I am have applied for tourist visa and a marriage visa from the Embassy of Thailand, Washington DC, while being in Mexico and Indonesia. It takes 1-2 weeks (closer to 1 week).

You can start your retirement visa process regardless if you choose to live in Thailand. I would suggest you consider your options. From what I understand there are two types of retirement visas. One you get in Thailand and one you get outside of Thailand and they have different requirements.

Welcome to Thailand. The worst part is long-term visa.. My buddy said its better to get the non-O retirement visa in country.. But you can also get it from the US. I think you may be able to do it as eVisa.

If you have no definite plans and you are not 100% certain you want to stay in Thailand for a year, I would recommend a tourist visa, or come on exempt.

I have been messing around with visa for about 9 years - I still don't understand everything. Things are different depending on your passport (nationality) and based on the immigration office you use.

It's better to come to Thailand, find a place you like and then start to grow roots.

One headache about Thailand that is different than the US is the banking. In many cases you will need to go to the branch office where you opened your bank account. If you make all of your decisions on the fly, you could end up living in Koh Lipe but required to go to Bangkok to get a bank statement. There are bunches of little things like that. Much better come, enjoy yourself, then start to figure out next steps.

I use bus tickets, 12go.asia, Hat Yai to Penang.

I have heard the Thai Embassy in France can be a real pain but you may want to check with them.

I am pretty sure there is no 'Certified' Agency. That is to say nobody certifies agencies. I suppose they could certify themselves but that is kinda silly. I would encourage you to ask this group for an agency recommendation. Careful to take advice from someone has experience with that agency. Sometimes agents can pretend to be an user and recommend themselves (like they certified themselves), or people will make recommendations because their friend.... This is ok but better to talk to the friend.

@Bruce ********

That's rough. Fuck em.

The US is just racist.. We're not particular about the the race.

"He is 34 and she is 22." - money can't buy you love but it can buy you a younger girlfriend. Unfortunately, the value of money is determined by the economy and the value of money is far less in the United States.

I am seeing more of statement and less of a question but going with the theme, the wife would be smart to divorce him and take him for all he is worth. He would be smart to leave the US and let her figure out how she wants to support herself.

Maybe she could get a job? Bahahahahah

I think SWIFT is your better option. Unfortunately I have never done SWIFT so you maybe want to double check. You may want to show your funds came from a foreign account. This is necessary for your visa. I believe SWIFT automatically indicates the funds come from abroad (good). With Wise you need to select the "Long term Stay in Thailand", to show the funds originated from overseas. I think wise will cost you in the neighborhood of £200.

I travel with emergency money which is in excess of 20,000 THB.

Some Thais do it with less than 10,000THB/month. Depends on your preferences and comfort levels. Do you need an air conditioner? cocktails? exotic meals?

I got by fine on 30,000 THB/month but it wasn't enough to get ahead or cover emergencies.