Sounds like he's gotta make a trip back to visit family! Getting the 1 year retirement from your home country is much easier anyway

Yup, all true. My issue was that originally I was going to be using my affidavit (USA) of income (which at immigration they had told me would be fine), but then when they were going to cut it off, I went in (before Jan 1st) to see if I could submit all paperwork then, so that I could still use the affidavit. Given that my Visa wasn't expiring until Feb, they said i couldn't do it that early, and that because of the rule change, I would now need to show the money in a Thai bank. At the time that I learned that, I then had 2 months to transfer it over, but I ran into a handful of snags along the way with TransferWise and verification process. The money landed in the bank a week later than I needed it to, so now I have the option to show up on time with 3 week seasoned money, or show up late and pay the fine per day for doing so.

A family member went in and asked on my behalf with my paperwork, and they said I'd have to pay per day. But there was some confusion between the officers and it's wasn't fully clear, so I wanted to ask here. Since then, a friend has messaged me and said she had the exact same situation (at same immigration) and they made her come back once the money was the full 30 days and pay per day. So it looks like that's where I'll be with it :/