: By Red Flag, I meant it will get reported to the IRS whether you like it or not. So a person doing this kind of transfer needs to make sure they report the Thai bank account and the money on their taxes. A friend of mine who worked for the IRS told me that there is a 100% penalty for not reporting offshore bank accounts with more than $10,000 in them. For the last few years when you open a new account in Thailand, you have to sign a form allowing the Bank to report it to the IRS.
When I renewed my Non-O Retirement Visa, Immigration required a letter from the bank stating how much was in the account, AND a statement showing the balances in the account for the past year.
Do it the easy way. Open a separate bank account, stick 800,000b in it and forget about it. No muss, no fuss, no hassles.
If you choose to manipulate the money in your account, sooner or later you will screw up and lose your Visa.
And remember, you have an ATM card, so if you decide to bail on Thailand, you can use the card to withdraw the money from elsewhere.
We always flew EVA Air due to price and a killer flight schedule from SFO.
My Wife was holding tickets to Bangkok on Jan 6th 2021 and Taipei closed the airport to "transit" passengers Jan 1st.
We had to scramble to find a new flight on the same date with United and Korean Air thru Seoul on the way in a nd JAL and United thru Japan on the way back. She was able to modify the COE and arrival time with the hotel.
It went from a $1050 ticket to a $1475 ticket.
I just booked to Bangkok on Sept. 30.
Due to the uncertainty of Taipei, I am avoiding it and transiting in Japan.