I'm looking for advice for my daughter. She has been living in Phuket training on a swim scholarship since April, 2023. She needed to go home to get her passport renewed and is on her way back. Before she left Thailand, the training center told her she needed get a DTV to return. She flew to Laos and had the training center invitation letter and letter of support; however, she was denied as they said the letter of support was not enough and she had to have the 500,000 baht in her account. The training center continues to argue with us that they do not have to have the 500,000 baht. But we've had the same issues with Beijing embassy and Los Angeles (via email enquiries). We do not want to keep paying to fly her to different embassies and getting her DTV denied. She is currently coming back to Phuket on visa exempt (US passport) and then will try to find the best option for a longer term visa once she gets here. So my questions are:

1. Is the DTV the best visa for her to be on for training or is there a better option?

2. Is a letter of support from the training center enough?

3. If DTV is the best option, which country should I fly her to for that?

Thank you for any advice or recommendations you can give?

I need to renew my UK Passport as it expires August next year. (My retirement Visa expires May next year. Any advice on who to use, and has anyone used Mythaivisa.

Are there any Americans in this group who've bought a new passport in Chiang Mai?

Mine is getting full (4 blank pages left) and I'd like to get a new one, but I'm not sure it's worth it to do this in Thailand. According to the website for the US embassy in Thailand, it looks like they will have to transfer my Thai visas and entry/exit stamps to the new passport. I'd rather have a fresh passport with all blank pages.

Obviously, this isn't urgent with existing blank pages. However, I have no plans to go back to the US to get one there. I will be in other countries in SE Asia in the coming year. I'm also happy to hear suggestions for doing this in other countries if anyone has had experiences outside of Thailand.

Hi there, I need to apply for a new UK passport as my current one has run out of pages; therefore there is no space for any more visas. I am currently in Chiang Mai and have a non-immigrant O visa which expires on the 10th January. I understand that I need to travel to Bangkok for my application. If I apply for my new passport ASAP (I believe early next week would be the soonest for the appointment) would I get it back in time before my visa expires and if not, would this then be a problem? Any advice you have would be very helpful!