Hi,

I'm looking at volunteer-teaching English in a orphanage in a small village north of Thailand. I'm hoping to get a one-year visa, however the orphanage is not registered, and the Non-profit organisation supporting them are not able to assist me with the supporting letter that is required for the appropriate documentation when I apply. I'm a little stuck at the moment as I do not know what to do now in order to gain a visa to do this. How can you do this when the organisation isn't registered? Is there a way of getting a missionary/Religious purposes visa if I'm connected to a church both over here (Australia) and over there? This is a huge desire and passion of mine and I am wanting to really figure out of way of doing this. Surely, people have worked in places like that before before that aren't registered.

I will be spending the first few months of my time in Chiang Mai on an education visa while I study Thai at a university there. So, I will need to change my visa type, i'm assuming, to continue to stay there and teach in the orphanage.

I'm going over there in January 2017 and would really appreciate some help, I've never had a visa before so this stuff is pretty new to me.

Thanks in advance!!

Short answer. Go find a different orphanage to volunteer at which is registered or work with a different charity which can support your application. You need both a non im O visa and a work permit to legally do volunteer work in Thailand (yes even if you're not getting paid at all).

More info here:

http://tastythailand.com/volunteering-in-thailand-what-paperwork-do-you-need-to-submit-to-get-non-immigrant-o-travel-visa-and-work-permit/

Since you will be studying Thai for a while it seems that might give you the time to sort out the problems with teaching at the orphanage. Perhaps another organization to support your single entry non-o visa from a nearby embassy or consulate and then extensions of stay (possibley only 90 day at a time).