Why Get A Student Visa?

leosmith · November 29, 2009

I'm sure there are some advantages I don't know about, and I'm curious.

I started thinking about this when I was reading the "Best Thai language School" thread. An owner of a certain Thai language school, very defensive about every other aspect of his school, didn't seem disturbed by being called a visa mill. What the school was being accused of (whether true or not, I don't care) was signing people up for student visa courses, which require the purchase of a large number of teaching hours, then not checking attendance. I started to wonder why this didn't bother him. I think the answer is that the government doesn't care.

I stayed in Thailand for 4 months last year. I planned on getting a student visa. But after doing a little research, it turned out to be just as convenient, and much less expensive to make a single border run (I came on a 1 month visa, which I later wish had been a 3 month). That's because I still would have had to leave the country to activate a student visa, and I would have had to buy a lot more classroom hours than I really wanted.

So I'm thinking the economy of Thailand is making more money off tourists who go the student visa route than those who go the tourist visa route, and therefore doesn't care about enforcement.

So could you please tell me

1) the pros and cons of student visas vs tourist visas

2) why people get so upset about student visa holders who don't attend class

Maestro · November 30, 2009

I do not run a Thai language school but from everything I have seen posted from people who do run such schools I have the impression that the OP has little or no knowledge of the procedures involved in obtaining a non-ED visa and subsequent quarterly extensions of stay for the study of the Thai language. If he has a serious interest in putting what he says to a test he should sign up for a language course, not attend classes, and then come back and report how long he gets his extensions of stay. I remember the post by a member saying that he had to show up at the Ministry of Education (MoE) and give a demonstration of the knowledge of the language skills he had acquired that far before the MoE issued the requisite letter for the next application for extension of stay. The call for such personal interview, on top of the attendance record the school has to submit, seems exceptional but the member’s post showed that it does happen, perhaps when the MoE has some doubt about the accuracy of the school’s report or perhaps it was a random call.

When I took Thai language lessons two years ago the teacher did keep an attendance record for every lesson and left the students in no doubt that this record was being submitted to the appropriate government authority requiring it for the issuance of documentation needed for the application of extension of stay, for those students who wanted extension for the reason of education.

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Maestro

monty · November 30, 2009

Have to concur with Maestro!

The ED visa (based on language learning) still requires the holder to apply for extension of stay every 90 days at a local immigration office. This extension will only be given with proper support documents regarding school attendance.

2) why people get so upset about student visa holders who don't attend class

Simple really, if the immigration finds out widespread abuse (equals non-attendance of classes) of this visa type then they might pull this visa severely inconveniencing serious and genuine students!

Immigration has done such things before, namely with the "investment" visa. They didn't actually cancel this visa extension, but upped the investment level from 3 million to 10 million to weed out "un-desirables".

endlessimage · November 30, 2009

Spot on Maestro.

The OP needs to do more research or maybe he should put his theory to the test and report back.