Mario2008

A WP most be applied for at the local labour office. But the company will, and must, help you with the process.

OP's extension was denied because they didn't considered his training to be education. Not because he was issued the wrong visa.

Not sure, but I beleive the 6 month validity of the passport only applies to entry in to Thailand, not to an extension of stay. The extension rules don't say that you can't get an extension if your passport is valid for less than 6 month. Only that you you don't get an extension for longer than the validity of your passport.

Yes you can.

I understand you volunteer in Mae Hong Son so why are you going to Bangkok? You don't need to go there to convert your visa.

I'm a volunteer my self at a government school and never have any trouble at Mae Sot for my yearly extensions. (In fact if I forget something I can simply mail it to them and already get my stamp). I believe a very helpful officer from Mae Sot now works at Mae Sai. He does volunteer work himself and is very helpful. Don'y know about Chiang Mai, but I understood there was a woman a while ago who also converted her visa there and didn't have any problems.

Documents do need to be signed by the director of the school and you would also need a letter from the director of the educational zone. You also will need a work permit.

He already went there and they turned him down.

Op can try to go again with someone of the school or have someone of the school contact immigration and let the school try and sort it out in Thai. But most likely he will have to get a new visa.

A Thai embassy or consulate will always be outside Thailand.

On a non-immigrant you can only get an extension of stay for 7 days, besides the extension for one year.

Going to the Foreign Office won't do you good, as that is not the problem. The problem is that immigration doesn't consider your training school as education.

Not sure if you could try again somewhere else with the help of the school. Otherwise your best option would be to get a new nonimmigrant visa with a letter from te school.

Edit:

you have a signle non-immigrant and can only apply once for permisison to enter. You need to go to an embassy or consulate for a new visa. You won't have any problems with that.

A visa is nothing more than a permission to knock on the door and ask for entrance to Thailand. OP already has his permision to stay in Thailand and can change his reason to stay to education without the need to go the the Foreign Office in Bangkok. Ohter posts also suggest he can just ask for an extension of stay based on study.

Same goes for the border at Mae Sod, you just pay the fee. No need to change money.

Visa run? Don't you mean a border run (leaving Thailand and comming right back)? A visa run is when you leave Thailand to get a new visa at an embassy or consulate.

You would need all the doucement needed for an extension of stay. That is not only a WP and a letter from the school. But a lot of the papers you need will be the same as you will need for the WP. Your employer should know how to do the paperwork and you can always contact both labour office and immigration.

For the conversion you will have no problems at Chiang Mai.

On any visa you can study, but OP needs an extention of stay based on study.

He doesn't need a change of visa, as he has a valid non-immigrant. A change of visa is onluy required when you are on a visa exempt entry or tourist visa and want to convert to a non-immigrant visa.

You can ask for an extension up to one month before your permisison to stay expire. Don't wait till te last day, in case they wan to see some documents you might have forgotten or didn't know about. In worse case when you are turned down you would need time to get another visa from another country.

You are arriving without a visa, so according to the rules you should have a ticket out of Thailand within 30 days.

Better keep an eye on the escalation of tension between Cam. and Thailand. Thailand has adviced it's citizens to leave Cambodia.

Yes they do and I belive OP should have gotten a ED-visa, but if it realy matters is something else.

Getting an extension on the basis of education is more difficult than for other reasons. You will probably have to report at immigration every 90 days with a letter confirming yu are still training. But extensions for education is not something know a lot about. Especialy in the OP case. Better get advice from someone with more experience.

Your school should know the procedure.

I am trying to pin down the correct information when applying for a non-immigrant o visa. Are you only able to get this visa if you are married to a Thai national? I am looking to do volunteer work there and want to apply for the non-immigrant o multiple entry visa. Is that even an option if I'm not married to a Thai national?

Also do you have to purchase an airline ticket before applying for a visa or can you apply for a visa even though you haven't pinned down an exact date to leave? And when should you start the application process? I'm looking at going in January. Is it too soon to start applying for the visa? And is it better to go to a Thai consulate in person to apply for the visa or can I just do it by mail?

I'm sorry for all the questions and appreciate anyone's help!

You can get a non-O visa based on volunteerwork. What you need is a letter from the registered charity where you will be doing volunteerwork. With this letter conforming that you will do volunteerwork you can go to a consulate and apply for a non-immigrant O visa. Not sure of they will give you a multiple non-O for volunteerwork, In all likely hood they will just give you a single non-O for 90 days.

In Thailand you have to apply for a work permit with the help of the registered charity (or government organisation) and you can apply for an extension for one year at the immigration office.

Make sure the organisation wil help you with the work permit, as even for volunteering you will need one. Also inquire if the organisation will help you with an extension of stay for one year. (Most organisations won't do this as they don't know how to go about).

When you enter Thailand you get a permission to stay stamp, telling you to wich date you can stay in the country. With a re-entry permit you can leave Thailand and come back again and still have your permission old permission to stay.

So when you entered Thailand on 1 Ovt. and would be allowed till 1 Dec, with a re-entry permit you can leave Thailand and come back again and still be allowed to stay till 1 Dec, without the need for a new visa.

1.90 day count strarts on the the day you first enter Thailand.

2. Count gets reset on the date you make application for extension.(Why? Because you gave address on TM7 and had contact with immigration and they put a stamp in passport with that date.)

3. Leave Thailand and return count restarts on date you enter.

4. Make application for extension count gets reset again from date of application.

5, Make application for extension count gets reset again from date of application unless you do 3 in between.

And on and on and on. (except for 1 unless you drop visa extensions)

Only the first application of an extension of stay counts as a 90 day report.

It does. But you reset the clock again when you do your first, and only your first, aplication for an extension of stay.

You have to apply to your local immigration office. Bangkok is now strictly enforcing that rule, most other immigration offices are less strict (for now).

Do not appply for a visa on arrival and ignore the signs for that one. You qualify for a visa exempt entry, which is soemthing else and is free.

You will have no problem getting cash from the many ATM's in Thailand.

The airport tax is nowadays included in the ticket. Passengers do no longer pay it at the airport.

You reset the clock when you leaf Thailand. The 90 days start ticking from zero the day you re-enterd Thailand.

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en/base.php?page=90days

Scroll the text down. The rule is at the bottom, in the notes.

If you already have a school for the kids than with a letter from the school you can secure a non-immigrant visa for the children based on their education. You yourself could in fact also get a visa as their dependent once they have an extension of stay to one year. But you would need to show 500,000 THB in a Thai bankaccount for 3 months and the same goes for your husband making it 1 million.

If you want to study and now where you will get your TEFL you can contact them. They might provide you with a letter stating you will study with them giving you your own non-immigrant based on education. They might even offer you a job on paper so you could apply for a non-immigrant based on employment.

You can read it here:

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en/base.php?page=90days

Read the note under the information.

Officialy they could also check if you have a return ticket within 30 days and if you have enough cash. Never heard about they checking cash at the airport and the return ticket you have.On board the airplane you will get a form you will have to fill in, and togehjter with your passport that is it.

You will be fine just have a nice holliday.

Immigration will give you a stamp till the date your current passport is valid (Aug 2009). In due time you apply for a new passport. With the new passport you go to immigration and they will transfer your permission to stay and other details to your new passport. They will also give you the rest of your one year permission to stay (till Jan. 2010).

The procudure for tranferring everything to your new passport is free.