Thailand Student Visa

If you want to stay longer in the country than the few months that a tourist visa can provide, you will need a student visa: an ED visa for non-immigrants. ED stands for education, and you should note that there is only an education visa, not a student visa. If you are still in your country of residence or abroad, in a place where there is a Royal Thai Consulate, you can gather all your documents and submit your application before entering Thailand.

The first step in obtaining a student visa is to identify and enroll in the program you wish to study. A university course is a major undertaking and will take up a lot of your time. As an alternative, many universities registered in Thailand with the Ministry of Education can also provide letters of admission to study less rigorous courses that will give you more free time in Thailand. You can choose to learn massage, meditation, Thai language, scuba diving, Thai boxing (Muay Thai). A number of these courses only require you to understand part-time, less than 15 hours per week.

Once you have obtained your acceptance letter, you can submit your application to any Royal Thai Consulate, either in person or by mail. Keep in mind that mail will take longer and it is probably best to pay for a courier service both ways to ensure that your valuable passport reaches you as quickly as possible.

If you are currently in Thailand, you must travel to Vientiane or Savanna khet (Laos), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) or Yangon (Myanmar). You will have to pay your transportation costs, the visa fee for the country you are going to in order to obtain the visa, and the accommodation costs for one or two nights until the procedure is completed. Please note that consulates generally accept visa applications in the morning, Monday through Friday, and not on Thai or local holidays.

To submit your application, you must prepare the following documents:

Once you have your student visa in your passport, you can come to Thailand. When you pass through immigration control, the immigration officer will check that your student visa is valid and stamp it. You can stay in the kingdom for 90 days. It is always a good idea to check the date the officer has written in your passport to make sure everything is in order. This date is crucial if you do not want to be penalized for overstaying. According to Thai immigration law, foreigners can only stay in Thailand for 90 days unless they have special permission. If you are studying at a small institution in any field (Thai language, Thai massage, Thai boxing, etc.), that institution will help you get your student visa, and you can stay for several years, but you will have to extend your access every 90 days. You will have to pay a fee of 1,900 Thai baht each time. There are many institutions that can handle the extension of your visa, and even some places will represent you in this process. This is the case for small entities like schools, for example. But there are other places.

In Thailand, you can also find academic institutions and private language schools. For the latter, you will have 90 days at first, and then one month before the end of your residency permit, you can apply for an extension to get a one-year extension. This process will also cost you 1,900 Thai baht. The academic institution or public school will provide all the necessary documents and proof that you are still studying with them, as well as your course receipt. This extension is very convenient because it only needs to be done every year.

Remember that you must study effectively in school. This means that you must attend all classes, you must pay all fees, and the school will register you as a student. If you do not meet these requirements, the school will have to report you to the Immigration Office, which will cancel your student visa. You should also be aware that all schools must maintain an excellent reputation. The granting of a visa is always an essential thing for a school or educational institution, and they cannot break the Thai law to help students who are not real. So you need to remember that the E.D. visa is for people who want to study, at least part-time. If you intend to work, you need a B visa for non-immigrants, and if you want to visit the country, you need a tourist visa.