@Gra***

some people want to do that anyway and just come to Thailand for holidays.

You're thinking about it from the mindset of someone who does want to retire here and spend most of their life here. For that person, retirement visa is a good choice.

Not everyone wants to do that, some just want to come for holidays, but more than two per year, and want to not take the risk of being hassled and possibly denied with the new rules.

@Gra***

because 800k is 80k/year on average invested in the S&P500. There is an opportunity cost locking that up in a Thai bank account. If you live here, it's a cost of doing business. If you *don't* live here but just want to visit more than twice a year, it's a bit much. If someone does have the embassy option, sure, but most anglophones don't.

@Gr**

it's not saying that though. It's saying he wants the option to visit. If you visited for a week every month that would be 84 days but you'd have been here every month of the year.

@Gr**

where does he say he wants to spend longer than 180 days in Thailand. I'd consider that "want to live in Thailand". He says he doesn't want to live in Thailand.

If his plan with this was that, sure that's not going to work. But there are people who just come to Thailand for holidays, but regularly, if that's his plan METVs could well be a better plan than exemptions, with the new "2 per year" issue.

@Al**

if you genuinely don't want to live here, it could work. It would depend on how much time you spent in Thailand. If you came for a week or two several times per year, that would almost certainly be an acceptable use of it. There isn't a clear line as to where you go from frequent tourist to "living here" but that's the point at which it would cause issues.

@Ste***

like Gary says it will tell you when searching/booking. You can look up the seat maps on - on almost any airline these days if a seat has extra legroom it will be an upcharge but you can get an idea of where the best seats are and whether it's worth it. There's obviously emergency exit rows but also like there can be a seat with no seat in front of it because there's a crew escape hatch, like 68D here, and you 63ABC HJK is a lot better than DEFG. For example. This is a Qatar A380.

@Rob***

Robert many people come with the intention of getting the 30 day extension. Why allow the extension if you have to pretend you aren't going to apply for it when entering?

Others may be traveling around and plan to leave by land.

@Dwi***

there can be an element of randomness in what is accepted. Some people have got it for this sort of thing, renting out apartments or doing Airbnb outside Thailand.

@J**

"I was considering renewing my passport now rather than upon my return to the UK," - I do think this would be a good idea, just because you'll have to carry and show both passports otherwise for the remaining 4 years of the visa.

Your immigration/passport history I don't think will matter. So I wouldn't either do it or not do it based on that, I don't think that matters at all for this visa. Extensive history in Thailand is more likely to be a negative than a positive, it can indicate you have other ties or business here, but I don't think it matters here.

Extending is not necessarily impossible but difficult enough that few people do it. Most leave and come back. It's probably easier on Workcation presuming you are still working, as you'll have all the documentation still. For Chiang Mai, the main one is you need the 500k to have been in the account for 30 days with a statement and you need documentation from the bank certifying you are the owner of the account, and possibly a balance letter on top of the statement.

It's easy to just go somewhere else in the region and come back. You don't need to go all the way back to the UK. Bear in mind you can also renew a UK passport in Thailand, you don't NEED to go back to the UK for that either.

@J**

yes, they will ask you if they need anything else.

Exactly what they need varies by the application, they don't ask everyone for all the things. For example, they ask some people for tax returns and others not. But I suspect they will want 3 months bank statements.

Utility bill and driving license aren't both required. They want this to show your address/residency in the UK and one or the other is enough.

For me, they wanted an introduction letter specifically stating that I would only be working remotely and not for Thai clients, I believe this is a common request.

They may want something from your employer explicitly saying you are authorised to work remotely from Thailand (rather than in general).