Ed Visa For Grandfather ?

[Prajak]

A farang run company in Pattaya offers an ED visum for those who can not meet the income of money-in-the-bank demands for other kinds of visa. Minimum age 16 years of age. The promise a one year visa, to be renewed 4 times. You must be subscribed to a Government licensed school and learn Thai or English or whatever.....

A good option ??

How will the Thai Authority respond when 50-plus people escape the strict rules about retirement. Could this be considered improper use of the ED visa ? And the end of the ED visa for real students ?

Anyone ?

[ubonjoe]

They would not turn down an ED visa/extension because you could qualify for another type of extension.

I think that there are other people that are doing the same thing.

You probaly will not get a one year extension. Normally immigration will only give back to back 90 day extensions that cost you 1900 baht each time that is not included in what you pay for tuition for a year of study (about 29,000 baht).

[monty]

They would have no problem giving and honoring the visa.

As long as the person is actually studying, there is no problem and you stay within the law.

The minimum is 150 hours/year, practically with holidays etc this works out to 4 hours/week.

You actually have to attend as with each 90 day extension (at your local immigration office, 1900 baht) you have to show paperwork from the svhool proving attendance. The schools normaly won't give you that paper if you do not attend!

[MacWalen]

You probably mean the Walen School of Thai. We indeed offer ED visas to our students. It is not expensive, only 27,900 for over a year that can be renewed for many years. It is not difficult to get, you do not need any money in the bank. We have about a 1,000 students at this time between our schools in Bangkok and Pattaya. Soon opening a school in Chiang Mai which will be able to help students residing there or moving there.

We are located right next to Carrefour in Soi Yune. The best is to come and visit us in person and talk to our staff and students who already obtained ED visas.

Attached the picture of our school in Pattaya

Walen School of Thai - What a delight!

www.thaiwalen.com

[Prajak]

I did not mean any school particularly. Just read in a forum that IF you are not able to get a retirement visa (income, money rules) THAN you can escape by subscribing to a school and get a year Ed visa, max 5 years I read. In this forum people talk about 50+ farang.

I am convinced that schools are usefull for students from abroad. I am not convinced that the Thai Authority will accept that grandfathers go to school (or just say so) to avoid Thai visa laws.

You know what happened after Oct 06. More regulations and after that, more visa runs. So there came the 90 d rule. And now there is this 15 d rule. If the ED visa is used as an escape for grandfathers the authority might block this kind of visa or set a maximum age.

I understand that some people try to find an escape route. But the answer might be that we again get new visa regulations.

I have a retirement visa and do not live in a region where there is that kind of school or university. Fortunately, I do not need it.

[MacWalen]

I can only talk from experience and if you read various threads on thaivisa you will see that our school is always giving credible information regarding ED visas, we consider ourselves specialists in this particular visa category. When I tell you that over 50 is no problem to become a student and obtain an ED visa I base it on my experience having a lot of over 50 students.

If anything changes I will be one of the first to know. But as it stands at the moment being over 50 is no problem at all. We return the money if we cannot get you an ED visa for learning Thai. We can also arrange for an ED visa for learning English.

So again, I would like to ensure anyone who will come across this thread that so far ED visa for over 50 students is no problem.

Walen School of Thai - I feel so refreshed!

www.thaiwalen.com

Edited May 14, 2009 by macwalen

[Maestro]

Prajak, you are getting it all wrong. When a foreigner qualifies for more than one type of extension of stay he is free to choose which type to apply for.

There have been posts by members who qualify for both the marriage and the retirement extension saying that some immigration officers prefer to do the retirement extension because this means less work for them, but when the foreigner could not meet the higher financial requirements for the retirement extension or for another reason preferred the marriage extension the immigration officer gave the marriage extension without a problem.

With the education extension, no member has ever reported that an immigration officer questioned why an application was made for that extension instead of another type of extension for which the foreigner would also qualify. At any rate, there is no age limit for studying Thai or any other subject and it is beyond me why you should think that a person over 50 years old studying Thai and applying for the education extension does so “to avoid Thai visa laws”. And you are wrong to think that a foreigner can get the education extension just by saying that he is studying Thai. The Immigration Bureau and the Ministry of Education have strict controls in place to prevent that. Therefore, your fears that the use of the education extension by foreigners over 50 could result in stricter requirements for your retirement extension are misplaced.

--

Maestro

[Prajak]

Glad to hear Maestro. I hope you are right. Thanks for your explanation.

[CWMcMurray]

As long as you are studying then you are a stundent and qualify... This is not dishonest or looked at as "finding a loop hole" in any way.

What would be dishonest would be getting or trying to get an education visa without studying.