Student Visa For Dive Training?

[Quero]

Do any of you know how this works? What documents are needed? Whether a dive op has to be registered in some particular way in order to facilitate a student visa application?

[smartecosse]

if they are getting the visa issued in their home (western) country then a simple letter from the dive shop normally suffices

[limbos]

A simple letter/invitation and a copy of the company papers.

[Quero]

Thanks to both of you.

I also asked a paralegal, who didn't know initially, but who went to an Immigration seminar last Saturday and asked specifically. It seems that technically, student divers do not apply for student visas but rather for training visas. For completeness sake, I'll summarize what the paralegal has told me.

The dive shop has to issue a training plan with the target dates on it for a maximum of a three-month period. The paralegal needs the name and passport data of the student diver in order to produce a document that the student presents to the Thai consulate in his/her home country. In addition to that document and the training plan, the company must produce only the TAT license. All of these papers and a printout of the list of personal documents the student must take to the consulate (photo, bank statements, etc.) are then given to the student, who does the visa app him/herself in their country. The visa is renewable in-country without a visa run for those students who wish to continue their training.

Edited June 16, 2008 by mfiskong