One thing we often get asked by foreigners living in Thailand who want to get an Education Visa (known as a ‘Student Visa’ or Non-Immigration ED Visa) so they can study something and stay here longer, is this. Do you have to leave the country every few months to do a border run once you have an Education Visa, or can you stay for a year without leaving?
If you too are wondering, you’ll be happy to know, once you get your one-year Education Visa (Student Visa) approved, no, you don’t have to leave the Thailand. Not until it expires at the end of a year.
You will have to report to your closest Immigration department every 90 days, to give them an update on your address (doesn’t matter if you’ve moved or not, you still have to go), and that will cost you 1,900 baht. Every 90 days (you should know by now, nothing is free in Thailand, not when the Immigration department is involved). But, other than that, there’s nothing else you have to do. Well, you do have to show up for classes.
Don’t forget too, you don’t have to study Thai language to get a one-year Education Visa. You can take Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing), a Thai history course at Chulalongkorn University, Thai massage or any number of other things. For a year. Without leaving the country.
Photo – Doing border runs at Thai immigration in Ranong – copyright prilfish, Creative Commons License
