eppic

I appreciate the input, and it should be obvious that a child on LTR visa can attend school, but the school has a government liaison officer with direct contact that indicates otherwise. I'll be in BKK in a week so will stop by the BOI office to see if they can assist. FYI, not that it's reliable, but an AI query indicated that a child dependent CANNOT attend with just the LTR - not sure what their source was. In any case, I'm still back to the required ED visa $2k in bank question that was my original query. No response to that and local embassy is impossible to contact.

Of course I have been through this at length with the school, which is one of the big 3 in BKK. It makes no sense that a child on a 10 yr dependent visa cannot even attend school, but the school insists that is the stance of the Thai authorities. Bizarre, but that is their position so ED visa is the only alternative.

Hey all, we're moving back to Thailand from Philippines and plan to get an ED visa for our child (we will have LTR, but told by school that child cannot attend on LTR). We expect to apply for ED e-visa utilizing the Manila embassy, but a requirement popped up for US$2K in bank for three months before applying. I had not expected this and all of my money is in brokerage accounts. In the past for most visas, I know brokerage accounts (even with cash balance and immediate access) were not accepted. Does anyone know if that is also the case for ED visas? The $2k in bank is so small as to be pointless (Tuition is bt 1mil/yr), but I'm sure they won't overlook it. Any experience here on this issue (ideally Manila)? The embassy makes it impossible to ask them directly. Thanks.

Actually, this is not completely accurate (we moved to Phils from BKK a few months ago). Bank rules vary slightly, but its pretty universal that you do have to be a resident and in fact they will ask for the ACR (residence card) and lease agreement. In fact, even Filipinos must have a valid written lease agreement or proof of home ownership, which is part of the reason a very large proportion of Filipinos are unbanked (cash is still king here). We spoke to several banks and I have never heard of 3-yr rule, although its possible it exists at a bank I never spoke with. In the end, I decided to not bother with getting accounts in my name -- my wife is a Filipina, so eventually (after securing apartment lease, etc.) we were able to open accounts in her name. I still can't open an account as I have no intention to get the ACR card since I can get a 12-month stamp at entry as long as I arrive with her -- very easy and puts the Thailand spouse visa (or any other visa) to shame. Bottom line, if you close the account it will be impossible to open a new one without moving here and officially stablishing residency