Changing Tourist Visas to Ed Visas

[allstarplayer090]

As on November last year I was working in Phuket Thailand. I am an American citizen and 33 years old. I left Thailand in November 2017 and returned to the USA until August of this year. I applied for a 60 day tourist visa and returned to Thailand for those 2 months. After that I left for Vietnam and lived there for 2 months. I returned to Thailand 2 days ago and immigration gave me a very difficult time entering the country. At this juncture I would like to get an education visa.

However, I am worried that when I leave the country to change my visa immigration at the airport will not allow me into the country. A language school said that I could pay 15,000 baht to have it done at immigration and therefore not leave the country. However, I am skeptical to believe this as it is most certainly a bribe. Furthermore, I have a friend who had a similar situation regarding too many tourist visas. She applied for an education visa and was denied and forced to leave the country.
Thanks for and help and advice.

 

[ubonjoe]

With your history of visas and entries I see no reason for you to have a problem entering the country with a non-ed visa.

Just be sure you have 20k baht to show if asked.

Immigration normally will not do a change of visa status to a non immigrant visa entry if attending a language school. You can be sure an agent will be involved to do the change and some of the 15k baht will a bribe to somebody.

 

[chromaflare]

I got a one year education visa for Phuket last March.

I arrived on standard tourist visa December 2017, had that extended at Immigration for 30 days (1900 baht), then did a border run to Myanmar to get another 30 days.

Towards the end of the 30 days, I signed up to a language school in Phuket (28,000 baht/year) who arranged all the paperwork I needed for a ED visa. They also arranged for a seat on the visa run bus to the Thai embassy in Malaysia (5000 baht including hotel overnight).

Took the van to Penang, all the paperwork, passport and bank statement showing 30,000 baht. Came back next day with Non-Imm ED visa for 1 year, renewed every 3 months at Phuket Immigration (2000 baht).

I have class once a week for an hour and a half. Every few months, Immigration visit the school and ask us a few simple questions, to check that we're actually learning something

Pretty painless, really.

When the year is up, Ill go back to Penang for another 1 year visa, which I'll renew every 3 months locally. You have to leave the country to apply for an ED visa, its not that much trouble and I'd prefer to do that than pay a 15k bribe to someone with no real guarantee of success.

[dennis123]

When your friend got denied, who exactly denied it, because you said she was forced to leave the country so it can't be immigration in another country that denied it right?

[ubonjoe]

9 minutes ago, chromaflare said:

I got a one year education visa for Phuket last March.

You only got a single entry non-ed visa that allowed one 90 day entry that can be extended every 90 days at immigration up to a total stay of one year.

[AgentSmith]

5 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

You only got a single entry non-ed visa that allowed one 90 day entry that can be extended every 90 days at immigration up to a total stay of one year.

That's interesting. I always thought that any non-immigrant visa was extendible to 1 year after which only 90 day reports are necessary. But looking into enrolling into a Thai course myself I've read on multiple websites now that you need to extend every 90 days and pay the 1900 baht fee everytime. I'm pretty sure this used to be different. In fact I think the embassy in KL still states that you only really extend an ED visa once to a full year. Have they changed this rule for non-ed visas specifically?

[ubonjoe]

10 minutes ago, AgentSmith said:

That's interesting. I always thought that any non-immigrant visa was extendible to 1 year after which only 90 day reports are necessary. But looking into enrolling into a Thai course myself I've read on multiple websites now that you need to extend every 90 days and pay the 1900 baht fee everytime. I'm pretty sure this used to be different. In fact I think the embassy in KL still states that you only really extend an ED visa once to a full year. Have they changed this rule for non-ed visas specifically?

It was changed when a new police order went into effect in August of 2014.

For informal schools (language and etc) only 90 day extensions are done for a total stay of one year including the 90 day entry from the visa. After the year a new non-ed visa is required.

For formal schools such as a university one year extensions are allowed until the studies end.

[AgentSmith]

7 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

It was changed when a new police order went into effect in August of 2014.

For informal schools (language and etc) only 90 day extensions are done for a total stay of one year including the 90 day entry from the visa. After the year a new non-ed visa is required.

For formal schools such as a university one year extensions are allowed until the studies end.

Good to know! Until now I just assumed those websites are wrong.

[chromaflare]

9 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

You only got a single entry non-ed visa that allowed one 90 day entry that can be extended every 90 days at immigration up to a total stay of one year.

No, I got a one year non-imm ED visa.

[allstarplayer090]

12 hours ago, dennis123 said:

When your friend got denied, who exactly denied it, because you said she was forced to leave the country so it can't be immigration in another country that denied it right?

My friend got denied because the language school did not "make nice with immigration and their fees" to quote her directly.

[allstarplayer090]

12 hours ago, chromaflare said:

I got a one year education visa for Phuket last March.

I arrived on standard tourist visa December 2017, had that extended at Immigration for 30 days (1900 baht), then did a border run to Myanmar to get another 30 days.

Towards the end of the 30 days, I signed up to a language school in Phuket (28,000 baht/year) who arranged all the paperwork I needed for a ED visa. They also arranged for a seat on the visa run bus to the Thai embassy in Malaysia (5000 baht including hotel overnight).

Took the van to Penang, all the paperwork, passport and bank statement showing 30,000 baht. Came back next day with Non-Imm ED visa for 1 year, renewed every 3 months at Phuket Immigration (2000 baht).

I have class once a week for an hour and a half. Every few months, Immigration visit the school and ask us a few simple questions, to check that we're actually learning something

Pretty painless, really.

When the year is up, Ill go back to Penang for another 1 year visa, which I'll renew every 3 months locally. You have to leave the country to apply for an ED visa, its not that much trouble and I'd prefer to do that than pay a 15k bribe to someone with no real guarantee of success.

Thank you for the reply. It is quite helpful.

If you don't mind me asking, which school? Assuming you recommend it.

[allstarplayer090]

19 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

With your history of visas and entries I see no reason for you to have a problem entering the country with a non-ed visa.

Just be sure you have 20k baht to show if asked.

Immigration normally will not do a change of visa status to a non immigrant visa entry if attending a language school. You can be sure an agent will be involved to do the change and some of the 15k baht will a bribe to somebody.

 

Thank you. This is settling news as I was considering leaving the country for a while once my current visa expired. Doing so just to show immigration I was an active traveler and not attempting to constantly live in their country. 

I think now I can go about getting my Non-Ed visa and do a simple visa run to KL.

[ubonjoe]

7 hours ago, chromaflare said:

No, I got a one year non-imm ED visa.

If you actually had a one year visa it would be a multiple entry non-ed visa that allows unlimited 90 day entries for one year from the date of issue.

If you had a one year non-ed visa you would be leaving the country every 90 days instead of 90 day extensions you mentioned here.

17 hours ago, chromaflare said:

Took the van to Penang, all the paperwork, passport and bank statement showing 30,000 baht. Came back next day with Non-Imm ED visa for 1 year, renewed every 3 months at Phuket Immigration (2000 baht).

 

[chromaflare]

6 hours ago, allstarplayer090 said:

Thank you for the reply. It is quite helpful.

If you don't mind me asking, which school? Assuming you recommend it.

No worries at all.

The name is 'Smart Phuket Language School' and its in Kathu.

[email protected]

0614644264 & 0814763054.

[chromaflare]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

If you actually had a one year visa it would be a multiple entry non-ed visa that allows unlimited 90 day entries for one year from the date of issue.

If you had a one year non-ed visa you would be leaving the country every 90 days instead of 90 day extensions you mentioned here.

 

I don't know what 'non-ed' is, but my visa label says 'non-imm' with the category of 'ED'. Its a single entry so I'd have to get a re-entry permit if I wanted to go across the border.