Hi,

I have been researching visa options for a South African friend of mine who wants to come over and visit a Thai friend for 12 months or so and I have a couple of questions

Firstly, as far as I can see, he can only get a double entry tourist visa from the Thai embassy for 120 days or an education visa - the type 'O' visa in South Africa seems to be restricted to spouses and isn't available for trips to visit friends - is this correct or am I missing something?

Secondly, I thought I had read here that there were random tests being done when people went to immigration to see how good their Thai was - am I remembering correctly or was this just a once off occurrence?

Thanks in advance for your help

I should think as many Tourist Visa entries in S.A as he can get.

After that he can get more Tourist Visas from Countries neighboring Thailand.

why on earth would anyone want to test your Thai knowledge for a tourist visa ????

I've lived in BKK more than ten years and never had anyone test my Thai, or any other language in any other country.

Anyway, to the visa question: ditto on the reply above. Get an initial tourist visa from the consulate in Pretoria and then you can leave and get a replacement visa from one of the neighbouring countries around here. Do a search of this forum if you want to read detailed stories.

Hi,

thanks for the help so far

I had meant to say that the testing at immigration was done for the people on Education Visas and not Tourist Visas

Here's the link to the topic about this Testing for Ed Visas

I guess if he goes the Education Visa route he'll have to practice his Thai

Tell him to get a free double entry from Embassy in SA

With the two 20 day extensions he can stay for 180 days.

Then towards to end of the 180 days he/she can make a

quick two/three days trip to Vientian to get another free

tourist visa for the second 180 days

Way cheaper than doing the ed. visa

Tourist visas are not free until after April 1st.