TE card...maybe we can look at it this way:

I make visa runs to KL every month. It's around 3,200 baht in total, per month (incl. taxi to the airport, etc.), getting 30 new days. That is close to 40,000 baht per year.

TE card gives you 5 years = 100,000 per year, if you split it up - which is 60,000 baht more per year than the back-to-back visas to KL I currently am using. In other words, a TE card will "only" cost me around 5,000 baht more per month. Yes, 5,000 is something, of course, but...still not that much.

Of course a big difference between these two kinds of visas are the fact, that you have to have 500,000 baht in cash BEFOREHAND for the TE card. That can be a problem. But if you have those money ready for the first TE card, then your stay here would be like paying 8,000 baht a month for a "visa run" instead of 3-4,000.

This is how I look at it. Not too bad...

But maybe then the next problem these annoying politicians will make is that we have to show funds for supporting ourselves here in those 5 years or something...

If they don't want us - let's go! Then they can live alone here. If they tighten their visa rules much more, I am pretty sure I will not stay here, anymore.

Best wishes to all

Just don't. I lost a ton of money on an ED visa approved by one of the largest universities in Thailand.

After three months of a one-year contract, some sort of political pissing contest between Bangkok and Chiang Mai took place, and in a week or two my entire department was on the curb.

I lost all the money I put into the school, and then had to put up 20,000 baht at the end of the year because I had had no place to report my 90-day extensions.

Any visa is better than an ED visa.

That's basically what the kind people at Immigration told me when I reported in to sort out my mess.

This will be an impossible situation, a catch 22. If you can't speak thai when questioned they will say they don't believe you are a a genuine student of Thai. But if you can speak thai they will say the same thing as that would mean you already know Thai and so don't need to learn it.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Except there are some vocational programs that teach in English. Schools for such things as audio and filmmaking.

Let's not speculate and wait for official announcements / facts. This is just unwanted scaremongering. Of course if your friend has facts, please share?

it is not scaremongering.

ed visa is the next obvious loophole because many are not even showing up for classes.

it is like buying a visa.

From what I was told in my conversation with immigration officials, YES, the loophole will be tightened in the near future.

Just don't. I lost a ton of money on an ED visa approved by one of the largest universities in Thailand.

After three months of a one-year contract, some sort of political pissing contest between Bangkok and Chiang Mai took place, and in a week or two my entire department was on the curb.

I lost all the money I put into the school, and then had to put up 20,000 baht at the end of the year because I had had no place to report my 90-day extensions.

Any visa is better than an ED visa.

That's basically what the kind people at Immigration told me when I reported in to sort out my mess.

Could you elaborate; "... and in a week or two my entire department was on the curb."

From what I was told in my conversation with immigration officials, YES, the loophole will be tightened in the near future.

Mr. ScottMallon Do you have any information about how it will be tightened? I'm planning on getting an ED-Visa myself in the near future.

Through a scool that is licensed by the Thai Ministry of Education, I should probably add that I want to attend the classes as I see it beneficial

to learn Thai language due to my plan of retiring there. If its by meassuring progress, I'm worried that my learning abillity is not what it used to be.

And therfore maybe not meet the expectations of the Government..

This will be an impossible situation, a catch 22. If you can't speak thai when questioned they will say they don't believe you are a a genuine student of Thai. But if you can speak thai they will say the same thing as that would mean you already know Thai and so don't need to learn it.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Doesn't do much good to learn Thai and then leave the country as soon as you're finished learning. Only Thais would think that is logical.

This will be an impossible situation, a catch 22. If you can't speak thai when questioned they will say they don't believe you are a a genuine student of Thai. But if you can speak thai they will say the same thing as that would mean you already know Thai and so don't need to learn it.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Except there are some vocational programs that teach in English. Schools for such things as audio and filmmaking.

There are schools offering visas for audio and film making here?

I am a student at my university in Denmark. I get (grant & loan) 48,000 baht per month paid into my Danish bank account. I am spending my Danish money in Thailand = good for the Thai economy.

Now Thailand wants to kick me out. Fine. Up to Thailand. It loses on this, naturally. The point of it? I really do not know, maybe some kind of superiority complex or xenophobia.

I go home or to Vietnam, Malaysia, Southern China or whatever.

Wish you all the best, Thailand.

If you are a student at a Danish University you don't get any ED visa in Thailand !!! So I don't understand your post.

Why should Thailand take care of Danish students? Especially when Denmark is so strict themself, that a lot of foreigners in Denmark have to stay on the Sweden side of the border because they get kicked out of Denmark.

Hey, where to find details about Elite card ? Which other benefits ? Are we considered like better people with this card just as when we drive a Benz ?

Thanks for info.

Hey, where to find details about Elite card ? Which other benefits ? Are we considered like better people with this card just as when we drive a Benz ?

Thanks for info.

http://www.thailandelite.com/