Pattaya Visa Help is built by Tim Paemi from Jomtien. It started in 2024 as a way to give straight answers about Thailand's 12 visa pathways without an agent's incentive to push the most expensive option. Two years in, the site maps every long-stay and short-stay route with real numbers, ships free interactive tools, and pairs people with vetted Pattaya specialists when an outside hand is genuinely needed.
The numbers
- 12 visa pathways mapped — DTV, LTR, Privilege, Retirement (Non-O / O-A / O-X), Marriage, Education, Business, SMART, Media, Tourist.
- 9 free interactive tools — visa finder, cost calculator, income test, document checklist, expiry countdown, currency converter, bank checker, reminder, eligibility.
- 22+ deep-dive guides covering tax, banking, property, health insurance, TM30, 90-day reporting and the rest.
- 36 Thai-visa glossary terms explained in plain English.
- 24 hours — the reply window for every enquiry, from a real person in Jomtien.
- 0 agent commissions or referral fees. Ever.
Who runs this
Tim Paemi — founder, based in Jomtien, Pattaya. Writes every guide, builds every tool, runs every comparison on this site. Working languages: English, German, Russian, Thai. Reachable on WhatsApp at +66 96 728 6999 Monday to Saturday, 09:00–18:00 ICT.
Pattaya Visa Help is the Thailand-visa vertical inside the Pattaya Authority network — 10+ Pattaya-focused sites covering restaurants, gyms, schools, coffee shops, media and more. Personal site: timpaemi.com.
Built from real Thai visa journeys
Every page on this site is written from inside Pattaya, based on real questions from real people working through Thailand's visa system. The 12 visa pillar pages, the cost calculator, the visa-finder quiz and the comparison matrix all exist because someone walked into Jomtien Immigration with the wrong document, or paid an agent ฿35,000 for a service that should have cost ฿1,900, or got turned away at a border because nobody told them about TM30.
Four principles we don't compromise on
1. Independent — no agent commissions
We don't sell visas. We don't take referral fees or commissions from agents — ever. When we recommend Privilege over LTR, or Non-O over O-A, it's based on your situation — not what pays us most.
2. Vetted — not just listed
When we mention a Pattaya immigration agent, school, or insurer, we've checked their Thai company registration, their office presence, and their track record. The phantom-employer scams documented in our Visa Scams guide are real cases we've personally seen.
3. Pattaya-based — not hypothetical
Every guide is written from inside Pattaya. We know the queue at Jomtien Immigration on Mondays, the difference between Soi 5 and Soi 13 on Jomtien Beach, and which Bangkok Hospital Pattaya specialist takes new patients fastest. The site reflects ground truth, not a Wikipedia summary.
4. Honest about money
When Privilege Visa membership starts at ฿650,000, we say so. When O-A health insurance for a 70-year-old runs ~฿200,000/year, we say so. When the cheapest legitimate retirement path is ฿1,900/year extension fees on Non-O, we say that too — even though we can't monetise that recommendation.
How we make money
Honest answer: we charge for our own time — written visa category assessments, document-pack preparation, and hourly advisory. We do not take referral fees, commissions, or kickbacks from agents, lawyers, or anyone else. When you proceed with a visa application and want a specialist, we match you to a vetted Pattaya-based agent or lawyer and you pay them directly — we take no cut from either side. Money never influences which visa we recommend. If the right answer is "do nothing — your existing setup works," we say that, even though we earn nothing.
We also accept direct paid consultations for complex cases — multi-jurisdictional tax, blacklist removal, mixed-nationality families. Pricing on request.
The site itself is free for visitors. No paywalls, no email-gated content. The existing 22+ guides, 36 glossary terms and 9 tools stay free.
How to verify any of this
You don't have to take our word for it. Three things on the site you can check:
- Case studies — three anonymised real engagements with actual financial outcomes. We anonymise for client confidentiality; named references are available on request after engagement.
- Methodology — exactly which official sources we use for every YMYL claim on the site (Thailand.go.th, BOI, MFA, Revenue Department) and how we re-verify them quarterly.
- Changelog — every meaningful update to the site, dated. When a Royal Decree changes a tax rule, you'll see when we updated and which pages.
Get in touch
WhatsApp, email or LINE — all three reach the same person, with a reply inside 24 hours. No obligation, no commissions, no spam. Three ways to reach us →