Tourist vs ED visa and changing schools

[bpaitieowganmai]

Hello

Long time reader, first time poster here looking for some advice re ED-visas. As part of this I thought I'd share my experience with immigration on Monday...

I arrived at Suvarnabhumbi on Monday afternoon with a 3x entry tourist visa issued at the embassy in London. I made 2 trips to Thailand last year (2 weeks each) and then a 4 month visit in each of the previous 2 years; so I'm a frequent visitor but by no means a resident. I have a brand new passport as my last one was in poor condition and three quarters full. The immigration officer spent slightly longer than usual on his computer, and his face lit up when he was able to retrieve a scanned image of my previous passport. He was very keen to know why I had renewed it 5 years prior to its expiry date. I said it was full and he gave me a slightly suspicious look but did grant me my 60 days entry.

Anyway, I feel nervous now that I am going to have problems when I come to use entries 2 and 3 and am looking to get an ED-visa instead. My plan was to study Thai for 3-4 months in Chiang Mai and then 6 months or so in BKK (I'm a genuine student and have good friends in both places, hence wanting to split my time). I had originally planned to do this on tourist visas for flexibility and so I can dip in and out of the classes if needed = 8 months out of my London-issued one with extensions and then one more single entry visa from Laos or Malaysia.

My question is - if I signed up for a course in Chiang Mai for 4 months or so and they gave me the paperwork to obtain an ED-visa, could I move to a school in Bangkok later and continue to use the same visa? Or is the visa tied to a particular institution? The answer I am hoping for is that you get a year long visa and then report every 90 days with paperwork from whichever school you are enrolled in at that time; but I fear it won't be as straight-forward as that.

Many thanks in advance

[paz]

Rules are changing 29 August, with an ED visa/extension you will have to extend (not just report) every 90 days for Bt. 1,900, with "testing" done by the Immigration, and attend in class for more hours than before. 

 

Since you have a triple entry visa you may want to use it in full before worrying further. It is not a problem to activate further entries. Also, if you want to study it is legal that you do that, at your own pace, with a tourist visa.

[bertty]

Rules are changing 29 August, with an ED visa/extension you will have to extend (not just report) every 90 days for Bt. 1,900, with "testing" done by the Immigration, and attend in class for more hours than before. 

 

Since you have a triple entry visa you may want to use it in full before worrying further. It is not a problem to activate further entries. Also, if you want to study it is legal that you do that, at your own pace, with a tourist visa.

And you know this for sure ?

Do you have a hot line to immigration? or are you just spreading as many rumors as you can.

Not yet seen anywhere that immigration will test everybody every 90 days.

The joys of so called know it alls.

[nicolas18]

Rules are changing 29 August, with an ED visa/extension you will have to extend (not just report) every 90 days for Bt. 1,900, with "testing" done by the Immigration, and attend in class for more hours than before. 

 

Since you have a triple entry visa you may want to use it in full before worrying further. It is not a problem to activate further entries. Also, if you want to study it is legal that you do that, at your own pace, with a tourist visa.

Even under the old rules, any ED student had to get an extension every 90 days (except for university students). The testing at the immigration office also seems to be more or less strictly enforced depending on where one resides.

 

The OP should know, however, that schools usually charge a fee to transfer a student between branches, say between their Chiang Mai and their Bangkok branch.

[paz]

Even under the old rules, any ED student had to get an extension every 90 days (except for university students). The testing at the immigration office also seems to be stricter depender on where one resides.

 

Until now it was not uncommon for some to obtain one year long extensions. It have never been clear if that was due to be client of a certain school, or related to particular office, or a combination.

[bertty]

 

Even under the old rules, any ED student had to get an extension every 90 days (except for university students). The testing at the immigration office also seems to be stricter depender on where one resides.

 

Before, it was not uncommon for some to obtain one year long extensions. It have never been clear if that was due to be client of a certain school, or a particular area or a combination.

 

I very much doubt that many people would pass any kind of Thai language test after 90 days, some schools wouldn't even have a class suitable for a new learner in that time.

Schools do not have a start time, they tend to add classes when they get enough students.

[Maestro]

Removed some irrelevant post and replies.

[richard10365]

As far as I know, visas are tied to the school that gives the paperwork. If you leave one school, you need to cancel the visa for that school and get a new visa for the other school. As Paz pointed out earlier, you can study with a tourist visa in Chiang Mai and then move to the school in Bangkok and get a new visa. However, you might have to leave the country to get the education visa. 

[Mario2008]

He will have to leave the coutnry to get the ED-visa.

[Holly1956]

Hi, I can assure you the rules are changing on 29 August and you will no longer be able to get an Ed Visa for 1 year from that date.  Your Ed Visa is linked to the School you are studying at but there is not normally a problem transfering it to another School at a small cost (1900.00 Baht).  Future Ed Visa's will only be valid for 3 months at a time for up to one year.  After that we a led to believe that you must leave the country but we do not know for how long.  It could be a boarder run only and re-enter but it is not clear. We are also led to believe that you will be required to study for a minimum of 8 hours a week, but until we get any of this in writing from the Department of Education or Immigration we have nothing definitive.  I think Thai Visa have a meeting soon with Immigration and I am sure they will represent questions like your own at that meeting.  Sorry that I can't be a little more clear.

 

I need to add, that if you enter the country on a Tourist Visa you would have to leave the country to obtain an Ed Visa.  Why not check after 29 August with the Thai Consulate in London.