone claimed he could apply for a secured credit card without a work permit (he's on a retirement visa) but I doubted his story.

No need to fly back to America. However, you do need to find a foreign country to apply in and wait there for the visa to be issued.

Good choices include Jakarta, Taipei, Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh, Laos, Cambodia and Yangon, Myanmar.

@Roxanne ********

It's not in their computer system, that's why. It's because they're overworked, lazy or assume foreigners are coming in without a visa. Nothing to do with it being a DTV. I've been stamped in, incorrectly on visa exempt on at least 2 occasions while holding a non-O multiple entry visa just in the past 18 months alone and that was before I got the DTV.

@Uwe ***

LOL, considering it's Thai consular officials who decide whether Chinese citizens who apply in China get one or not. Nothing to do with the Chinese government.