They ask for that to ensure you're actually doing what you claimed in your application — not just wandering the streets or posing a risk to public safety, or trying to find local work. It's the same reason why people in other DTV categories also have to show they have a purpose for coming to Thailand.

Nowhere states that foreign-sourced remote work is prohibits or allowed with a certain category and not some others. I would be surprised if you could cite a reliable source (let alone an official one).

To answer your original question — yes, I found the Soft Power path much more convenient. I’m a freelancer too, and part of the reason was that I didn’t want to go through the hassle of gathering all the paperwork related to my online work. Another reason was that I was hesitant to expose my income details to anyone involved in the process who might access my financial documents. A downside of it is I had to take a leap of faith and transfer the money to a gym in a foreign country whom I hadn't met.

Participante anónimo Where did you read that from? I would be surprised if the same type of visa offers different restrictions based on the paperwork you provided. Mine doesn't even state what path I went through. Thinking about it, why would the Thailand government care if you work remotely for a foreign entity?

The paths (soft power, workation) are only for obtaining the visa and therefore the only difference is what paperwork you need to provide for each path to have the visa approved. Once you have it, a DTV visa is a DTV visa and it prohibits work (with Thai entities that is) no matter how you obtained it.

Exactly what happened to me too with a Visa card. I remember having to wait for a couple of hours for the status to get updated.

I see. Do you have a recommendation for which bank to open the account with? Or do you think they are the same in term of service level, support etc...?

Thank you for the insight. Do you then live in Pattaya? If you live in BKK do you find it inconvenient to have your bank in another city?

When you say "single statement", does that mean statement for the last 1 month of transaction?

Do they have English on the paperwork that you need to sign? I'm thinking of hiring a short-termed interpreter to help with reading through them and make sure I'm not signing myself into some potential problems later.

@Andrew ********

@Dave *******

May I know which gyms did you go with?