Hi, everybody,

I know applying and living in Thailand on religious grounds is not popular topic since not many people do that sort of visa, hence, not much can be found in the Forum chats. Does anyone know what is involved into getting a visa on religiuos grounds OTHER than Buddhist studies/monastery/monkhood. To who this type of visa is applicable - priests? Nuns? Else?

If anyone has any knowledge on this, I would greatly appreciate your kind help

now thats a tough one,you'd probably have to do it through your religious organisation back home.

Missionaries also use the visa.

Missionaries also use the visa.

The Rule for a 12 month extension of stay to be a missionary.

2.14 In the case of a missionary:

Permission will be granted for a period of not more than 1 year at a time.

(1)

The alien has obtained a temporary visa (NON-IM)

(2)

Confirmation has been given by the Religious Affairs Department of by the National Buddhism Office

(3)

Confirmation and request has been made by the religious organization at which the applicant is stationed.

The visa would be a non immigrant R. See the following webpage for requirements.

http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2482.php?id=2489

For an extension of stay it would be 2.14 of the police order.

police_order_2008.pdf

If you're talking about missionary visa, my friends tried that as they were working for a church but got the run around because they wanted them to be able to speak Thai already, which they couldn't.

They must not be that hard to get because the last time I was at Suan Plu Immigrations in Bangkok it looked like a mormon convention in Salt Lake City Utah. There were easily 50-75 mormons standing around to extend their visas. Conversely there were also a LOT of monks getting their visa extended as well, so it is done, by quite a few people routinely.

That visa shouldn't be hard to get from the US or UK thai consulate. However, changing the status of your current visa, or converting a 30-day visa exempt stamp into a Non-Immigrant Type O for religious purposes might be tricky and need some documentation from what ever religious organization you're affiliated with.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.