That would be silly and counterproductive, considering you can just do border runs every 180 days without any paperwork (other than maybe...at borders such as Ranong, 20K in cash being asked for).
Benjamin Hart from Integrity Legal is now claiming in-country extensions won't be possible, or that he doesn't believe they're happening. I don't believe anything he says anymore regarding this visa, as much of his claims are guesswork, speculative and based on fear mongering.
I see. I think what he means by Pattaya is that it's relatively straightforward to open an account there owing to the large residential expat population, most of whom are retirees and thus not in possession of a work permit.
I can't imagine it to be an issue. Most hotels I stayed in Phnom Penh accepted my Cambodian driver's license (this was a few years ago) although some did so begrudgingly.
There's nothing they can do with an original passport nor is there any reason for them to sight it, but with photocopies of the relevant pages, all is well.
I remember at one hotel I showed a copy of my passport with relevant entry stamps and they were very happy with that. A different hotel became annoyed at showing only my Cambodian drivers license and I argued with them about it to see how far I could go. I did have copies of my passport with me and once I showed those, they were immediately fine with them.
No hotel clerk would have a problem with copies of your passport as that's what they make when you check in with an original passport anyway.
It's only if you're trying to check in with a drivers license or some other document that they might get a little flustered.
Yet by contrast, in Thailand I've only ever had 2 hotels out of the hundreds I've stayed at insist on a passport after showing them my Thai drivers license.
In other words, while you're less likely to be asked for your passport while traveling through Cambodia compared with Thailand, you're more likely to encounter difficulties checking in to a hotel in Cambodia without one (meaning without at least a copy) than in Thailand, where 99% of hotels simply don't care. Some provinces such as Phuket might be an exception to this rule as I've heard they can be strict.
Yes back in 2009 the process was quite straightforward. I pointed that out in a separate post I made. They've generally tightened things up over the last 10 years or so and particularly in recent years due to concerns about money laundering, scams, tax evasion and complying with international banking laws etc.
In this case, it could be that because the DTV remains largely unknown to banks, they won't touch it. It will take time before policies are developed to deal with DTV holders seeking to open Thai bank accounts.
In my opinion, I think most DTV holders are already acquainted with Thailand and as such, probably already have a Thai bank account.
Relatively few DTV holders are newbies who've never been to the country before or only as short term tourists.
A work permit is what they really want to see. Even with a "long term visa" which is a misnomer considering most are valid only for 1 year, individual bank branches may decide not to open an account for you unless of course you hold a work permit.
I have heard of countless stories from people on all sorts of visas and extensions struggling to find branches who will open an account for them. Those holding Thai work permits on the other hand have zero trouble.
