Does a 3 year old child need to be present for tourist visa extension?

[Lyudmyla]

Hi,

we are a family on a tourist visa, and we will be applying for an extension soon. Do I need to take my daughter out of school to apply or can I apply for her?

[harrry]

You may well be asked why she is in school with you on a tourist visa. It would raise a red flag to me if I was an Immigration officer.

[ubonjoe]

You may well be asked why she is in school with you on a tourist visa. It would raise a red flag to me if I was an Immigration officer.

Would you please supply us with the rule or regulation that says a child needs something other than a tourist visa to attend school or the parents needing the same.

[ubonjoe]

I would say yes the child needs to go to immigration.

But they may tell you that child does not need the extension since children under 15 do not pay overstay fines.

[harrry]

You may well be asked why she is in school with you on a tourist visa. It would raise a red flag to me if I was an Immigration officer.

Would you please supply us with the rule or regulation that says a child needs something other than a tourist visa to attend school or the parents needing the same.

There may not be a rule...in fact I do not think they would but for the purpose of tourism I think it would raise questions that the parents may be working. If they are not bona fide tourists they would not be entitled to an extension. In fact their visa ould be invalid.

[jrtmedic]

It certainly seems "odd" that people allegedly on "holiday" would wish to place their three year old child in school.

[harrry]

It certainly seems "odd" that people allegedly on "holiday" would wish to place their three year old child in school.

not odd but the reason could be questioned as could details of the touring done and planned.

[ubonjoe]

Perhaps so mom and dad can have some quality time alone together on the beach.

I would call school day care when the child is only 3.

[jrtmedic]

Ubonjoe

You may of course be right!

However, in years now past , as a working Dad I valued the "quality time" which holidays enabled me to spend with the children !

Just an observation !

[merijn]

Officially all persons have to apply in person for the extension.

But if the parents go to get there own extension, the extension for the child should be no problem.

So far i know day care centers are not classified in the same way as education schools and therefore don't require a education visa and i don't think that there is a problem if the child attends a day care center on a tourist visa.

[Lyudmyla]

Thank you all for your replies.

For those curious, we are here on an extended vacation for 6 months, and our curious 3 year old needs a little more brain stimulation than the beach. So we put her in a Montessori preschool, and kept our 1 year old with us.

I think I will take her out of school at lunch and go to the immigration office in the afternoon.

[ubonjoe]

Officially all persons have to apply in person for the extension.

But if the parents go to get there own extension,  the extension for the child should be no problem.

So far i know day care centers are not classified in the same way as education schools and therefore don't require a education visa and i don't think that there is a problem if the child attends a day care center on a tourist visa.

There is no rule, law or etc. that says you need any kind of visa to attend school.

You only need a visa entry, extension or even a visa exempt entry that allows you to stay in the country.

[merijn]

Officially all persons have to apply in person for the extension.

But if the parents go to get there own extension, the extension for the child should be no problem.

So far i know day care centers are not classified in the same way as education schools and therefore don't require a education visa and i don't think that there is a problem if the child attends a day care center on a tourist visa.

There is no rule, law or etc. that says you need any kind of visa to attend school.

You only need a visa entry, extension or even a visa exempt entry that allows you to stay in the country.

Are you saying that all students that are attending schools don't need educations visa or extensions any more ??

And by school i mean full day time schools.

[harrry]

A child can attend scool on any visa however the purpose of the visa depends on what the person wants to do. If it is travelling the visa is a tourist visa, if it is school it is an education visa. When it comes time for renewal or extension it is possible to question the visa. In this case the fact that the child is to stayh with the parents is probably enough for the child however I still believe the immigration officer could take the enrollment in school as possible indictions that the person may be working here outside the terms of his visa.

[Mario2008]

Officially all persons have to apply in person for the extension.

But if the parents go to get there own extension, the extension for the child should be no problem.

So far i know day care centers are not classified in the same way as education schools and therefore don't require a education visa and i don't think that there is a problem if the child attends a day care center on a tourist visa.

There is no rule, law or etc. that says you need any kind of visa to attend school.

You only need a visa entry, extension or even a visa exempt entry that allows you to stay in the country.

Are you saying that all students that are attending schools don't need educations visa or extensions any more ??

And by school i mean full day time schools.

You need a valid permission to stay to be legally in the country, but there is no requirement that if you study you must be on an ED-visa.

[Lyudmyla]

Update if anyone is interested.

We went in for the 30-day extension, brought both kids and their applications, photos, money, etc. The lady at the counter handed me the kids' passports and applications back, saying, "no need for kids." I guess it's because kids don't get fined for overstaying.

Went in for our 7-day extension, didn't even apply for kids this time. I was wondering, however, if the overstay is going to affect them in any way.

Went for a visa run to Malaysia, the Thai immigration officer on the way out of Thailand was pretty grumpy and asked why we had "so many" extensions, "are you working here?" "No, just long holiday." But even he didn't mention that our children's visas were expired and didn't have extensions.

Soo, in Malaysia we only got the visas for me and my husband, figuring that our kids get 30 days on arrival and don't get fined for overstay. We did write them in into our applications as accompanying children, but our visas for some reason say "0" for "number of accompanying children". When we flew back to Thailand, the immigration didn't even say anything about the fact that our kids don't have visas but we do. So saved a bunch of money by not getting our kids visas and extensions. Wanted to do it the right way, ended up doing it the Thai way, I guess:)

[ericthai]

Thanks for the update. That is good information. I know my friend let his kids visa's expire and when they left Thailand there were no issues or fines for the kids. I cant recall if they were 3 years or 5 years overstay but in any case it was not a problem. So it appears even if you want to do the right thing and keep you child's visa current the government wont even accept the paper work. Very interesting.

Again thanks for the update!

[ubonjoe]

I can see immigration not doing the tourist visa extension but for a 1 year extension they would certainly do it. Not having a valid visa entry or extension can cause other problems such as school enrolment and etc.