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

what if the money is in your account for 2 months when you request the letter? Will they still freeze it for an additional 4 months, or only 2 additional months for a total of 4 months?

If you don't already, get a Schwab account. They give a decent exchange rate when using an atm, don't charge any fees, and even reimburse the 250 baht fee the Thai bank charges.

@Tony ********

I think you hit the nail on the head there. I had a similar experience in Koh Samui. They reviewed all my documents then gave me an appointment to come back the following week. When I got there they requested a bunch of additional documents, despite me having everything on their list and an officer reviewing it prior. Some were easy to produce, others weren't. They wanted a bunch of documents from my landlord that he said they have never requested in the past. Since he refused to give those documents I had to do a bunch of running around to other government offices trying to get some that he was willing to give and immigration was willing to accept. For the house visit they brought 3 officers and wanted 2 witnesses, despite us just moving to the province and not knowing anyone yet. It's pretty clear all this is intentional to force people to use the Visa agency just outside the door.

@Sean ************

then you move to a new province that requires a bunch of extra, non-standard documents that take weeks to gather.

There is no need to change branches that I've found. I still use an out of province branch. Any branch at my current location can give the necessary paperwork for immigration. The only disadvantage I'm aware of is a small fee for out of province atm withdrawals, but that is waived if you use the cardless atm withdrawal. Also, no fee for scan to pay. There may be some other disadvantage but I haven't ran into any yet.

@Graham *****

why even bother transferring though? I moved provinces about 18 months ago and never transferred. Any branch here will give me any paperwork I need. The only downside is a small transaction fee for atm withdrawals outside the home banks province. Which they don't charge you if you use the card less withdrawal or scan to pay.

@Vitaly *******

I've also done a ton of payments by scanning with Bangkok bank for over 5 years and have not ever had a single issue with even one transaction.

@Heather **************

perhaps thats changed with the current administration, but my wife successfully got a 10 year tourist visa a few years ago.

I really don't see how an agent can help to get a tourist visa. The application is online and pretty straight forward. For the interview they won't let anyone but her into the building (with the exception of a translator I believe).

I had the same issue with my wife prior to marriage. After we got married I had her try again. She ended up getting the 10 year tourist visa. What helped I believe is in one of the open form questions of the online application I had her use it to explain the situation. Rather than just answer the question since there was no other place to add additional comments. In it we explained that I have moved to thailand permanently with zero intentions of moving back, so she had no desire to get a green card. Between that and perhaps Chaing Mai being more lenient that Bangkok she ended up being approved.

Depends if it is an extension on a non-o or a non-oa I believe.