I used Photo Unique in Sala Daeng. Didn't even need to be there to take pictures. I just needed to take a photo that looks similar to the passport photo and send them and they will photoshop it to look like passport photo and print out for u. You can wire them the fee and send Grab or Lineman to pick it up
Yes, you must go to the branch to open the account yourself. I hear some banks require residence cert from immigration, some just need a thai to certify. Unless you have a work permit which should make it much easier. They dont exactly have clear-cut rules on how to open the account for foreigners so you may have to try several banks
I took my friend to Bangkok bank (dark blue bank) they took 20mins. Kasikorn (green bank) took almost an hr! Same type of account
for him to obtain that he will need a work permit or a residence cert from thai immigration, according to DLT website. After obtaining the thai licence then the int'l licence is super easy