Brad88

Sharing a truly frustrating experience here that caused much wasted time, energy, and money relating to the Thai Consulate in Osaka, Thai Embassy in Tokyo, and Thai immigration policy.

Round One
Contacted the Thai Embassy in Tokyo in January 2020 to inquire about what specific visa to apply for to enter the Kingdom. Told to apply for an RS visa as a researcher. Host university in Thailand then provided a letter for an RS visa.

Traveled from Nagoya and applied for the RS visa at the Thai Osaka Consulate in January 2020 and was told suddenly to apply for an ED (education) visa instead. Very confusing after being told to apply for an RS visa by the Tokyo Thai Embassy. Contacted host university in Thailand again and received a new letter for an ED visa. Returned to Osaka Consulate and was granted a 3-month visa in February 2020. Was not able to get a flight to Thailand during the time of ED visa validity (this was understandable and could not be helped, of course, due to COVID-19).

Round Two
Gathered all the documents to apply for a Certificate of Entry (COE) and for a new visa to enter Thailand in September 2020 and made flight reservation according to the steps outlined on the Thai Embassy webpage.

After submission, was contact by telephone from the Osaka Thai Consulate and was told that I also now need to ask my sponsoring university in Thailand to contact the Thai Ministry of Education to get special permission for research. This was shocking to hear. There had been no information published on the Thai website that mentioned a need to also apply to the Thai Ministry of Education as part of the ED visa process. This had not been needed when I applied for and received my original ED visa in February 2020. Very confusing and frustrating. Furthermore, the lady whom I spoke with on the telephone from the Thai Consulate admitted that this lack of clear information on the Thai Consulate website is a problem. However, there was no apology and I was left hanging. After that I lost my will to continue any further. Too much time had already gone by and my window to go abroad to conduct my research was to narrow to keep trying to get the visa.

These experiences resulted in great losses of time, energy, and money in ways that have impacted my university here in Japan, the university in Thailand, and myself. Very stressful dealing with such incompetence and lack of professionalism. Sorry for anyone who has or will be in a similar situation here. Before closing, I want to say thanks for listening. I tried to make this less about a rant and more about the facts, though there is some of both here. Sigh... .