What embassy if friendly nowadays??

[Fritteboy]

Hello

So im looking to go out of Thailand and get my NON-ED visa with a reputable school that force 70% attendence. ( not a bad language school that just take your money and say no need to study. They been open for a long time in bangkok and good reputation. ) I have spent hours and hours of reading to find the best embassy/consulate to go get this done, but information is so outdated or not relevant at all.

 

My History :

Came to Thailand 19 january 2023 on TV. Did the extension.

Then i went to Hanoi to apply for a new TV but they refused to even take my application, told me they wont take the papers before i stayed out of Thailand for 1 month. Told me to go to Laos and try instead.

So i fly back to Bangkok and got an exemption. Then i have been using exemption from that point until a visa agent told me they could get me a Volontueer visa with work permit. So i tried to get this one, i went to Vientiane and got my Non-O 90days. After this the agent applied for the WP but it never got approved from Labour department. So i have to start using exemptions again in 2024. 

So after a lot of problem with the agent i choose to go my own way and got a refund from them and signed up for language school to learn Thai. I got all documents needed from the school, and approval from the education ministry.

So in 2023 i used :  1x SETV 90days, 1x Exemption by air 30+30days, 2x Exemption by Land ( Cambodia 30+30, 30+30), 1x Non-O 90days volontueer visa ( impossible to extend ).

in 2024 i used : 2x Exemption ( Cambodia 30+30, 30+30 )

 

Where should i got to apply for the NON-ED visa now?

Vientiena have fully booked appointments for 1month ahead.

Savannakhet seem to be hard on the 180days in a year "rule"?

Penang I read about a guy on reddit got denied 7 days ago trying to get another TV, He have alittle worse history than me.

Ho chi minh city seems to be strict but maybe dont matter when i have all document and paperwork to get a "real visa".

Phnom phen seems to be a bi strict also but i havnt read about denied visas yet.

Singapore?

Kuala lumpur?

 

I stay at girlfriends house so I dont have a lease contract but guess i have to show them my TM30 that i do.

Please help me, I feel like Im going crazy trying to find information and all of it is just seems like gambling. 

Edited April 30 by Fritteboy
pressed wrong

[Fritteboy]

My passport if from Sweden is that matters anything.

[patman30]

just ask the school which one is usually used.

[Fritteboy]

3 minutes ago, patman30 said:

just ask the school which one is usually used.

School is not a visa agent company. So they want you to apply from your home country, or have enough time on your visa to change from TV to NON-ED inside of Thailand. I didnt have enough time to transfer my visa inside of Thailand, so i have to leave and come back from embassy. And my passport history is not good so it its a lot different from someone that have only 1 stamp in passport. Thats why i asked here for a friendly embassy

[Caldera]

Tricky, especially because you've already used up your land border visa exempt entries for this year, so you risk getting stuck somewhere outside of Thailand.

 

I don't think Savannakhet applies their "180 days" rule to anything other than tourist visas, so they might be your best bet.

 

Did your school not give you any advice about where to apply? They must have other students in the same situation. 

[Fritteboy]

19 minutes ago, Caldera said:

Tricky, especially because you've already used up your land border visa exempt entries for this year, so you risk getting stuck somewhere outside of Thailand.

 

I don't think Savannakhet applies their "180 days" rule to anything other than tourist visas, so they might be your best bet.

 

Did your school not give you any advice about where to apply? They must have other students in the same situation. 

Yea since i used that Visa agent they made me do all my exemption in hope that the WP would get approved, but now i see it was just a trickery all the time to take all my visa attempts they could, since it never happened anything with the status of the WP and they refused to give me Case number to check it myself. Okey i see, i just read some visa run company refuse to take you to savannakhet if you had a volontueer visa before or if you stayed in thailand more than 180days. So it might be the best if they are only strict on tourist visa. 

It would have been the cheapest and easiset embassy for me to go since Im located in bangkok.

 

The school recomend Vientiane but first appointment possible to book is 30 may. Then i have to stay in laos for 3 weeks before i can even start apply.

[oxo1947]

With the amount of running around that you are doing---would it not be easier to go to an agent? I am up in Issan, but I know of people here who had the same problem which an agent solved for them. Have a friend who needed a long term visa for his Girlfriend (from Lao )  agent arranged a working visa for her.

[Fritteboy]

9 minutes ago, oxo1947 said:

With the amount of running around that you are doing---would it not be easier to go to an agent? I am up in Issan, but I know of people here who had the same problem which an agent solved for them. Have a friend who needed a long term visa for his Girlfriend (from Lao )  agent arranged a working visa for her.

The agents i talked with dont even want to take me to the border because of my history. Maybe you know someone better? 

Working visas for Laos people is not that hard to obtain in my experience, even my GF sister do that work for her employees. It's a bit different when its neightbor country than coming from europe

[Caldera]

42 minutes ago, Fritteboy said:

i just read some visa run company refuse to take you to savannakhet if you had a volontueer visa before or if you stayed in thailand more than 180days. So it might be the best if they are only strict on tourist visa. 

 

You could ask such a visa run company specifically if any of that is a concern when applying for an education visa.

 

That old volunteer visa in your passport could raise questions even in Vientiane, as their expectation would have been that you subsequently apply for an extension at immigration in Thailand. They might not be too happy that it didn't work out as expected and that you now try the education visa route to prolong your stay.

[pub2022]

Sorry to say but with your history none of the embassy around Thailand will be easy for you.

I am afraid that you did not find a reputable agent who could have helped you, if you still have time left then follow this way. Usually good reputable schools can also help with in-country visa conversion, but it seems you failed here as well. Maybe you did not organize your stay in Thailand that good, and now you are in a difficult situation. If you can, take your gf with you and spend 6 months in Vietnam.

[Kim Jones]

Savannaket might be your best bet. But have a plan B in case of failure. 

[klauskunkel]

Plan B: get married

[bigt3116]

As has been said, your history is a HUGE red flag, I would be surprised if any consulate in the area would entertain you with a Non-Ed. You are clearly trying to milk the system, and at some point that is gonna have to stop - and I think that moment might be now.

 

[DrJack54]

18 hours ago, Fritteboy said:

Please help me, I feel like Im going crazy trying to find information and all of it is just seems like gambling. 

You are in very poor situation.

No visa exempt entries via land available. Already used. 

 

You also have the dreaded non O based on volunteering in history.

What is your age.

Very few options.

A break from Thailand is obvious.

An PE (Elite) visa.

Marriage. 

Return to Sweden and after break obtain a METV. 

[Skipalongcassidy]

So... you did not plan well and now you are in need of special treatment... lesson here is that there are  consequences when one fxxx up... go to wherever you have to for as long as you have to... "The school recomend Vientiane but first appointment possible to book is 30 may. Then i have to stay in laos for 3 weeks before i can even start apply"... then come back but follow the rules for a proper visa to start with... You are only special in your own mind and are the reason that it has become more difficult to get visas in Thailand.  

[mstevens]

Why not just fly back to your home country Sweden and apply there?

[chippendale]

23 hours ago, Fritteboy said:

Then i have to stay in laos for 3 weeks before i can even start apply.

And what is wrong with 3 weeks in Laos? Great scenery, friendly people, laid-back lifestyle.

 

With your history of a Non-O volunteer visa, that's a major red flag that immigration officials will pounce on. You've reached the end of the road.

[Patong2021]

7 hours ago, mstevens said:

Why not just fly back to your home country Sweden and apply there?

 

Best advice so far. Going back to Sweden demonstrates that you can go home. It will help to reset the starting point. The immigration issues are almost always with the people who are hopping around to the lower income nations of Laos and Cambodia. Thai immigration isn't stupid. They can figure out when someone is trying to play the system.  It is rare to have entry problems when the visas are initiated from a homeland after a "cooling" off period. Just go back to Sweden and consider staying there for a few months to help clean your history.

[patman30]

On 4/30/2024 at 1:51 PM, Fritteboy said:

School is not a visa agent company. So they want you to apply from your home country, or have enough time on your visa to change from TV to NON-ED inside of Thailand. I didnt have enough time to transfer my visa inside of Thailand, so i have to leave and come back from embassy. And my passport history is not good so it its a lot different from someone that have only 1 stamp in passport. Thats why i asked here for a friendly embassy

🤦‍♂️

[Fritteboy]

15 hours ago, pub2022 said:

Sorry to say but with your history none of the embassy around Thailand will be easy for you.

I am afraid that you did not find a reputable agent who could have helped you, if you still have time left then follow this way. Usually good reputable schools can also help with in-country visa conversion, but it seems you failed here as well. Maybe you did not organize your stay in Thailand that good, and now you are in a difficult situation. If you can, take your gf with you and spend 6 months in Vietnam.

Well the agent that i used that had good reputation is the one that put me in this position also. They advice about this and that and you take that route, but then it end up backfire and you end up with more stamps and more weird red flags in your passport than if i did it all myself from the start.

If i did it myself i would been on ED visa last year for 12month instead of even trying an volontueer visa that my agents advice is the best and easiest way to stay. So after using agent this is where i got. I have a reputable school just like i wrote in the post, they force you to go to class and have been in business since early 2000. Its also stated that they would fix the visa inside of thaialand if i had more time then my 30+30 ( - sonkran holidays ).

People talk about these "good" agents but i cant find any recommendation or a a name or anything. I guess they are hiding well. 

[Fritteboy]

9 hours ago, Kim Jones said:

Savannaket might be your best bet. But have a plan B in case of failure. 

Yea i will go to savannakhet next week and we will see how they are treating me, Will post an update here later! 

[Fritteboy]

8 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

Plan B: get married

Working on that already, but will take a little longer then expected

[Fritteboy]

8 hours ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

So... you did not plan well and now you are in need of special treatment... lesson here is that there are  consequences when one fxxx up... go to wherever you have to for as long as you have to... "The school recomend Vientiane but first appointment possible to book is 30 may. Then i have to stay in laos for 3 weeks before i can even start apply"... then come back but follow the rules for a proper visa to start with... You are only special in your own mind and are the reason that it has become more difficult to get visas in Thailand.  

Well there is a lot of stuff that i haven't posted here that made it become like this, my plan was to go back to Sweden in November. Special treatment? I have not asked for special treatment, i have asked for a friendly embassy. I know the rules and i know the consequences. Saying that i am the reason for visa becoming more strict in Thailand is very very far fetched. This problem started waaaay before i even enter thailand first time.

[Fritteboy]

8 hours ago, mstevens said:

Why not just fly back to your home country Sweden and apply there?

Then we looking at air plane tickets for about 40-60k bath. If i had 1 more week on my visa they would have transferred it inside of Thailand no problem. So i just want en less strict embassy and do a short trip, since i have all documents in order 

[Fritteboy]

1 hour ago, chippendale said:

And what is wrong with 3 weeks in Laos? Great scenery, friendly people, laid-back lifestyle.

 

With your history of a Non-O volunteer visa, that's a major red flag that immigration officials will pounce on. You've reached the end of the road.

I been to laos for 1 week before, its not my scene. So staying 3 weeks up there is not my priority or pleasure.

Yea that volunteer visa is the one that scare me, with only exemptions and 1 TV i wouldn't hesitate to go any embassy. I should never have listen to an agent about taking that. It was suppose to be for 9-12months for the volunteer, but only lasted 3 months because of agent.

[Fritteboy]

1 hour ago, Patong2021 said:

 

Best advice so far. Going back to Sweden demonstrates that you can go home. It will help to reset the starting point. The immigration issues are almost always with the people who are hopping around to the lower income nations of Laos and Cambodia. Thai immigration isn't stupid. They can figure out when someone is trying to play the system.  It is rare to have entry problems when the visas are initiated from a homeland after a "cooling" off period. Just go back to Sweden and consider staying there for a few months to help clean your history.

Yea maybe it would been good to go back for a while to reset. But price with air ticked and build a "home" over there again just to fly back a few months back doesn't feel appealing to me. I will try my best to come into the country again and use sweden as my plan F. Im not one of them that have an house standing waiting in sweden and a bank account with millions of bath, i am young.

[Fritteboy]

Im going to Savannakhet next week to apply for my NON-ED visa over there. With this topic i was hoping for some people with recent experience about different embassy and get a feel where it would be "easier". I already know that my passport look f*cked up and that stuff didnt go according to plan ( Yes there was a plan from the beginning, even if many of you seem to not think so ). Sometimes you have to improvise and do the best of the situation.

 

I will update after Savannakhet how it went.

[Gottfrid]

33 minutes ago, Fritteboy said:

Working on that already, but will take a little longer then expected

Yep, some people do anything to be able to stay. 😂

As answer to you question, all embassies are friendly if you do not come with a dirty history.

[Fritteboy]

3 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

Yep, some people do anything to be able to stay. 😂

As answer to you question, all embassies are friendly if you do not come with a dirty history.

Not sure they are that friendly with no dirty history, i went to Hanoi Vietnam with 1 TV in my passport and NO other stamps at all. Stayed there a few days before apply, had all paper that was required and even more but still they refuse to look into my application. This rule that they had that you need to be out of Thailand for 1 month before apply a visa, i asked them for some official papers on this. They showed me a printed A4 paper with big letters : "Have to stay out of thailand 1 month before apply for a new visa". 

So no dirty history and still not friendly, i would never recomend anyone to go to hanoi for a visa after my experience there.

They gave me my visa fee back that was a little friendly, but i wouldnt called them friendly anyway.

[DrJack54]

4 hours ago, Fritteboy said:

Yea i will go to savannakhet next week and we will see how they are treating me,

If refused visa at Savannakhet how do you plan to reenter Thailand.

Think you have used 2 visa exempt via land.

Last resort suggest flight to CNX try to enter visa exempt via airport. 

Basically time to leave Thailand.

You mentioned that you are young.

Spend time in Vietnam.

You are also visa exempt entry there