Hi! I've just booked a flight to thailand as well as a yoga retreat and a 2 week permaculture course.

I will be arriving June 21 and doing yoga for 6 weeks.

My Permaculture course runs from the 16th-29th of September.

Between when I arrive and the end of my course is 101 days.

I've done some reading and I've figured that my options are:

-Get a non immigrant O or ED visa (can't quite work out if I'd be eligible for these though) and overstay by 11 days.

-Get a 60 day tourist visa, get it extended by 30 days and then either see if I can get it extended again (anyone know if you can get two extensions?) and overstay.

-Get a 60 day tourist visa and do a visa run to Lao or KL to get another one.. (I'd prefer not to do this though it might be the "best" ie most legal option).

Thoughts? What do you think I should do?

Get a two entry tourist visa and make one exit/return to obtain 120 day stay without need for extension. Cost effective and legal.

Overstay is illegal and could result in arrest/court/deportation and at best a fine of 5,500 baht and overstay stamp in passport.

Tourist visa can only be extended 30 days one time. Additional 7 days would be available in refused application but might require show of ticket out within that time period.

You would not qualify for O visa and would not provided the needed time. Doubtful you would qualify for ED visa and again would not provided the needed time and unlikely to meet extension requirement.

Awesome cheers. Just to clarify, I exit just before my first visa is up, get another and come back in on the second one. Would I need a multiple entry if I am exiting at the end of the first visa and coming back on the second? Sorry I'm a bit of a noob at this stuff

When you apply for tourist visa in Oz you ask for a two entry at double the cost - you use first when you enter for 60 day stay and near end of that stay you just exit/return for the second 60 day stay.

As an aside, who is offering permaculture courses, where, and at what cost? I first learned of permaculture from reading copious material by an Australian guy called Bill Mollison some years ago, which was amazing stuff, but which made me wonder why I had not already understood its basic simplicity.

panyaproject.org run PDC's (permaculture design courses) which is the basic permaculture education, I'm sure there'd be more places too.