I am out of options for staying 1 year in Thailand :(

[williamgeorgeallen]

If the school is charging 16,900 I doubt they could afford the manpower for rent and teachers

I went to a school years ago, hundreds of people registered and 1 classroom, tiny with 15-20 plastic stools lol

I doubt they're allowed to operate like that anymore though

That school survived by envelopes and we paid more than 16,900 even back then....

this is a large banner right beside the jomtien immigration. and says the visa is issued by immigration. perhaps it does not include the school fees. i will try to remember to get a photo of the banner next time i am near there.

[LivinLOS]

Thanks for the replies. I thought hard and I could come into conclusion that I can only get the METV and exit the country every 60 days but if I exit the country, do i just get extra 30 days or I get to stay another 60 days? I am not sure how it works. Just so you know I am from India so I am still unsure whether we are allowed to hop the border in METV. I am pretty sure we are not allowed to hop the border with SETV

OR

Another option is to get an education Visa. I guess I can afford to pay that but after researching a bit I saw that i will need to study atleast 4 times a week and 2 hours per day. Some schools are saying I have to study 3 hours per day, 5 days a week. Prices are around 30k baht for 1 year which is fine to me. Just that i am unsure about committing myself to study every single day..ugghh

and no I can't afford Elite visa.

The METV wil allow a 60 day entry by land or air. A SETV only allows one 60 day entry after that you could only get a 15 day visa on arrival that costs 1000 baht.

To get a ED visa and 90 day extensions that will allow a total stay of one year you must be enrolled in a 400 hour course of study. That is normally 8 hours a week by attending classes 2 hours a day 4 days a week.

If its an ED based on language.. Doesnt seem the case with other courses.

[LivinLOS]

just back from jomtien immigration. the shop beside the office where the philipinos work have a big sign on the wall saying education visas for 16 900thb. seems like a good deal.

How many hours of study is that. Four hundred are needed to get a total stay of a year.

While the rules may be the rules.. Its not reality to not admit that shops 'next door' to immigration offices often have 'special offers' where different standards apply.

[williamgeorgeallen]

just back from jomtien immigration. the shop beside the office where the philipinos work have a big sign on the wall saying education visas for 16 900thb. seems like a good deal.

How many hours of study is that. Four hundred are needed to get a total stay of a year.

While the rules may be the rules.. Its not reality to not admit that shops 'next door' to immigration offices often have 'special offers' where different standards apply.

the philipinos in the shop next door are very helpfull. i was in getting some paperwork to renew my drivers licence. for a small fee they get the right paperwork, fill it in and photo copy everything required. they used to go get everything processed in immigration for 500thb. for years i never went inside immigration. yesterday they wanted 3000thb to go into the immigration office which was a bit much. i went inside myself and was amazed at how efficient everything had become.

told my friend about the 16900thb study visa. he is going to check it out this week.

[Straight8]

Thailand elite visa.

500 k Thai Baht.

Easy.

Easy? Perhaps for you if you are willing to shell out that kind of money on top of a lot more here... but I'm sure this is not an option for 90% of foreigners.

[mki8]

if you think any type of visa is expensive or a hassle to use,

then you will have difficulty staying here

visa's are expensive and a hassle

easiest and cheapest option you have is marry your GF

then go to laos for visa, you get 12 month visa for 3 months a timeyo

u can get 15 months out of it, but you will need to do a border run or leave every 90 days.

This way you wont need funds in bank.

As for your "online" business, they way you explained it, does not sound like it qualifies for an online business,

as you state you will deal with clients offline, this will cause problems here and i dont think you have done your research correctly.

If you had a website offering web design online only then you would be ok

but if you meet people in person here, and i assume accept cash or payment offline,

this will not be in the same class as a completely online business, where all payments go through a foreign bank,

and taxes would be paid in your home country (or wherever bank account is located)

so you would be working ILLEGALLY

(from how little you have researched visa's it would be safe to assume you have not researched this enough or contacted amd paid a lwayer for advice)

but for visa's

you dont want a tourist visa because you dont want to travel (like a tourist would) and you thinks it would be expensive

(although you think getting a dodgy work permit may be cheaper lol)

you dont want a business visa/work permit beacuse you would have to set up a legal business

You dont want an education visa because you would have to be educated

You dont want an elite (do what you want) visa because you must pay for it (this is basically what you want but you want for free/cheap lol)

You dont want a marriage visa because................. (she will take you for everything, or she will run when hearing you say visa's are expensive lol)

you simply cannot have it both ways

welcome to Thailand

and welcome to the club

you pay money, you get hassle and headaches, then you pay some more, then you take a week away and relax,

then come back and do it all over again.

Living in Thailand is not cheap so be prepared to pay.

Edited April 23, 2016 by mki8

[johnatong]

if you think any type of visa is expensive or a hassle to use,

then you will have difficulty staying here

visa's are expensive and a hassle

easiest and cheapest option you have is marry your GF

then go to laos for visa, you get 12 month visa for 3 months a timeyo

u can get 15 months out of it, but you will need to do a border run or leave every 90 days.

This way you wont need funds in bank.

As for your "online" business, they way you explained it, does not sound like it qualifies for an online business,

as you state you will deal with clients offline, this will cause problems here and i dont think you have done your research correctly.

If you had a website offering web design online only then you would be ok

but if you meet people in person here, and i assume accept cash or payment offline,

this will not be in the same class as a completely online business, where all payments go through a foreign bank,

and taxes would be paid in your home country (or wherever bank account is located)

so you would be working ILLEGALLY

(from how little you have researched visa's it would be safe to assume you have not researched this enough or contacted amd paid a lwayer for advice)

but for visa's

you dont want a tourist visa because you dont want to travel (like a tourist would) and you thinks it would be expensive

(although you think getting a dodgy work permit may be cheaper lol)

you dont want a business visa/work permit beacuse you would have to set up a legal business

You dont want an education visa because you would have to be educated

You dont want an elite (do what you want) visa because you must pay for it (this is basically what you want but you want for free/cheap lol)

You dont want a marriage visa because................. (she will take you for everything, or she will run when hearing you say visa's are expensive lol)

you simply cannot have it both ways

welcome to Thailand

and welcome to the club

you pay money, you get hassle and headaches, then you pay some more, then you take a week away and relax,

then come back and do it all over again.

Living in Thailand is not cheap so be prepared to pay.

You seem to have missed the fact that Indian people cannot obtain a visa from anywhere other than India.

[bbi1]

Now that the army are in charge of stamping out corruption.. Here in chiang Mai you can just go an buy yourself a 1 year ED visa for self defense.. No one dare care about attendance and your red carpeted through immigration as its military handers.. 32k baht.. easy..

However the fact that you have already realized its illegal to work online and dont care and think an ED visa is 'too hard' because it involves classes.. Puts you squarely in the people who this is designed to keep out.

Seems the oldies who are working at Phuket immigration as foreign volunteers are working on retirement visas, not volunteering visas as you've pointed out in the below post with your friend as an example. Immigration doesn't seem to care if people work illegally....at least in Phuket it seems they don't

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/911026-do-busy-immigration-offices-use-foreigners-or-thai-interns-to-check-documents-answer-questions/#entry10663996

[mgjackson69]

It seems that the OP has done a fair amount of research...he just does not like any of the available options and is looking for a "workaround".

[mki8]

If you can earn some money on your online business but not enough for all the expenses with travel and visas , right now Thailand is not the best country to stay in . Try Cambodia where you will get a 1 year business visa ,(no questions asked) for around $250 .

he does not have an online business as such, he wants to deal with customers offline, doing web design, basically knocking up websites for local businesses, which would not class as an online business in thailand, and he would need set up shop here to operate that way.

Now that the army are in charge of stamping out corruption.. Here in chiang Mai you can just go an buy yourself a 1 year ED visa for self defense.. No one dare care about attendance and your red carpeted through immigration as its military handers.. 32k baht.. easy..

However the fact that you have already realized its illegal to work online and dont care and think an ED visa is 'too hard' because it involves classes.. Puts you squarely in the people who this is designed to keep out.

It is NOT illegal to work online, if you work online only, and none of your business is done offline or using thai banks.

To work online you must only do work when at a PC, meaning you could work from anywhere, this is perfectly fine and legal to do in thailand as it would be impossible to anything about people that work from a phone or laptop.

but this guy wants to sell websites to people offline, which is illegal and is not an online business.

Seems the oldies who are working at Phuket immigration as foreign volunteers are working on retirement visas, not volunteering visas as you've pointed out in the below post with your friend as an example. Immigration doesn't seem to care if people work illegally....at least in Phuket it seems they don't

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/911026-do-busy-immigration-offices-use-foreigners-or-thai-interns-to-check-documents-answer-questions/#entry10663996

Those volunteers actually get paid as well, much as i dont care about others situations, what you going to do, report them to the people that pay them and are in charge of such issues lol

we should all just be greatful immigration now have these expats there, as some are very helpful

(not to be confused with expats working as tourist police)

[4evermaat]

Thanks for the replies. I thought hard and I could come into conclusion that I can only get the METV and exit the country every 60 days but if I exit the country, do i just get extra 30 days or I get to stay another 60 days? I am not sure how it works. Just so you know I am from India so I am still unsure whether we are allowed to hop the border in METV. I am pretty sure we are not allowed to hop the border with SETV

OR

Another option is to get an education Visa. I guess I can afford to pay that but after researching a bit I saw that i will need to study atleast 4 times a week and 2 hours per day. Some schools are saying I have to study 3 hours per day, 5 days a week. Prices are around 30k baht for 1 year which is fine to me. Just that i am unsure about committing myself to study every single day..ugghh

and no I can't afford Elite visa.

The METV wil allow a 60 day entry by land or air. A SETV only allows one 60 day entry after that you could only get a 15 day visa on arrival that costs 1000 baht.

To get a ED visa and 90 day extensions that will allow a total stay of one year you must be enrolled in a 400 hour course of study. That is normally 8 hours a week by attending classes 2 hours a day 4 days a week.

What if I have plans to visit my country 3 months a year out of 12? I will miss around 90 hours i believe? Will that be a problem in getting extension?

I would really need some flexibility in the ED visa

The MeTV is valid for 6 months. Each entry gives you 60 days. so you could get 60+60+60+60 (doing the last re-entry right before the visa expires). That gives you a total of 8 months in the country. Then you spend the rest of the time in india or wherever. Then reapply for MeTV when you can.

SeTV is one time use only. You would need to reapply for a new SeTV prior to entering Thailand.

ED visa you can apply for a re-entry permit before leaving. If you can only extend for 90 days at a time, then you would extend. then after extension is approved you would obtain a re-entry permit before leaving.

If you intend to stay in thailand for a long time, then consider starting a legit business, or marriage/adopt a thai national if the Elite visa is not viable. You're going to have to pay 2/4 play one way or another to legally stay long term; the visa laws are written very carefully for this. And it is similar in most reasonably developed countries.

Edited April 24, 2016 by 4evermaat

[elviajero]

Now that the army are in charge of stamping out corruption.. Here in chiang Mai you can just go an buy yourself a 1 year ED visa for self defense.. No one dare care about attendance and your red carpeted through immigration as its military handers.. 32k baht.. easy..

However the fact that you have already realized its illegal to work online and dont care and think an ED visa is 'too hard' because it involves classes.. Puts you squarely in the people who this is designed to keep out.

It is NOT illegal to work online, if you work online only, and none of your business is done offline or using thai banks.

To work online you must only do work when at a PC, meaning you could work from anywhere, this is perfectly fine and legal to do in thailand as it would be impossible to anything about people that work from a phone or laptop.

but this guy wants to sell websites to people offline, which is illegal and is not an online business.

I'd like to see you try and prove that misleading information.

[LivinLOS]

It is NOT illegal to work online, if you work online only, and none of your business is done offline or using thai banks.

To work online you must only do work when at a PC, meaning you could work from anywhere, this is perfectly fine and legal to do in thailand as it would be impossible to anything about people that work from a phone or laptop.

Absolutely it is without a work permit.. You are confusing the reality of catching and prosecuting someone, with what they do being legal.

As has been repeatedly stated by the labor dept. Incorrect out of context statements from immigration (often cited the Chiang Mai one) is like asking your mechanic if you need a root canal.

The labor office has even stated that uploading a blog comment or youtube video to an adsense or otherwise monetized ad blog, is working and needs a work permit. You cannot get more 'online only' than a simple adsense blog and that needs one.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/issuesanswers/Is-uploading-videos-YouTube-considered-work/1532

Also see

http://www.phuketgazette.net/issuesanswers/Do-need-0145business-visa-work-online/1175

Edited April 24, 2016 by LivinLOS