I was recently offered this. Wanted to see if anyone had any experience or knowledge on whether this type of visa is legitimate?  If you have gotten one, what was your experience?

Yes, you can get Ed Visas for Muy Thai lessons

11 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

Yes, you can get Ed Visas for Muy Thai lessons

Thanks. What red flags if any should I be looking out for to ensure that it is authentic and I am not getting scammed? 

5 minutes ago, audaciousnomad said:

Thanks. What red flags if any should I be looking out for to ensure that it is authentic and I am not getting scammed? 

It the visa is offered from a school or an agency , its quite likely to be genuine offer .

Go along to the immigration office when the application is made if you are concerned 

1 hour ago, audaciousnomad said:

Thanks. What red flags if any should I be looking out for to ensure that it is authentic and I am not getting scammed? 

Pick a well established school with a good reputation.  Read some reviews about it online.  No school is going to risk ruining their good reputation to scam you.

 

1 hour ago, CorpusChristie said:

 

Go along to the immigration office when the application is made if you are concerned 

Good advise

Thanks! I am also looking into Thai language courses. Haven't decided which way to go. 

I have done Muay Thai boxing and Thai language one year courses and they are fine. Just need to go to immigration every 3 months for the extension and pay 1900 baht plus what ever the school charges for the paperwork which maybe zero or about the same.

Chiang Mai University told me I could apply for an ED visa without leaving the country. Didn't mention any extra cost. 

If you do study Thai langauge, some IO's may test your ability to speak Thai, though mine didn't.

5 hours ago, audaciousnomad said:

Thanks! I am also looking into Thai language courses. Haven't decided which way to go. 

Be aware that you need to start the application process soon.  Start talking to schools now and find out when is their deadline for applications.  I already saw one school that said today was the last day to apply to get everything done by sept 26.  

18 hours ago, audaciousnomad said:

Thanks! I am also looking into Thai language courses. Haven't decided which way to go. 

From experience i would recommend getting a visa based on the language course instead of muay thai.

 

Main reason is that there is much less difference between language schools compared to muay thai gyms. You will do fine for a year in almost any language school while the difference between gyms can be quite large meaning you might want to switch around every now and then.

 

Some gyms might not fit you well, or you have bad chemistry with a trainer (padman) or other people training there. If you get a visa from the gym you are stuck there for a year. The same can happen at language school but i rather have a classmate in language school giving me the stink eye than a fellow gym member beating me up at sparring.

 

Besides, 1 year of muay thai can quickly become too much where you exhaust yourself or get overtrained.

 

 

(Trained all around thailand since 2005 - had some great times staying long term at gyms while at others i was done after a day)

On 8/8/2020 at 12:50 PM, CorpusChristie said:

It the visa is offered from a school or an agency , its quite likely to be genuine offer .

Go along to the immigration office when the application is made if you are concerned 

Why would a visa offered by an agency "quite likely" be genuine? From a school, yes. 

Do any of you have good experiences with a Mauy Thai school in Bangkok that you would recommend?

31 minutes ago, abigfan said:

Do any of you have good experiences with a Mauy Thai school in Bangkok that you would recommend?

Avoid Pancha Farang.  555

This one is pretty cool for 50K - https://hand2handcombat.com/ed-visa-service-2/

 

I think the entire thing is run by military police so very legit.

 

Only 2 hours Sat and Sun afternoon.