@Lincoln *********

Yeah for sure. We have good travel cards with no foreign fees. And if there are ATM fees for withdrawals, they aren’t bad. But we usually pull out enough to last us for the month at one time.

Yeah it’s so different! You can do cash if you want. There are these drop boxes here that are like an ATM and you can just put your landlords info in, drop the cash, rent paid. Just depends on the owner.

I think like some countries, there are some areas that are super friendly and easy to foreigners but difficult in others. Thailand just released the DTV which was for the sole purpose of raising longer term tourism, yet at the same time, it’s a lengthy and difficult process to get into a rental. And it’s especially difficult when AirBnB’s are marked SIGNIFICANTLY higher than local rent. Won’t want to make people stay. Unless they’re planning on just hopping around the entire country for 5+ months.

@Lincoln *********

That’s really about it honestly. At least that I’ve experienced. We’ve gotten by for the past two weeks with either a US card or cash.

I guess if one wanted to avoid transaction fees then sure but yeah. I don’t think you would need one unless you’re trying to rent 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Tim *******

Do you mind if I ask which bank and city?

@Lincoln *********

Some places here don’t accept cards and are only cash or QR code from Thai bank account. If one wanted to rent property here, you have to have a Thai bank account. We are going through this right now.

It’s also so difficult to get one right now because apparently the Thai government did a massive investigation and found a ton of money laundering via foreign countries. So they cracked down on people opening accounts.

Here is the BKK AQS number

02-134-0731

They’re open 8:30-4:30 M-F (we are 12 hours ahead of Central time)

We just moved here from the US with two dogs and I can tell you that Thailand is easy. It’s the airline that will give you trouble. Our dogs are still in the US (being shipped over to us in a couple weeks) and we had a massive debacle with Qatar that eventually denied our dogs boarding.

Outside of other things they were misinformed about, the import permit is a very grey area. I applied for mine a little late (I think 5 days before we flew) but I looked at Thailand’s customs webpage AND Bangkok’s Animal Quarantine page and they both say you can do the import permit application process in person at BKK. This was confirmed by the authority in person when I landed in BKK. He said, “yes of course let’s do the application now” but I didn’t have my dogs lol

Officials here definitely want all of the paperwork and vaccinations but they are very easy to work. Definitely heavy emphasis on coming over with the vaccines up to date (especially rabies) and they were really emphasizing the USDA health certificate with the embossed stamp.

I can almost guarantee you it’s going to be the airline that will not let you board without everything even if Thailand is laid back about it.

Idk why the vet would say they need more shots? As long as all the shots have been done within the past 12 months, that’s what Thailand wants.

I would call around to some vets until you find a helpful one. We were based out of Austin, Texas and our vet isn’t available to do the health certificates again and we found another clinic that was more than willing to get our dogs in for the appointment in one week.

As far as BKK taking forever, call them. Or if you can, hop on a Thailand pets page or something and ask someone in Thailand to make the call for you. I never heard back from my first round of application and when we got here and I called them, he said he’s gonna get my import permit to me within 4 or 5 days and they’re already processing it.

I did not.

@David **********

It was for Washington DC so I honestly can’t say for Taipei

@Kami *****

Yeah exactly. If you guys are already there though I think a lot of people just take a two or three day trip to the country they’re going to apply in. I think DC has one of the longest processing times.

@Kami *****

So originally our flight was for September 24th and neither my husbands or my daughters visas were approved yet. My husbands happened to get approved the 24th but my daughters was still pending. On the 24th, we got denied boarding because of the dog issues. Had we gotten on the flight and been in Thailand when Washington DC sent that email, I would have had to have taken my daughter out of Thailand, resubmitted paperwork showing a new flight, and then waited for approval before re-entering.

But because we didn’t actually fly out in the 24th and had to rebook, we wound up flying out on the 27th, her visa was approved on the 26th and we got to avoid having to leave Thailand just to get approved.