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1) Move out of California. You're not going to have a good time getting one there. California hates assault weapons. California hates high-capacity magazines. California hates Class III weapons (I assume that you want a fully automatic capable Thompson, thus making it a Class III weapon).
2) Establish residence in a state that isn't so very anti-gun. Nevada comes to mind.
3) You may very well have to become a US Citizen. I'm far from a Class II expert, but in these times, it may be right difficult for a non-citizen to obtain Class II licensing.
4) Save your pennies up. Regular semi-auto Thompsons from Auto-Ordnance aren't cheap. They run between $800-1000 with one stick mag. The drum being a coupla hundred extra IF you can find 'em. An original Thompson will be obscenely expensive.
Now, speaking of Nevada, I went to a coupla the ranges in Las Vegas the last time I was there. LV's gun laws aren't too harsh on shops that want to rent out class III weapons for use on their own internal ranges. One of the shops I went to had a Thompson with drum that you could rent. Again, not cheap, but it will allow you to experience full-auto without having to shell out the obscene money assuming you can locate an original Thompson. Then you can likely comfort yourself with owning the modern, and far less expensive, semi-auto version.
Good luck, and check with your local legal types before you do anything. I am only going off of what I know, which is a smattering of local (Virginia, in my case) and Federal laws regarding Class III weapons. Your best bet is a local police officer or lawyer.
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