Convert Non-IB business visa to ED visa (covid19)

[Sven1785]

Hi,

 

I have lost my employment and my current employer is cancelling my work permit and non-IB visa end of this year (presumably 31/12/2020).

 

I want to do an MBA now in Bangkok, as I do not want to leave this beautiful country. 

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to convert my visa into an ED visa without moving onto a tourist visa, going outside the country and hoping to come back in 2021.

 

I read somewhere that there was a way to keep staying on a Non immigration visa and just to convert the purpose of stay from "Work" to "Education" without leaving. 

However I am not quite sure how this would work if my employer is cancelling the underlying Visa end of December. 

 

Kind regards, Sven 

[jackdd]

Your employer can't cancel it, but assuming that you got an extension based on working, immigration will cancel it when you quit your job.

You have to get the required documents from the university, and apply for an extension based on studying, so that this extension starts on the day when your extension based on working gets canceled. You should coordinate this with your local IO.

Afaik the new semester started recently, so it might be problematic to enroll at an university in the next few months, because you would probably have to wait for the next semester.

[Sven1785]

9 minutes ago, jackdd said:

Your employer can't cancel it, but assuming that you got an extension based on working, immigration will cancel it when you quit your job.

 

Hi, thanks for your response to my topic. What do you mean they can not cancel it? The HR lady informed me that the company will cancel my WP and Visa to the end of December 

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, Sven1785 said:

Hi, thanks for your response to my topic. What do you mean they can not cancel it? The HR lady informed me that the company will cancel my WP and Visa to the end of December 

Your employer can cancel the WP. 

You would need to go to immigration the day your work officially-ends to cancel your permitted-stay based on work - and that is when you would need to have the paperwork ready to apply for your next permitted-stay.

Whether immigration will approve w/o an agent's brown-envelope - or say, "You must go out for a new visa" - is down to the office/greed - but nothing in the law that prevents doing what I described. 

In general, a "real" university, vs a language-school, will afford better treatment (fewer agent-money tricks) from Immigration.