My girlfriend, who is Chines (mainland), will be moving to Thailand (Chiang Mai) in the next few months and I am looking for the best option for her to be able to stay here long-term.

If she comes here on a visitor visa what visa can she change to without leaving the country? Are both B and ED visas possibilities for changing status.

She is university educated (law degree), speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. We considered her possibly teaching here so the B would be an option.

We also looked at the possibility of her coming here on an Ed visa or switching from visitor to ED while here on a visitor visa. Doing it here would be preferable as she could check out the various schools before making a decision.

Could she switch from ED to B if she got a job here?

Anyone ever come across a situation here where a Chinese national attempted to change status while in Thailand?

Hope I haven't caused too much confusion with so many questions! I look forward to your replies.

Being able to convert from a tourist visa to a non immigrant visa is very limited and often denied for education and for business. If possible it would probably have to be done in Bangkok since about the only ones they do is for retirement.in Chiang Mai.

Changing from an extension based upon going to school to working is almost impossible because many work permit offices will not accept them for applications.

Chance are very good she will have to return to China to get a visa. She could enter on a tourist visa and look for work and then apply with if for a work permit and then get a non-b visa.

Thanks Ubonjoe. I will leave the topic open for a few days and see what other information comes through the door.

I agree - my understanding is that Chinese citizens will generally have either 1) a difficult time or 2) will find it virtually impossible to obtain any sort of Thai visa outside of mainland China. For example, the Thai Embassy Singapore specifically states that while most visitors will be able to apply for a Thai visa of any type there, Chinese nationals must be resident in Singapore in order to submit an application.

If she isn't able to obtain a non-B or Ed visa before her first trip to Chiang Mai, then she should arrive with a 60-day tourist visa issued on the mainland (Kunming, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and a couple of other cities have Thai consulates) which she could extend I believe only for 7 further days, not 30 days like most other nationalities can. Within that time she should make contact with language schools or companies that could sponsor a visa for her, head back to China (Kunming is nearest), apply for another Thai visa of the appropriate category and then come back. While she could do visa runs to Laos in the meantime, upon her return she will only get a 15-day visa on arrival and may be asked for flight tickets, especially after the second or third trip (although even on the first trip she could be asked; so this is not a reliable way of staying longer term or extending a stay). Additionally, only a few borders offer the 15-day visas on arrival for eligible nationalities. I know that Mae Sot coming back from Myanmar for instance, definitely doesn't.

Edited February 23, 201412 yr by Tomtomtom69

I am married to a Chinese national, we reside in Dongguan, my wife is from Kunming. I know from experience that if she wishes to apply for a visa to anywhere, she has to go to the relevant embassy nearest to her home town.

As it happens, as stated there is a Thai embassy in Kunming, but if she wanted a UK visa or say an American she would have to go to Chengdu. So things are not that straight forward.

List of all Thai embassies and official consulates is on this website with link to websites here: http://www.thaiembassy.org/main/

Thank you guys for all your help. I will keep the topic open for now in case someone else has info.