@Keith ***********

yes but, it doesn’t last long. For most of the year, air quality is great! And it’s the perfect time of year for a beach holiday, down south.

I would recommend Chiang Mai over Hua Hin. Your mother can get a retirement visa and your brother can be a dependent until age 20. She would either need to deposit 800k baht or have an income of 65k per month. Speak to an agent regarding this. You could do an education visa and learn Thai or, various other low attendance courses. If you don’t want to do that, you have the option to get 30 day on arrival visas and extend in country for an extra 30 days… Then border bounce. Basically, you can do it. All the best.

@Brian ******

If you’re looking for an authentic Thai experience, you can still get it in any of the tourist focused or built up locations. The north east, where the border crossings are, weather is hot right now. When rainy season comes, it isn’t too drastic and never really stops anything. My personal preferred areas are, Chiang Mai and Isaan area, Surin to Udon and everything in between.

@Brian ******

Yep. You should have seen the Poipet crossing about 15 years ago… Mothers puttin their kids on to you. A no man’s land in between the two countries with a couple of, not legit casinos… and armed kids on push bikes riding around at night… I got stuck in that no man’s land for a night 🤣 Those were the days

@Brian ******

I have literally dipped one toe in Cambodia on a border run… Turned around and walked straight back to the Thai immigration to return. This was at the Surin crossing… Which seemed pretty much completely open with kids running in between the two countries. My gf and her friend, walked from Thailand to Cambodia and back to Thailand with me, no papers shown for them 🤣🤣🤣.

@Dan ******

well, I’m sure the k baht helped answer them in that “certain” way. 😅 We haven’t needed an agent since that first approval so, it is what it is.

@Dan ******

we used the same information for all 3 applications. That’s what showed me it’s a con.

@Dan ******

same here, got 2 rejections and then with an agent on our third try, she got the visitor visa… It’s a racket.

When I did it at the Surin border, I literally walked from the Immigration to stamp out, to the Cambodian immigration which was over the road, to get Cambodian stamp… And then straight back to the Thai immigration. It was all open, kids running between the two countries as if it where open borders…

Didn’t seem unsafe there… But if you don’t have to stay, why bother? The border crossing at Poipet, different scenario. That has a no man’s land inbetween the two countries, which houses two casinos. I got stuck for a night there with a friend and not out of choice. We stamped out of Thailand and then went to the casino. When we came out, Cambodian immigration was closed and we were stuck. Casino hotel rooms full so we had to stay in the workers hotel 🤣… That place didn’t feel safe lol. But it was about 15 years ago….

@Billy *****************

it’s usually one or the other, Billy. Who is telling you this, home office or an agent? I know it’s due to double of the yearly earnings side but, it shouldn’t have yet. The whole process is a bit of a racket. Using an agent will help your cause. In the space of 3 months, I had 2 refusals, doing it myself and then a pass, using the agent. But I used all the same information on all 3 attempts. The decision makers are outsourced to India… The agents know what those Qunts are looking for 🤷‍♂️ Someone on here should be able to recommend a good agent for the location you are… I take it Pattaya. I heard there was a good agent on soi 6… not joking 🤣🤣🤣