human88

Wow, totally forgot to give an update on what happened. So I went back to the immigration office (after my last post) and they declined it, and i returned home; for now. The changing of visa type from Tourist to Education is only granted if both conditions apply:

1) with full time study (30-40 hours a week)

2) has to be a large university like Bangkok University, etc.

I'll leave my personal views on this stipulation to myself.

As an update I finally was able to coax the school into calling the immigration office, and the school was advised (to their extreme surprise) that a border visit is not necessary. Tomorrow I will pay the school and start the paperwork, and supposedly hand-deliver the paperwork to the immigration office where the visa change will then take place. Fingers crossed, and I'll update when I have more info...

Conversion can be done for formal full time study but not at most language schools.

Does that mean some of them CAN? I'll just go to the school that CAN. Do you know which ones can?

Hello, I'm on my final tourist visa extension (day 2 of my 30 extra days) and I want to get the ED visa. Sick out of my mind about the border runs and I'll simply return to my home country before doing another border run!!!!

Can I change my tourist visa to an ED visa without a border run?

Here's what the Thai language school tells me:

The border visit MUST happen. All their students do this, regardless of what visa they are on when they apply for the school. They handle the visa paperwork for me, and once it's approved they give me the appropriate papers to use during the border visit. I go to Myanmar for 1-2 days, and return no issue. But like I said, I'm sick to death of a border run.

Here's what the Government Complex (kings 80th birthday building) workers tell me:

I asked 4 different people in different departments. Each one of them told me a border visit is absolutely not necessary. They said I can change the visa at that building, and they even gave me a paper showing that I can CHANGE my tourist visa to ED visa with no border visit. The paper in so many words says the following: Bring 2 letters from the thai language school, one from the school, one from the principal of the school, and one from the governer (governer of what, i have no idea because it simply says governer), the acceptance letter, a copy of the schools operating license, my diploma and resume.

Now that I think about it, the second option sounds a little extreme. Maybe I'll just present this document to the school and see what they say. Or maybe I can bring the document to some different schools and see if they're familiar with the process of changing the visa rather than getting a new one and doing a border visit.

So these are my two questions....

1. Anyone have experience changing tourist visa to ED visa without leaving the country?

2. If this is just too much of a headache, is it literally impossible to get ANOTHER tourist visa while in the country?

Hey original poster, I think I've got the answer you are looking for. I was living in michigan and submitted my triple entry tourist visa paperwork to the washington DC location. I got my passport back in the mail with triple entry thai visa in less than a week.

However, the lady did call me and say that I needed to include a letter on WHY I would be staying so long. I mailed that letter, but it was totally obvious that they APPROVED the visa and put it back in the mail my direction before I even mailed the letter. Cus I got the passport and visa returned to me the same day I mailed the letter. When the lady called to ask that I send the letter, she also stated something like "we dont really give triple entries without a special reason, so I'll have to ask my manager about this and call you back another day." But she never called back. Like I said, the visa just showed up a couple days later, hours after I mailed the letter.

To summarise, use the washington DC thai embassy but be ready for a little hasseling. I think the whole idea is they don't want people getting Thai visas to be such a breeze. They want you to sweat a little so that you'll respect it a little more. I've always got this feeling when it came to anything visa related with thailand. At the airport stamping, borders, etc. Still, they are great people and you're going to love this wonderful country.

Regarding the departure flight: The official rule is that you need proof you'll be leaving the country before the 60 days is up. I actually had a flight purchased and printed the receipt, but they didnt even look at it when I arrived at BKK. I heard sometimes they do, sometimes they dont. Gahh!