hellfish Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 My son is enrolled at a thai school and I would like to know the required documents for him to obtain an education visa. He is currently on a tourist visa. I have tried to look at the MOFA Thailand website but it doesn't seem to be working! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombkk Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Their website seems to be down indeed, I cannot open it either. Here is from my experience (ten years ago): You need a letter from the teaching institute confirming that your son is enrolled there. The teaching institute must be registered with the Ministry of Education. A friendly consulate (Taiwan in my case) is the place to apply for the non-ED (non-immigrant EDucational visa), and they will check whether the institute is indeed registered to issue such a confirmation. He'll get the non-ED for 90 days. After 90 days, the institute will need to issue another letter and your son will get an extenstion of stay (in my case, for a year). There is a possibility that the tourist visa can be changed into a non-ED, so your son won't have to leave the country to get a new visa. I don't know how that works and whether it applies in your case. I never changed visa types, but someone else might chip in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario2008 Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 It might depend greatly on the nature of the school. If it is a regular school, he might be able to convert from a tourist visa. If it is something like a language course, following lessons for abut 4 hours a week etc. They will probably send him aborad to get a ED-visa. Check with the school first if they have experience with the paperwork required. For a regular (international) school it shouldn't be too difficult to provide all the required paperwork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tod Daniels Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 (edited) A real "international school' or Thai university can supply paperwork from the MOE (Ministry of Education) which allows enrolled students to convert to an ED visa in-country. A private language school does not get the same paperwork from the MOE. The documents they get are addressed to a "Thai Embassy or Consulate". Seeing as there are NO Thai Embassy's or Consulates inside Thailand; this necessitates a trip to another country to secure the initial ED visa. Just a note, the Thai Embassy or Consulate doesn't check with the MOE to see if the school is approved (as there're HUNDREDS of 'em scattered thru-out this country). The student is give paperwork from his school and support documentaion issued by the MOE stating they are attending a registered school. IF they're attending a private language school, they'll most likely get just a single entry 90 day ED visa. This is extended at Thai Immigrations with the paperwork the school provides the student every 3 months for the duration of the year. IF they're attending a real uni or international school quite often Thai Immigrations will issue them a visa which is good for the entire year, (although a re-entry permit is needed to keep this visa 'alive' should they leave the country and return). Hope it helped, some at least . Edited May 6, 2011 by tod-daniels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombkk Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Just a note, the Thai Embassy or Consulate doesn't check with the MOE to see if the school is approved (as there're HUNDREDS of 'em scattered thru-out this country). The student is give paperwork from his school and support documentaion issued by the MOE stating they are attending a registered school. OK, this might have changed in the last ten years then. In my case, the consulate did have a (long, and printed) list of all MoE-approved teaching institutions, and they manually checked whether the institute that has issued the letter I had brought was included in that list. I would think by now they use something very advanced, liked Excel files, but it would be a real step backwards if the school had to provide a copy of all the support documentation to each international student. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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