Yeah there are a lot of agencies that do it, my mate from UK has done it twice in BKK, nice thai guy called Paul, they send it from BKK to Glasgow then get a non-immo stamp, send it back, they obviously fiddle the Departure and Arrival stamps, but those are easy as they are just bits of paper, the non-immo-visa itself is totally legit.

Also if you know someone who works at immigration, they can usually hook you up with a "Business Visa" - what this entails is paying 20k for them to put you on the books in their "company" (essentially just an empty office with a postal address) and every 3 months going back to the same person at immigration to stamp saying you are still "working"

In any case the education visa is a more legit and probably just as cheap way to get the same result. The only downfall is that I don't think you can apply for one of those if you are already in Thailand.

You can on a non immo visa, they just change it to an education visa. But on a tourist visa you're required to leave the country and return on the education visa.

i had an immigration officer offering me a business visa a few days back when i returned from my visa run. i didnt go into details with him, just told him maybe next time. really not interested in doing dodgy stuff like that.

yeah the risk/reward ratio doesnt seems worth it compared to other legal options

I am going to Thailand next week and I am still not sure how I will be cashing out money... Right now I have 90% of all my money on pokerstars and I make monthly withdrawals to neteller and then use their prepaid mastercard to cashout this at ATM... will this work in Thailand?

Also I am thinking about going there, renting hotel and motorbike for few days and search entire area and try to find the best place for myself.. without knowing any Thai language how bad will this work out ? Few pages back someone said that if you find place by yourself and not internet websites you can save like 30+% How correct is that ?

im guessing the card is a Visa, it should work fine.

most people can speak a litton engrish, or someone who can converse with you and translate.

obviously you will save money if you do the leg work yourself and dont use an agency. Online sites advertising property will be more expensive because its all aimed at westerners and the agents want a decent cut.

yea that will work. but its cheaper to get a thai bank account once you are here and cash out from stars directly to bank. or do online $ to thb swaps with people here.

pretty correct.

hi sam

Hi guys, i gonna get to Bangkok around the 23rd of march, so if anyone of you guys is there at the same time and want to have fun hit me back


skype m.broschek

I'm making arrangements for my trip to Thailand. My plan is to stay there at least 6mo.
I don't do much traveling so I'm not to sure about the visa. I have a US passport and I'm wondering if I need to get the tourist visa prior to my trip or can I get one upon arrival. What are my options?

if you arrive without visa you will only get 30 days

you should get a tourist visa before you arrive from a thai embassy in the US (there are several around there)

try to get a triple entry tourist visa, if you cant get a double. contact your nearest embassy (or read their website) for the requirements.

each entry is basically worth 60+30 days though you will lose a few days depending on your travel plans but dont worry about that

Yeah the Neteller mastercard works for sure, but you get fees on ATMs as well as a poor conversion rate and 'foreign transaction' fees on top. As mentioned earlier set up a K-bank ASAP and get stars to send the money directly into that, thus avoiding all the three fees mentions previously.

Which city are you planning on staying in, and what is your budget? Way better to ask the 2+2ers' who have already treaded this precarious ground before you

Budhud what you said is bassically everthink i was going to say im moving over there in the next month dont really no where im staying yet, think im going to get a taxi down to kata get a hotel there for a few nights and look around see witch bit i prefer maybey just staying somewhere for a month or two in ether places till find somewhere i like.

Im really conserend about getting a good internet conection thats pretty reliable.
good luck on the move. I would like to hear how the apartment hunting goes.

Hey everyone,

I was wondering who here actually currently has a poker house in thailand. This thread is way too long to read the whole thing and find out, so im just going to pose this question here. I am entertaining the idea of setting up a big poker house potentially in thailand. Also my aim/skype is "rocketmist82" if you know someone that does.

Thanks a ton,
Rocketmist

Have some questions for 2p2ers living permanently or temporarily in Thailand (Apologize if these are repeats - I just read the sticky)

1. How is the internet connection in Thailand (for the best available)? Does the internet connection vary from place to place (i.e. Bangkok vs. Phucket)?

2. How do you feel about the quality of life (i.e. clean water, good food, decent hospitals, sanitation, potential dangers) in places like Phuket or Pattaya?

3. Can a full time pro make a permanent living in Thailand? Does this require multiple travel visas?

Internet connections typically suffer from a lot of dropouts, whether they are wifi or ethernet. The best solution most of us have found so far is CDMA mobile internet.
Clean water is only found in bottles. The food tastes great but hygeine amongst Thais is typically poor and as a result food poisoning and stomach bacterias are commonplace. The biggest potential danger in Thailand is traffic - a lot of tourists are killed and injured on the roads each year. If you choose to ride a motorbike (and most do) be careful, and don't do it drunk.

If you can make a living at home you can make a living here. The cost of necessities (e.g. accommodation, food, etc) is much cheaper than in most western countries.

The visa issue is annoying (especially if you live far from a land border such as Samui) but there are ways around it (e.g. by studying Thai at a language school you can stay all year round). Unless you are over 50, running a business in Thailand or married to a Thai, it's difficult to stay here permanently.

Whichever way you choose to get a visa, it is going to cost you money. As a rough estimate, it will cost you about 30,000 baht or $1000 usd to stay in Thailand for a year, whether you do it by visa runs, school fees or bribes. At least with the education option you are learning a skill that will come in handy here. The other options are just an inconvenience and deadweight loss.

please elaborate how bribery helps in getting visas!

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...ostcount=17801

Awesome chilled acoustic tune by some farang guys, sung in Laotian, with a cute video showing some beautiful countryside and the simple life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-bu8...eature=related

Thanks for the information.

1. Sounds ok. I guess dropouts aren't too bad. What is CDMA mobile internet?

2. I would assume that more reputable restaurants would have better quality food. In terms of clean water, I was just wondering if there was good source of running water (for showers, food prep, etc.). I guess bottled water is the only way to go for drinking water.

3. Are there language schools in places like Phuket or Pattaya (essentially outside of Bangkok)?

4. How is cell phone reception in Thailand? Will I be able to use my US phone (with international calling plan) in Thailand?

Well the neteller card works but you cant get onto the neteller website here in thailand, try using moneybookers, you can get on the website and the mastercard they offer hast much cheaper fees!

cdma is a usb stick that gives you up to 3.2mbps(in theory) connection. in practise it is very location dependant and even around in phuket the quality in the connection will vary greatly. in my current location i can download about 75kB/s with it and it is decent enough for grinding though if you want to stay longer periods i would always get adsl as main connection. if you travel a lot you have to rely mostly on the cdma

several language schools in phuket though i dont think anyone has found one yet that is much better than the others and it seems that all of the schools have something wrong with them.

cell phone reception is fine. dont know about US phones but you should probably get a local plan. most people use prepaid plans and obv it will be much cheaper to use than your US plan

afaik you can use neteller in thailand with no problems as long as you call them from back home and tell them about your travel plans.

I did that, and they still kept blocking/freezing my account( 4 times total), so you are better of by just using a VPN to get around the problem with Neteller in Thailand.