@David *********

A horse doesn’t walk on a single leg

Always try to have redundancy when your income is at stake!

I tested it. I sent €25k through Revolut. When it arrived (after two days) I sent another €25k through Wise. Meanwhile the official exchange rates had drecreased slightly so I expected less money from Wise.

To my surprise, the transfer from Wise ended up in my Kasikorn at 2000 baht higher than the Revolut transfer

So for me it’s Wise all the way. Not considering any other transfer method.

Visiting your Thai spouse is really easy and even 4 months doesn’t require something extravagant.

You can come to Thailand on a 90 day non-o visa based on being married on a Thai national. During the 90 days it can be extended for another 60 days. Done.

Just make sure you have the like of documentation in order and ready.

Cost of the 60 day extension is 1900 baht.

@Brandon ***********

So either he uses some shady agent business or he does a border run, get a tourist visa, drops 800k seasoning in the bank and then tries to get a non-o while in Thailand? are these his options?

Definitely they are going to make adjustments, refinements. The unlimited TV is a big mistake and when words spreads that it’s all up to the mood of the IO they will scare off too many people.

Same with the DTV. While it’s long overdue, it hasn’t been properly defined so changes will come.

I bet they will also improve their funny tax regulations because currently it’s really messy and even the people from various provincies don’t have a clue.

We’ll see what the future brings.

A fixed charge on immigrant visa and then exempt them from income tax might be a good idea and is fairly easy to implement. Much easier than handling all those tax returns.

It seems like this is again different from place to place. There are three main purposes why you would get one: Driver license, buy a car and open a bank account.

I have one to open a bank account. They even stated “at Bangkok bank” on the RC.

I’ve used it at two banks, not Bangkok bank. At one bank they noticed and said it wasn’t a problem. The other bank didn’t even mention it.

Then I bought a car with the same RC. No problem at all. I expect that the DLT will require the proper reason on the RC when I go there.

This was in Isan, by the way.

@John *********

Exactly. Most people don’t have a clue about the proper name of the stamp they have and then it’s required to see the stamp so we know what they are talking about.

People often talk about “retirement visa” or “marriage visa”. Both don’t exist and can reference at least two different situations.

People say “I have visa on entry” while they have visa exempt.

There’s nothing shady going on. Asking for the stamp is the best solution.

You can always take 10cc. 🤣

@Sue *********

… but it proves it is not “exactly the same everywhere”. 😉

I have zero problems with either immigration or the rules. I booked the non-o evisa and they justifiably weren’t happy with my bank documentation. I received an email for better documentation, sent it and three days later had the evisa.

I visited immigration in Bangkok with questions and they had preprinted explanations to my questions. We didn’t have enough time to fulfill the requirements so we decided to do immigration stuff in Isan.

The immigration officer in Sakon Nakhon was more than helpful. When I didn’t have passport photos she simply used her mobile to create some. She filled out all the forms we needed and everything was done smoothly.

Later we visited immigration again and we had an enticing conversation about picking mushrooms and how tasty they were and my wife and her were making jokes and friendly conversations.

If they would have had a coffee machine we surely would have stayed longer to continue the conversations.

Zero waiting queues. No hassle at all.

PS VFS sucks. Had the same bad experience with them in Kiev.