Andy Jones same here...opened my account in 1999...

sometimes they take 5dys or whatever...random...but its a small price to pay for the service convenience the way I see it...most times its spot on...

Chris Bailey could take a 24k loan and use that as the deposit , keep your pension high for the longer term and make larger payments to the loan as you go along…once paid off you still have a larger pension…

Well in 'two years' I would think you would have been able to save and acquire the 800k and sit on it for a year while you're dropping the 65k monthly...and remember you can spend the 65 after you deposit it...technically a work around would be to withdraw most of the 65k each month, transfer it back to the home bank via western union or other than your Thai bank and recycle the money to deposit again the next month to your Thai bank...you lose a little in the fees but hey man...ya gotta do what ya gotta do...

Ken Pemberton Yes but only for a specific class. As of January 2026, the U.S. government has introduced new restrictions: immigrant visa issuances for Thai nationals have been paused under a policy targeting countries with high rates of public assistance usage. Importantly, nonimmigrant visas (like tourist B1/B2 visas) are still available, but approval has become more difficult, with stricter scrutiny during interviews

@Jason *****

only the hotels that take your passport are likely to report as they are required to and can get fined for not...however, many people simply have the wife or companion sign for the room thus skipping the whole passport thing...whenever we go out of the province for a night or two I just pop in to immigration down the street when I return...no TM30...I just say hey guys we went to the or that place for a couple nights....they say thanks and that's the end of it...out of country with a re-entry is different of course and a long stay at a nice hotel we still check in with immigration even though the hotel would have done it...so we never really fill out a tm30 for travel..

@Bill ********

you could just simply apply for a different visa at that time...

Unless you have a history of being an arshole at local immigration, just pop in at your local office and start the application, they'll let you know you messed that up and may require additional facts, evidence, and explanation but they will work with you if you have been in good standing and not abused the system before...maybe an additional fine...but in no way would I be paying someone 25k to do it for me when it can be done at the counter by yourself...although maybe not so easy in downtown Bangkok...if you want to use that 25k buy a couple used motorbikes for the village kids...lol

You can do it by yourself...I would apply through your local immigration office as they will provide initial guidance and timelines...the application fee for Thailand Permanent Residency in 2026 is 7,600 THB for submission and 95,700 THB upon approval...you'll have a brief sit down during the application process where you will have a little back and forth convo in Thai language with the immigration staff...nothing major...you don't need to know how to speak fluently, nor read and write, but if you can do a little reading and writing it will be a bonus in your favor...your local immigration staff should know you from check ins etc so be nice to them and establish a rapport over time...you may even want to catch up where they go for lunch etc so you can further their connection to you...good luck

You can do it by yourself...I would apply through your local immigration office as they will provide initial guidance and timelines...the application fee for Thailand Permanent Residency in 2026 is 7,600 THB for submission and 95,700 THB upon approval...you'll have a brief sit down during the application process where you will have a little back and forth convo in Thai language with the immigration staff...nothing major...you don't need to know how to speak fluently, nor read and write, but if you can do a little reading and writing it will be a bonus in your favor...your local immigration staff should know you from check ins etc so be nice to them and establish a rapport over time...you may even want to catch up where they go for lunch etc so you can further their connection to you...good luck