@Peter *******

- oh dear. I am afraid you are right. Heading over to my provincial Immigration office this week to find out. There are no agents out here and prominent signs in the Immigration office that say "NO GIFTS". If it doesn't work, I will have to go back to Jomtien and pay an agent to sort this out for me.

@Garrett **********

- yes, one that simply states that you have an account and the amount that is in the account on the day of your renewal application. They still do that- but not a separate letter detailing the monthly transfers.

I use WISE every month. There is a drop down menu for the purpose of the transfer, and the one to choose is "Funds for Long-Term Stay in Thailand", and it shows up as a FTT, or International Transfer.

Yesterday Aranyapratet Immigration told me they don't do Certificates of Residence even after we submitted a TM30 by my landlord.

Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. Get an endoscopy.

I think you mean the Non-OA visa. The Non-O requires a deposit of THB 800,000 in a Thai bank account, I believe. I have the Non-OA and use the monthly transfer into my Thai bank account. It also requires insurance.

@Ernesto *******

- I use the $65k/month scheme and had a Non OA visa.

This happened to me with one single month of a transfer when it went through Kasikorn Bank instead of directly to my account at Bangkok Bank as a international transfer. I went to Kasikorn Bank and got a copy of the transmittal from WISE to them, clearly marked as International, but Immigration at Chang Wattana would not accept it, and denied my extension. As I did it on a Friday and on the last day of my current extension, they told me I would be in overstay if I waited until Monday to come back and argue the case. I gave up and flew to Phnom Penh for the weekend and came back with a 30-day visa exempt entry, and went back to the U.S. and started all over again with a new Non O-A application. Fortunately I had the funds to pay for it and re-qualify for the new application at the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington. Since then, I check every single transfer withing 24 hours to make sure it shows as an international transfer.

Very much depends on your relationship with your Congressional representative and what district you are a resident of. If you've given up your U.S. residence and don't have a street address (or pay taxes there), the representative's office will have no time for you. I make sure my voter registration is active and up to date and always state that in any correspondence I have with his office. That guarantees that I at least get a response and a thanks for contacting Congressman X. Most of them are very reluctant to get involved with matters involving immigration, especially these days.

@Charles *******

- right. I am on a retirement visa. I was asking for a friend who's been on an expensive Elite visa and is OK with the six month (180 day) stay limitation as she resides in Argentina half the year, and is thinking about the DTV which costs only THB 15,000, apparently.