Yes, it has to be finalized by the court. The Thai Citizenship Group can give you the details.

Currently the Thai embassy in the Philippines is pretty straightforward, and doesn't have near the queues as the embassy in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, or Malaysia.

Anonymous participant remember that Vietnam embassy, and many others, want the money in your personal bank account for more than 3 months, and is why most get rejected there.

Just because you become a tax resident does not mean you owe, or have to file taxes on a DTV. You are on a tourist visa, and tourists don't file taxes no matter what anyone tells you.

@Mark ***

if you have very little income how are you going to afford to live in Thailand?

Umm, for what?

@Christopher *********

take the hint. You don't pay taxes on a tourist visa, no matter how long you are here.

Transfer that amount in by doing a SWIFT transfer. This gives you an easy to get FET, foreign exchange transaction, form that you'll need if you ever want to take that much back out of the country easily, much simpler than the multiple of Wise transfers needed.

For the initial type O 90 day visa there is no time limit on how long the equivalent of bt400,000 has to be in your personal account. The two months time period only applies when you apply for your one year extension inside Thailand with your Thai bank account. At that point the bt400,000+ must be in your Thai bank account for at least two months before you apply for your one year extension.

@Mike **********

there is no tax on the bt800,000 you bring into the country. Thailand assumes you paid the appropriate income tax on it before it was brought into Thailand, until you prove you didn't. It is also best just to have your SS payments direct deposited into your Thai bank account. Thailand isn't going to steal, or tax it. If you are going to live here then live here, cutting as much ties as you can with back home. Any money you bring into Thailand, Thailand assumes you paid taxes on it, so isn't concerned about any money you bring in, as Thailand and the US have the best dual tax treaty.