<commercial link removed>

i found this.up to 3 years.

really serious?

Yes, but they use the term “non-immigrant ‘ED’ visa with a validity of one year” wrongly.

A non-immigrant ‘ED’ Visa with a validity of one year would be a multiple-entry non-ED visa valid for an unlimited number of entries in Thailand within one year from the date of issue of the visa.

In the scenario described in the linked web page, the student would get a single-entry non-ED visa, then obtain repeated 90-day extensions of stay for as long as his continues his studies but apparently for a maximum of 3 years.

The only part where the one-year period comes into play in the school's offer is the advance payment for the language course. By enrolling for one year, ie paying the school fee in advance for one year, and attending the required minimum number of classes he is assured of a continuous stay in Thailand for one year without having to leave Thailand during this period, just applying for an extension of stay every 90 days.

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Maestro

With an extremely dodgy student schedule such as this:

How often will I attend the class?

- One day a week - 3 hours

....one wonders how long before the Ed Visa avenue of staying in Thailand is completely eliminated. It's shyster schools like this that will prompt it.

The minimum requirements to qualify for extension of stay were mentioned in another thread a while back and if I remember correctly it was 4 hours per week, 180 hours per year. This, I believe is the minimum that the language course has to offer.

Next comes the minimum attendance requirement. I think I saw this mentioned once but cannot remember it. 60%?

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Maestro

With an extremely dodgy student schedule such as this:

How often will I attend the class?

- One day a week - 3 hours

....one wonders how long before the Ed Visa avenue of staying in Thailand is completely eliminated. It's shyster schools like this that will prompt it.

It won't be very long at all. I hear that Immigration are looking into it right now.

If you're serious about studying Thai, I think 10 or 12 hours per week is a minimum to progress at a reasonable speed. I am afraid the new visa rules will make it hard for the genuine students to get a visa.

When rules are misused Thai immigration doesn't check more strict on misuse, they just tighten the rules, making life a hel_l for everyone.

For instance, before there were a lot of fake marriages (for obtaining a visa), and a lot of people that hided their income and didn't pay tax here. So Thai immigration decided that married people younger that 50 have to pay tax on an income of 40K/month, instead of checking more strictly. This make life hard for the couples that don't get 40K (and don't need 40K). Those couples, who are already on a tight budget, now have to travel all around a lot, just to be able to stay together.

Any school that uses "obtaining a visa" to promote their educational program is in my opinion working towards their own closing and is making life hard for other genuine students. I think it's also a bit strange that a website supposed to support people with their visa problems, is showing advertisement for similar schools (even though these schools might or not might offer a good education).

All the abuse of the visa regulations by "language" schools and the people who take these routes to stay in Thailand is most unfortunate. Like one said, makes it more difficult for "genuine" students to study here. One option, but would require too much work for immigration to implement, would be to give a short oral/written test to all these new people who all of a sudden have this interest in studying the Thai language. When they come in to extend their ED visas...give them an appropriate test for the time they have been supposedly studying Thai

If you're serious about studying Thai

I don't think anyone applying to this specific school and any number of similar schools is serious about studying Thai. It's all about the visa.... and it's a visa that I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see disappear soon.