My understanding is that the people outside the consulate charge you for the forms ie they are agents/touts. No need to use them if you can write in English or Thai. The application forms are free once you are inside the consulate gates

@Danny *****

I did the border crossing just as

@Karolina ********

describes, they also accept $10 US inststead of the 500 baht but the note must be clean and new looking and not crumpled

@Tod ********

With the scenario, you have described would it then be possible after those 9 months in the country, to cross a border and come back in on a 30 day visa exempt entry, extend that by a further 30 days at immigration and then repeat thus adding 4 more months to that visa?

Need a photocopy of your passport page which has your photo and other details on it plus a photocopy of the page of your passport that has the visa exempt entry stamp on it and a photocopy of your departure card. In addition to a passport photo and 1900 baht

And as

@Stephen ******

says if you apply in your home country you can leave the bulk of your money in your home country and thus keep your money working for you in the way you currently have it invested ie in superannuation or offsetting interest in property investment or in high interest accounts with minimal risk and not needing to transfer it into a Thai Bank account

Would you not be able to book a flight out of Thailand for 60 days time whilst you are at the airport, instead of returning to your home country?

Yes this is correct, however it wasn't explained to me by the consulate staff, and I was completely unaware until reading the posts from here over the past week or so that an immigration officer can prevent you from entering Thailand despite you having a valid tourist visa from a consulate

August, April, Feb of this year

My son flew in on a one way flight last month, as did I August, April, Feb and August last year. Neither of us asked for a reason and the Thai Consulate was happy with a letter stating that you are aware of the purpose of a tourist visa and intend to leave prior to the visa expiring. Maybe it depends which Thai condulate you apply at and which airport in Thailand you land at

Thai Consulate in Perth requires you to have a flight into Thailand booked before you apply for a tourist visa, even SETV. And that your visa application not be within 14 days of that flight. Which is annoying as usually the turnaround for getting a touist visa takes less than a week. That is a good tip re Thai airways

@David ******