I'm just starting to investigate the requirements to obtain a long term visa and one thing I thought was a basic requirement was to have some minimum amount of money in a Thai account. Anyway to have a bank account in Thailand is not such a bad idea so I went to visit two banks today, Kasikorn and SCB, in order to open an account and in both banks I got the same answer : no work permit, no account. And in both banks they told me it was a recent requirement due to some new government regulations that are supposed to prevent money laundering. My first question is is there anyway to open a bank account without having some form of long term visa ?
Second question is related to the minimum deposit, does it have to be in a Thai bank ? Or a deposit in a foreign bank is ok too ?