Shelly Anne FWIW Non-Os tend to be approved within a week or so if your documents are correct. I had to submit documents a second time and mine was still granted in 8 days or so.

With LA I had to show the $20k and two months of bank statements showing the minimum deposit amount.

At the time I applied there was nothing on the website about showing the bank statements so initially I just submitted the statement showing $20,000. 

They followed up asking for two months worth of bank statements showing the minimum deposit amount, I gave it to them, four days later the visa was approved. Took six or seven days total. 

Sounds like they may have gotten a little clearer on their requirements by requesting three months worth of statements upfront.

But I had to show both the lump sum and the monthly income for my initial approval. 

Andreas Mueller I misread it.

You have the money in your home country bank account for the initial visa application.

Once the visa is granted then you arrive and open up a Thai bank account and transfer the money for your annual extensions.

Richard Mellem yep they’re both Non-O visas, just for different purposes. Same criteria, though. No background check.

Santana Khamsuk I’m not sure how it worked but the company included an estimate in our up-front cost and we didn’t pay anything more when it arrived. High-end coffee grinder (very hard to find here, everything is half plastic), kitchen pots and pans (quality non-stick is either crazy expensive or impossible to find in my experience), quality clothes that fit, books, small office electronics, and house decor.

“Just buy it all here.” We shipped seven boxes with a maritime shipping company and wished we’d shipped more.

Quality, well-fitting clothing that doesn’t cost 3x what it does at home is harder to come by than people let on (yes I know how tariffs work, but that doesn’t mean a brand name workout shirt doesn’t still cost $50+).

Small electronics like beard trimmers have been garbage for me so far, I’m using my old one (thank god I didn’t ‘leave everything behind!’) and spent the extra money to buy a quality piece from Amazon. Lazada and Shopee are absolute shite.

Quality supplements. You know, the kind that have ingredients lists and GMP decals with lot numbers? Yeah, still haven’t found them here. Had to buy online, tried two vendors from Lazada that wound up being obvious fakes, wound up spending extra on Amazon.

Office gear and electronics. Need a laptop stand for your desk? Fill light for your webcam? Desk clamp for the fill light? Decent microphone? Good luck. Plenty of cheap plastic crap meant for use with a cell phone but if you need a decent home office setup you gotta buy it online or bring it.

Stick deodorant that doesn’t ruin your shirts after three months. Doesn’t exist here. Glad I brought some.

Books. If you like physical books you’ll need to pay extra for Amazon import fees or trade with other expats because book stores here are very, very limited.

Lots more, no time to continue. But I disagree so hard with the whole “you can buy everything you need here” refrain.

I can’t even find a comfortable couch and chair set here. Everything is at 90° angles to look nice despite being completely non-functional.

Our seven smaller boxes cost us about USD $1,000 and took three months to arrive and was worth every penny. Wish we’d packed more.

David Smith matter of opinion. We wish we’d brought more than we did.

@Jim ******

for every person who parrots what you say there are ten who, from experience, say “no, Thai women tend to be catty and vindictive”. This isn’t strength we’re seeing, but it is very common.

I believe it is $80k/year gross.