You do not have to be in Thailand to receive the visa. I got mine from the Royal Thai Consulate in Chicago and printed the visa I received from eVisa (cost $1600 flat using debit card). I showed my visa at CNX and was stamped for 5 years. I did want to note that many banks (BKB, Kasikorn, Krunsgri and etc) have no clue what this visa is when opening a new account and will take long time sifting through paper work with no results.