Just got my non o education visa in laos! Very easy!

[JandT]

I just wanted to let everyone know how easy it was for me to get my nonimmigrant education Visa which is extendable up to one year. Im from the us and My wife and I plan to stay for a few years so this is one way to begin. My 60 day tourist visa was about to expire so I went to assist Thai Visa in chiang mai with my Thai wife and they took care of contacting a local language school for me and getting the paperwork so everything taken care of and all I had to do was make a trip to the laos Vientiane border. Total cost for everything including the 3 Visa extensions and the 1 year of school was around 39,000 baht.

You can take a 8 to 9 hour bus ride there from chiang mai but Definitely if you have the extra money it's much easier to take Nok Air Lines from Chiang mai to the udon airport (1 hour flight) and then grab a limousine Charter van from there to the Thai border (1 hour) and then get another van from there to the Friendship Bridge Crossing (5 minutes) on the laos side because then they will take you straight into the hotel.(about 30 min) We stayed at the loagolden hotel for $30 a night it wasn't the greatest Hotel but it was very affordable and they offer free breakfast. We walked to the Thai consulate the next morning on Tuesday (about 10-15 min walk) and got there around 7:30am and they started letting people in around 8 to sit in the outdoor area. There was about 50 people around 830 so not too busy. Everyone got up and one at a Time and took their paperwork to several ladies that were standing there separating them and they would give certain people a number and tell them to go wait till that number was called to goto one of the windows nearby. It didn't take more than just a few minutes for your number to be called when they start. You walk up and they verify the information and tell you it's 2000 baht and to come back tomorrow and pay and pick up your passport. We went back the next day around 1 and at 1:30 they start calling the numbers for people to come up usually about 10 at a time and we were number 16 once they started calling the numbers it only took about 10 minutes we walked up paid the fee they handed us the passport with the new VISA inside and we left. We stayed over one more night so we didn't have to rush and the next day we grabbed a bus back to the Friendship Bridge border and from there we took the limousine taxi from there back to the airport the Thai border and then all the way to the udon airport. It was very easy and quick the only thing to remember is have your paperwork, 2 small photos on a white background ( you can get photos for cheap and also document copies made right beside the consulate to the right there's a little place there where they have a chair and a white background set up and will take your photo for just a little bit of money and it makes it quick and convenient if you don't have them) also have your thai address ready and make sure you have a correct copy of the visa application that has the front and back sections. if you print it off the website it tends to cut it off at the bottom and you will not get the back of it printed. This was one issue that assist Thai Visa needs to be aware of but other than that the whole experience was very painless. Another quick tip is you can use Baht at nearly any restaurant or business in Lao while you are there and they will give you change back in laos kip but please make sure you convert it back at the border before you enter Thailand again because their currency is utterly worthless anywhere else and no bank will be willing to convert it to Thai baht for you. Another tip is the tuk tuk drivers tend to charge a good bit of money if you're coming out of a hotel or if you need a trip to the Border. Your best bet to save money is to take the bus back to the border so you can have a tuk tuk take you to the bus station but our driver actually charged double what he was going to charge simply because I'm a foreigner and my wife is Thai. He told her fifty Baht and turned around and charged us a hundred. he actually wanted more but she said absolutely not. It will cost you 20 baht to leave laos as well but nothing to enter Thailand. We plan on doing the marriage visa when this year is up. All we need is our american marriage certificate, an Affidavit of income which is very easy to get at the American embassy and then have the forms translated into Thai and then notarized at the Thai City Hall. Anyway I hope these tips will help somebody because I know dealing with visas here can be a real struggle if your new to it. I'm looking forward to learning Thai this year and hopefully I can start having conversations with more folks in this country. :)

[junglechef]

Do you have to attend class?

(this a real question)

[Thailand]

2 hours ago, junglechef said:

Do you have to attend class?

(this a real question)

I saw a language "school" in Phuket is being closed down for giving visa assistance without the need to attend classes.

There are at least a couple in Chiangmai operating the same way with mostly Chinese "pupils" who get the education visa and then carry out their business of choice, homestay, import/export with little or no interference from the authorities and zero attendance to classes. 

[JandT]

I would imagine.  I'm attending lanna language school. It's a good legit school.

[Gonzo the Face]

You say that your wife is Thai ????