ErkaStone Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Hi, first time poster so please be kind =) I have been searching for info on this forum but not found any similar thread. Me and my wife (both non-thai) have thailand elite visas. Not the family kind of elite visas where we can add a child to it but the individual 20y Elite Superiority Extension. We are currently in Thailand and our child was born in June this year. The child does not have and can not get a Thai passport. We are planning to stay mainly in Thailand for several years, but hope to be able to travel to Europe for vacation/shorter visits once (if?) the Covid situation improves. We probably will put the child in International School if we stay that long in Thailand. We are now considering what visa options we have for the child. My understanding of visa requirement for young children, please let me know if this is incorrect: - Until the child leaves Thailand for the first time there is no need to get any visa. (Maybe we will leave Thailand for the first time in May/June 2021 if possible to come back without Quarantine at that time) - In general there is no fine for overstay for young children but the child should still have a valid visa. So probably tourist visa/visa exempt for several years is not good. Visa options: - Get a 5 year Thailand Elite Easy Access for the child. After that enroll in an international school and get an education visa. - Some international schools/pre-schools/kindergartens start enrollment for 18 months old children, some from 2 years old and some from 3 years old. I have asked some of these schools via email about if it is possible to get Education Visa for a child already from that young age. Their answers are not clear so I am not sure here if this is possible or if the child needs to be older. If it would be possible from 18 months then this would seem like a nice option. No need to pay for the elite visa in this case. Questions: - Does anyone have experience with any similar situation and can give advice? - Can you think of other visa options? - Does anyone have experience of getting education visa for a very young child for international school/pre-school/kindergarten? Is it possible? Any help would be very much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubonjoe Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 52 minutes ago, ErkaStone said: Until the child leaves Thailand for the first time there is no need to get any visa. (Maybe we will leave Thailand for the first time in May/June 2021 if possible to come back without Quarantine at that time) That is correct if a child is born here. When leaving the country you will need to show their birth certificate and passport. 52 minutes ago, ErkaStone said: In general there is no fine for overstay for young children but the child should still have a valid visa. So probably tourist visa/visa exempt for several years is not good. There is no overstay fine for a child younger than 15 years old but they do get a stamp when leaving the country. Best to to get a visa and then a extension of 57 minutes ago, ErkaStone said: Get a 5 year Thailand Elite Easy Access for the child. After that enroll in an international school and get an education visa. - Some international schools/pre-schools/kindergartens start enrollment for 18 months old children, some from 2 years old and some from 3 years old. I have asked some of these schools via email about if it is possible to get Education Visa for a child already from that young age. Their answers are not clear so I am not sure here if this is possible or if the child needs to be older. If it would be possible from 18 months then this would seem like a nice option. No need to pay for the elite visa in this case. Not sure about if a Elite visa will issued to a you child. In the police order there is no minimum age for a child to get a extension for attending school. The main requirements are that the school is registered with the Ministry of Education. I have read of them being issued for preschool and kindergarten. That may be the best option in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eppic Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 As for the child education visa, we got one for our 4-yr old boy last month as he attends international preschool in Bangkok. The school head indicated that age could be a factor for younger than 4, but I can't confirm. I would suggest contacting more schools, especially some of the most well known (NIST, Patana, ISB) that would likely have dealt with this issue before. I have been told the visa isn't actually necessary to stay in Thailand (as Ubonjoe noted above, rules not enforced), but many international schools will require a proper visa of some kind to enroll the child -- not all do, so finding one that doesn't ask for a visa is another option until your child is a bit older. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErkaStone Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 Thank you for the informative reply ubonjoe, much appreciated! Regarding elite visa for a young child, I have spoken to Thailand Elite and there doesn't seem to be any problem with arranging this. So the only downside to this is the cost I think. Thank you for sharing your experience eppic! Great to know that it is at least possible to get an Education Visa for a 4-year old! I have contacted some schools via email but they replied with vague things like "it is easier to arrange a visa once the child is 6 years old" and not actually answering if it is possible to arrange from 18 months/2 years old. But I will try your suggestion of contacting some of the more well-known schools and see if they have experience. That seems lika a good approach, thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErkaStone Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 Also, I want to add that I do actually want to arrange a visa for the child. I think I am not comfortable to go with the "visa is not actually necessary/rules not enforced for children"-approach. If anyone has experience of arranging Education Visa for younger than 4 year old child it would be very helpful if you could share! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErkaStone Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 A follow-up to this thread: I did contact some of the more well-known schools about this. One of them said that they can arrange supporting documents from Nursery, when the child is 2 years old. They said that they have successfully done this in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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