After spending a year in Thailand, I feel the need to share what I have learned the hard way, my family never would’ve imagined the bureaucracy that we would face in this country.  However, we have accomplished what we set out to do.

First, I’m married to a dual Thai and American Citizen.  I’m American, and my daughter was born in the USA.

When we arrived in Thailand a year ago, we brought a mountain of paperwork with us. I entered on a “Non-O” Visa in which now currently requires $15K bank account balance in the United States for 3 months of bank statements. Eventually all of our paperwork will be approved and I’ll receive a marriage certificate.

We knew that our paperwork wasn’t 100%, however, what we found in Bangkok, we were not prepared for at all.

One, the Thai government doesn’t really accept American paperwork.  Changwattana is the 9^(th) circle of hell.  Your marriage certificate, birth certificate, and passport are all considered to be fake.  Any American paperwork needs to have an apostille from both your state government and then forwarded to the US State Department to have an additional apostille to certify the State apostille.  While this is a relatively simple and inexpensive process it is a lengthy one. Additionally, you’ll have to schedule a meeting with the US Embassy in Bangkok to certify that the passport (that you entered on) is not a fake. The certification is about $50. We grew sick of the bureaucracy and hired an attorney to handle the paperwork. Eventually we will have to visit an Ampur who approves the marriage visa and puts the visa extension on my passport.  This will be a happy day.

As for a Driver’s license, you will need two.  One for the motorcycle, another for the car.  They used to accept a foreign driver’s license without a test, it is my understanding that changed a few months ago.  You will have to visit a doctor to bring to the DLT, nothing more than a Blood Pressure Test.  Here’s a joke, get two health certifications from your doctor, as the DLT will only allow to use one certificate per license.

The below are services that work for us:

Health Insurance (Cigna Worldwide), family of 3, $3000 deductible, for $345 a month. Dental is included.

We planned the move for years, we maximized the Health Savings Account every year.  We use the HSA for foreign medical and dental expenses.  We could self insure at this point, but carry the insurance regardless.

We paid $40 each for a few Yubi Keys (Security Key), this helps with 2FA overseas.

We transferred all of our mail to Ipostal1, they scan your mail and upload it to the portal.  They also allow you to notarize, send mail through the internet, and send you the mail internationally if necessary.

We dumped our American phone plans, but ported them to Google Voice for free so we can keep our numbers.  I currently have 2 phone numbers attached to my 1 phone.

I keep all of my American Bank Accounts & CCs.  I have a good global mastercard with no foreign transaction fees.  I pay everything I can with my American CC and payoff with my American Bank account.  This makes life a heck of a lot easier. As the Thai banking system is a nightmare.

Thai Banks, I got lucky with the Siam Commercial Bank and they allowed me to open an account, I parked 400k Baht into a checking account as it is required for my visa. They’re very serious on bank accounts matching your phone number for some reason.

We unlocked all of our phones prior to leaving the America.  Went to a mall and received 3 AIS SIM cards, about $15 USD a month each. Why AIS? AIS Play is an app where I can watch American Football, Basketball, and soccer on the TV, NFL package is 999 Baht for the season.

We found the pollution in BKK to be too much, we all had smoker’s cough after a few months and we don’t smoke.  While it rains more in the south, we found that this was the place to live.

The food is great, the Thai people are wonderful, the infrastructure needs some work, but this is definitely a place I’ll be spending large portions of my life. AMAA.