Phillip9

8 hours ago, Phillip9 said:

The Thai PM has already stated that Thailand won't be getting rid of the quarantine until the Thai population is vaccinated.  That won't be for another year or two in my opinion.  Until then, whether you are vaccinated or not will not matter.

 

Even the best vaccine is only 95% effective.  If they just opened the country to anyone who is vaccinated, many vaccinated but still infected people would arrive daily.

Most covid tests are about 90% accurate, so they miss 1 in 10 infections.  One of the reasons a 2 week quarantine is necessary.

1 hour ago, at15 said:

Is anyone aware of an education visa company that does things online. I do not want to live in a big city to attend in person. I figure it should not be a problem in these times. thanks . 

I have an ed visa and I take classes online via zoom with a language school.  Many (maybe most) language schools offer this now.

You will have do an extension at the immigration office near your school every 90 days.  My school has a service where you can send your passport via EMS and they will do the extension for you for an extra fee.

2 hours ago, DogNo1 said:

The 95% effective rate is rather dubious.  The vaccine was not given a "challenge" trial.  The people who were vaccinated were not then exposed to the virus.  They were allowed to go about their normal lives.  Whether they were exposed to the virus is not known so their remaining uninfected could just be due to chance. The various vaccines' effectiveness could be much lower than reported.  I am curious to see detailed reports of the vaccines' trials.  

Very few vaccines or medications have been tested by challenge trials--placebo groups are used instead.  I am sure that none of the vaccines you have received in your entire life was tested with a challenge trial.  

There is zero chance they will eliminate quarantine anytime soon in my opinion.  Probably not until the majority of the Thai population is vaccinated.

Even with a 95% effective vaccine, if they just opened things up to vaccinated Americans and Europeans, with the current rate of virus transmission, there would be dozens of infected people arriving daily.

8 hours ago, petedowning75 said:

as per the email  I recieved  american passport holder can apply STV in Seoul thai embassy  -  No need to be a korean citizen or permanet resident .  

But I would suggest to please contact  seoul rte   for confirming.

It's on their website as the very first requirement to apply there.  Maybe the person who sent the email had limited english and misunderstood the question.

You also have to be a Korean citizen or permanent resident of Korea in order to apply for a Thai visa there.

5 hours ago, 2530Ubon said:

Wow... obviously he has done some research which is why he came to the right place - this forum - to ask such a question. I can't comprehend why this would bother you, if i was an American, I'd want to get out too!

 

To answer your question, yes there are several countries that will allow you live there for a year or more on a tourist visa, here are a few;

Albania

Norway (Svalbard)

Georgia

Palau

Micronesia

Equatorial New Guinea

Marshall Islands

The Bahamas (240 days without financial proof, 1 year if you can show 50k (USD) from remote working)

Also Seychelles and Philippines.   I'm sure many others.

Do you know that Thailand's borders are closed with only a few exceptions, such as if you are married to a Thai or have a job here?    The borders are closed to tourists from the USA and will likely remain closed for a very long time.

As your original post indicated, entry is currently not allowed for ED visas based on non formal schools such as language schools, so I think your chances of getting a visa and COE are zero with that route.  Don't waste any money applying.

There have been a couple of reports of people obtaining an ED visa and COE and entering Thailand recently with an ED visa from a formal, university level school, studying full time towards a degree. 

41 minutes ago, Youlike said:

Why? They 'll go in quarantine and after that they are as clean as anybody else in thailand.

There have already been 2 examples of people who went through quarantine and then later tested positive.  False negative tests are very common and some people can remain infected for longer than 2 weeks. 

4 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

After following Ubon Joe and his sage advice hes offered up all these years, if he happens to read this....

 

Curious as to your ballpark guess as to when expats could return to LOS without all these current rules-hoops.

 

Would usually be heading back to LOS before holidays here in the states and deciding on how long I have to hunker down..avoiding yearly leases on apts and using airbnbs monthly waiting for the covid travel reopenings

It is very unlikely Thailand will open to US tourists for many months, and it may still be closed this time next year.  No one knows.

Why not try a new country this year?  Many Caribbean, central, and south American countries are open to US travelers.

22 minutes ago, olfu said:

Why not to try China?

I am US citizen and have 10 year visa to China. But didnt try it this year under Covid.

A normal 10 year visa is not valid for entry into china now.  Like most of the world, china is severely restricting the people allowed to enter.

In other threads, a SK resident has been saying it has so far been impossible for Koreans to get a STV.

21 hours ago, roxnadz said:

They are not going to stop the virus by keeping the country closed forever. And they are not going to regenerate tourism by letting in 40 people on average a day.

Thais overwhelmingly would prefer to live covid free even if it means no tourists.  It may be hard for you to understand, but its their choice.

This situation won't be forever.  Probably just another year until a vaccine is widely available in Thailand.

1 hour ago, ID2020 said:

medical availability in BKK is obviously top notch, she needs a hip replacement so we thought we would get it all done in Thailand

The only thing really top notch about medical care in Thailand is the advertising and sales department.  The quality of care in any western country is much better than Thailand.

Also, the cost of a hip replacement in Thailand might surprise you.  The hip implant itself is very expense and will cost more in Thailand than in the UK.   The whole cost of the procedure in Thailand will probably be similar to what you would pay at a private hospital in the UK.

36 minutes ago, dimitriv said:

I also don't get it. Every tourist arriving with Covid and a $100k health insurance means $$$ for the hospitals.

 

I would say: Support the Thai economy and take Covid with you!

You would risk infecting the airline, immigration, hotel and hospital staff that would be interacting with you.  None of those employees have any desire to take that risk.

2 hours ago, Jackson B said:

When I asked the IO at CW this exact question last month, I was told that ONLY university courses would be considered for an ED visa. I decided there was not enough time to organise the paperwork etc. so opted for the Non-O instead.

That is certainly not true if you are already in Thailand on a visa exempt or tourist visa entry.  I personally got an ed visa recently based on attending a language school.  Many many others have done the same.  A lot of  language schools were arranging this a couple of months ago.  But it still takes considerable time to arrange the paperwork.

Many universities offer intensive Thai language courses which are considered formal and in theory should qualify you to enter Thailand if you enroll.  One such example is the Center for Thai as a Foreign Language, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.  There are many others.  

These courses involve a lot more time and effort than your typical easy language school classes.  

21 hours ago, onebir said:

Ah what's the situation for Turkey?

With winter coming soon, which will dramatically worsen the already increasing cases, it is best to stay away.  They will be back on full lockdown in a month or two.

I have a US passport and recently got an ed visa here in Thailand with no problems.  I have met several others from the USA who have also got visas here.

On 9/23/2020 at 1:09 AM, Dellamorte said:

Today I booked air tickets out of Thailand (Bangkok - Vienna) with Austrian Airlines (via Gotogate.com) on Sunday 27th. Just hours later I received a mail from the travel agency with the following message:

 

"Your flight(s) has unfortunately been affected by the situation with Covid-19.
 
Due to the airline's changes you can no longer travel as planned on your original itinerary."

Fyi, The flight that was the subject of this thread was never cancelled, and it flew as scheduled.  The OP's problem was with the booking agent he choose which could not actually issue the ticket they sold him.  No flights to Europe are being cancelled with short notice anymore.

50 minutes ago, impulse said:

I suspect they requested letters from embassies to determine whether the long stayers were wanted for crimes back home as opposed to whether their country was locked down.  The latter would be well known to the Thai government.  But Thailand has no way of knowing whether a foreigner is a fugitive murderer or a pedo.  Their embassy should be able to link their passport number to the criminal database back home. 

You are drastically overestimating the amount of work the embassies put into issuing these letters.  At least in the case of the US embassy, the process was completely automated and they didn't appear to be doing any checks at all.  They didn't even check if the person was a US citizen.  They would send a letter to anyone who entered any information, even if the name and passport number were not a real US citizen.