@Nongnuch *******

Well, your efforts *are* in vain. The distinction you make appears in the English on that sign, but not in the Thai. One says 'stamp' and the other says 'request for temporary stay,' no visa, no extension. So again, a distinctions neither Immigration makes nor OP (whose question was about something else) needs.

Which is my larger point, arguments about definitions aside. Poor guy comes to a visa advice group with a simple question and gets Akshually'd over a pointless semantic detail. Happens multiple times a day here. I just picked this one to comment on. Maybe I should have included a trigger warning?

So Merriam-Webster is wrong, but guy on Facebook is right? Is that what I'm getting?

BTW I was just at Immigration an couple hours ago (buying another motorbike). She asked me, in very weak English, for a copy of my "visa". I handed her a copy of my "extension" and she was happy with it. So I can say for sure based on very recent experience that Immigration doesn't care if you call an extension a visa.

There's one in every thread isn't there?

Ackchyually ... "Merriam-Webster: visa - (noun) - an endorsement made on a passport by the proper authorities denoting that it has been examined and that the bearer may proceed." So, every stamp in your passport is a visa. By definition.

Why muddy the issue for the guy with semantics that only Facebook cares about? He asked how long he had (answer: however long the last stamp in the old passport gives you), not what English verbiage the local pedants prefer. The Thai Immigration Officer won't care, we shouldn't either.

Landlord had a lawyer send a scary letter. It's BS, she's bluffing. Get your own lawyer to send a threatening letter right back. I'd be inclined to threaten both her and her lawyer too, but not if advised otherwise by my own guy. Let your lawyer do the wording, that's his job.

I would have already kissed the deposit goodbye anyway. I amortize 100% over the life of the lease and act surprised when I get - back. Fun money! Thai rentals just don't work like we'd expect in the west. They just don't. Getting 100% back is a naive westerner concept here. In your situation I'd expect zero back for sure, but I damned sure wouldn't be paying anything above and beyond.

Also in your situation, I'd expect to be moving. This is a pissing contest that, now that it's started, isn't going to have a [ahem...] happy ending.

I love that it's in Thai.

Google lens did a surprisingly good job with this one though, so no worries.

@Tom ******

It's a great idea. I switched my visa money over to a new bank (see Bangkok Bank frozen accounts drama in other threads) and fumbled it a little such that I'm missing a date, one day, in the bank books. Walked in to my local Immigration office with the books and receipts and asked them if it was going to be a problem come extension time. Nope. They get it.

Anyway, point being: I got it sorted waaaaay ahead of time. Your mileage may vary depending on your local office but at my local (Udon) it was not a problem at all. Go talk to them now, not later when your visa is about to expire.

@Yo***

I think you have the 'short of money' bit wrong. The people that do it themselves have the 800k. Sure there are some guys that have 800k and use an agent, but most of the agents' customers are guys who either can't or don't want to put the 800k deposit down.

Myself, I've done it both ways. Started with an agent because when I was green the paperwork seemed intimidating. But then I got tired of IOs giving me a hard time whenever I crossed the border or went into the office because of whatever mess the agents (I went through three) got entered into their system. Now that I've done it myself, and straightened out the paperwork, it's all smiles and I get waved right through. The not having to pay someone 20-30k to screw up my papers is just icing on the cake.

@Peter *******

Hopefully it's a one time thing with the Thai banks. I don't expect they'll be re-freezing accounts annually. But yeah this has been super irritating, especially for those of us who've been playing by the rules all along.

Oh they definitely *will* freeze old accounts. The banks are being pushed by the government to update/come into compliance with 'know your customer' regulations. Freezing accounts is, IMO, going about it in about the dumbest and most ham fisted way possible, but they're not doing it without reason. Regulatory compliance is a perfectly valid reason.

You can pull your money out of a fixed account at any time, but that's rather missing the point of a fixed account. Fixed. You basically 'loan' the bank the money for a fixed period and they pay you a bit of interest in return. If you pull the money out sometime during that fixed period (like, you don't keep up your end of the agreement) you don't get the interest and you'll probably pay some penalty on top of it to boot. It's all spelled out in the contract.

As far as the 'withdrawn by criminals' via the app; that's some Facebook boogie-man clickbait. Don't fall for it. No criminals are hacking the app. The pro criminals hack *you*, not the app. Social engineering. Don't fall for that either and you'll be fine.