tai4de2

I really just can't see the Thais allowing foreigners to assume the role of actual policemen, e.g. carrying guns, having any kind of real authority -- imagine what happens when one of those foreign "police" tries even in error to assert authority over a Thai citizen?, etc. So I'm gonna guess the realization of this proposal would involve having some Chinese auxiliary members of the Tourist Police, similar to what was done a few years back with some farangs in Tourist Police uniforms in Pattaya. Of course, I thought that was ridiculous then, and I still think it's a terrible idea now.

Anyone aware of a course in Bangkok that teaches Northern Khmer? I'm specifically interested in Northern Khmer, not Cambodian Khmer. I realize it's kind of a long shot but thought I'd ask.

Exactly. So I'm confused about the "new tariff" being 3.99 baht/unit. Is that for the highest consumption tier? Cuz that price would be substantial price *increase* for people who don't use more than 150 units/month.

Isn’t electricity price based on how much you consume? I thought the first few dozen units are cheaper… my bills this year seem to be more like 3.5 baht/unit.

Yes it can be done completely online. https://tm30.immigration.go.th/tm30/#/login

I wonder if I could get these folks to issue a yellow tabien baan LOL. Seems it would be much easier than dealing with... whoever I'm going to need to deal with to actually get one.

Not only can you apply for it while you are in the US, it's arguably more convenient to do it that way. When the BOI endorses your application, you apply via eVisa (I believe LA is the designated consulate for Hawaii, not that this matters that much, except that you MUST use the correct one), and the visa is issued as a document you print out and carry with you to enter Thailand. You do not mail your passport anywhere, you do not collect a pile of documents and trudge off to an office in Bangkok, etc. Assuming you have all your documents in order, the whole thing from start to finish can be done in under 6 weeks from the comfort of your home in Hawaii.

AFAIK an LTR visa doesn't exempt us from TM30.

Thank you! That's what I was missing.

Here's what this looks like for me. There's nothing in the Address box at all; I can't type anything in it. I've now tried Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Chrome... what am I misunderstanding?

Has anyone been able to actually enter an address on the first screen that comes up when logging in (after having registered and verified email)? For me the "address" field is just a blank box with nothing in it. There's no fields and nothing to interact with. Tried with Safari and Firefox.

LA Consulate told me differently. Non-O not canceled and it’s possible to simultaneously hold two visas of different categories. Both eVisas in my case… but I’ll never test this theory LOL because I’m going to just use my LTR from now on.

I had a valid non-O when my LTR was issued as an eVisa. There was nothing about canceling the non-O and the consulate told me on the phone that said visa would not be automatically canceled and doesn’t need to be. So I believe my non-O may still be valid. As a practical matter this probably doesn’t matter because I won’t be using the non-O any more, and it will expire in 6 months. So I do agree with your overall conclusion. Just being pedantic.

August 18th is two weeks from now, so I think you are the first applicant to be approved in negative time! As I recall, the email notifying you of endorsement has some fairly detailed instructions. I did mine as an eVisa so I didn’t have the same experience that you will have, but I don’t see how your airline ticket would figure into it at all. If I were you I’d try to get an appointment at the LTR immigration center in Bangkok and then plan your travel around that. (As a data point, even for the eVisa route I was not asked for any airline or hotel reservation info, unlike when applying for the non-O I had most recently.) Also keep the 60 day limit in mind, as that timer has now started ticking. From what you described of your plans it’s unlikely to be an issue for you but still something to pay attention to. I can’t help at all with the cancellation of the existing non-O. My experience was that it may not even need to be cancelled, but presumably if you are inside Thailand, you will have entered on it and thus part of the “cancellation” is about switching you over to the LTR while you’re already in-country.

My WGC visa was issued today by Los Angeles consulate. Processing time was 14 calendar days. I’m not sure how many business days that represents because of all the holiday days late July/early August this year and not knowing which ones they observe at the consulate. I think it was about 9-10 business days. No mention has been made about my existing non-O, which appears to also still be active and valid. Not that I’ll be using it again though!

I called the LA consulate and to my pleasant surprise was able to talk to a real person. I was told My existing non-O wouldn't be canceled automatically and that it does not need to be canceled at all because it's a different category than an LTR visa. I could simply not use the non-O, until it expires. This surprises me because I thought it's a basic rule of the system that I can't have two visas simultaneously Processing time would be "15 business days" -- which mirrors what the standard guidance on the web site says, so who knows really. From date of filing for the eVisa I have exactly that, so I hope it comes through on time or early If I enter Thailand with the LTR eVisa application in process, they would not be able to issue the LTR because I'd have to do it in Thailand. And an emphasized "fee is non-refundable". I take points 2 and 3 to mean that really I must not enter Thailand until my LTR is issued! Unfortunately I was planning on flying into Thailand non-stop from Europe as I will be on vacation there the week before. So avoiding entering Thailand would be disruptive. But I don't want to risk derailing my LTR issuance.

Thank you @Misty... I will post back with results from my eVisa application when I have an update: how long it took, and what happened to my existing 1 year multiple-entry non-O based on marriage.

Thanks all. I rolled the dice and submitted for the eVisa at the LA consulate. Hopefully it will be issued in time and also will include canceling my non-O. My most recent eVisa experience with LA was issuance in 12 calendar days. I have almost double that before my next entry. In case anyone is wondering, the fee is $1600 US. Reasonably close enough to 50K THB at a reasonable exchange rate, IMO, so I’m not losing any sleep over it. Im going to look into what I need to be totally legal for any kind of work. At a high level, it seems like I might be able to create an Amity company I can own fully, and issue myself a work permit since I’ll be exempt from needing any Thai employees. A few months ago when I poked at this I had the sense that the usual facilitators of Thai companies for foreigners aren’t up on this visa and how to best take advantage of its benefits, so I feel the need to tread carefully.

Just received final approval for my WGC visa. It's 20-odd days until I expect to enter Thailand again. I am unsure whether I should do the eVisa application now or after that (short) trip is completed and I leave Thailand in late August.

I thought I'd catalog what I submitted for my WGC application. It seems to have worked because I was endorsed with no additional documents required... so maybe this will help someone else. Thailand investment: my (Thai) spouse and I own several condos in Thailand. Some are in my name only, and some are jointly owned. On the application, I declared a total valuation number consisting of 100% for the ones in my own name, plus 50% for the ones held jointly. I submitted scans of the exact documents they asked for -- the contract and the deed, for each condo. These were all purchased within the past few years, which possibly makes the purchase price very accurate as a "value" for purposes of the application. The total value I declared was only just over $500K, so this could possibly have been a problem. Income: I submitted scans of 2021 and 2022 W2s and 1040s. My spouse and I file jointly, and I have no idea whether they used my W2s to determine what percentage of our total income to attribute to me vs. my spouse. I also have no idea whether they considered only the wages from gainful employment, or also included the investment income. It may be of possible interest to some folks here that I had $0 income during 2023 at the time of submitting my application, so the business about using averages from the past 2 years etc. is accurate. Assets: I submitted * A scan of the deed to my house in the USA, which shows standard language of "$10 plus valuable consideration" -- and nothing else about value or purchase price, which is good because it was decades ago and the value today bears little resemblance to the original purchase price! Plus a screen shot from my county's tax records web site, showing me and spouse as current owners, and current assessed property tax valuation. I entered 50% of that number on the application form. * A current bank statement, with account numbers redacted. Accounts are in my name only. * A recent brokerage account statement, with account numbers redacted. Accounts are in my name only. Insurance: I submitted 12 months of bank statements showing >$100K in the same account. I redacted all account numbers on all the statements. One small thing I learned during the process, that I did not know before: the Preview app on the Mac has a specific redaction annotation tool for pdfs. This makes redacting sections of documents trivial. (A colored square annotation over part of a pdf can be undone and thus isn't strong enough.)

Another question: What happens if I apply for my LTR via eVisa, and it is not issued yet when I next enter Thailand on my existing non-O? My next trip is actually short; I'll only be in Thailand for 2 weeks. Does my being in Thailand cause the pending eVisa application to be rejected? Or does the eVisa get issued and then I have to do something at immigration to get everything in order (because I will have then entered on a visa that is canceled when the LTR eVisa gets issued)? Would kinda defeat the purpose of having gone the eVisa route... In this scenario it's also possible that I will have left Thailand before the eVisa application is even processed at all. Another choice is to simply wait to apply for the eVisa until I have left Thailand. But the timelines are such that I'm worried about the "60 days since issuance of the qualification endorsement letter" deadline. Advice please? Thank you all in advance.

OK, silly question: does the “Digital Work Permit” associated with an LTR visa require a specific job? Or can an LTR visa holder get one of these work permits independently of any job and be covered generally for any and all “work” activities?

WGC application submitted 5 July, status changed to “qualifications endorsed” on 19 July. It doesn’t appear that they’re asking for any additional documents beyond the updated passport (no entires since originally submitted, so that’s an easy one anyway). Once I do this how long should I expect before status changes again? It feels like this pace is too good to be true so far. Seems like the eVisa route would be considerably less hassle than in-person. Would be at Los Angeles consulate. I have a non-O. Am I correct that going the eVisa route for LTR issuance means there’s no need for me to take explicit steps to cancel of my existing visa?

Thanks, yes WGC. And yes, condo.

Submitted my application for WGS today. Compared to the eVisa application site I used a few months ago for a different kind of visa, the LTR site is pretty easy to deal with. No need to coalesce PDFs because multiple documents are accepted, and I didn't encounter any size limits on the documents either. ...and now I wait!