It would be interesting to know if there is a maximum amount of e-visa applications accepted per day at a given embassy or consulate. For those that may be staying in hotels in neighboring countries while they apply for e-visa, if it would be a busy application day at the consulate, it may actually delay the visa approval by many days. Difficult to plan travel in an instance like this. Maybe the application site gives an estimated approval or rejection date at time of application.

@Stephan **********

No criteria, simply an Immigration Officer helping a family that may be in distress. I'm sure there are Officers that do help foreigners in distress. Let's say a foreigner's wife or child had a vehicle accident and are in hospital. The foreigner's visa expires in two weeks, but cannot qualify for extension because their money has been used for hospital expenses. Maybe the foreigner could be given some kind of temporary stay to take care of their family.

They could give a person the benefit of the doubt based on a strong history and circumstances. Maybe the individual has the money, but not in the Thai account at the moment. Might reduce the need for agents.

There should be instances where Immigration could be flexible. Let’s say there is a person that has been on Non-O annual extension for around 20 years, without any issue. In the 21st year, the person could not meet the requirements due to a Thai family members medical emergency. Immigration should look at the history and current circumstances and then possibly approve the extension even without meeting all requirements.

@Ken **********

This is what I do to keep an account open. Because this requirement is relatively new for most of the banks, does anyone know if only a physical US address and phone number are required, or do we need to be physically present in the US for a set time period each year? I don't believe there is a physical presence requirement, but not certain.

I'm lucky to be a resident of a state that does not collect income tax. Only sales tax. If you are living in Asia, I wonder if you could somehow register and address or PO Box in a state that does not collect income tax. But would still need to file Federal tax on world wide income if you qualify.

@Ken ****

The area where I live along Manamkong seems to be managed well. Lao citizens regularly use their border pass system to cross into Thailand to take advantage local markets throughout the week. Very efficient! Up the road from where I live there is a very busy Customs / Immigration crossing into Lao. Many foreigners use this crossing for visa renewals and also to continue their tourism journeys into Lao, Vietnam and other locations. When tourists enter Thailand, the only requirement there should be is their intention to leave Thailand when their visas are finished and possibly the financial means to do so. There should be no specific ticketing requirements.

It's best for people to use only official Immigration sites for accurate information.

I don’t understand why Immigration would be concerned about outbound travel destinations. Their only concern should be that people do not overstay. If it is an air ticket to a country far away or a bus ticket to a neighboring country, should be irrelevant. With fixed date return tickets, doesn’t seem like it will be too easy to get a 30-day extension added to the initial 60 day entry.