Student VISA in Thailand
If you decide to study in Thailand, you will need a student VISA. You can get a VISA in Thailand by converting your tourist visa, or you can get a student VISA at the Thai embassy, which is most likely located in the capital of your country.
There are several options for converting a tourist visa to a student visa.
The first option is to obtain a VISA at the Thai consulate.
The visa fee is $80 (single entry). This VISA is issued for three months and then extended in Thailand for 6 months in the first year of study, and an annual visa is issued in subsequent years of study.
The second option is to apply for a visa upon arrival.
There are several nuances associated with obtaining a visa from universities in Bangkok and arriving with a tourist stamp.
- Not every university will deal with VISA on arrival.
- Registration deadlines.
If you are flying in on a 30-day travel stamp, you will need to go to the university the day after your arrival and apply for a VISA with the registration of residence. After that head to immigration to obtain a student visa.
If you still decide to fly in with a 30-day stamp, consider the timing. You must enter Thailand no earlier than 7 days before the start of the semester.
To apply for a student visa in Thailand, you will need the following documents:
A foreign passport
A letter from the university where you plan to study about your enrolment
A copy of your civil passport
Confirmation of your financial solvency, for example, a bank statement. If someone else will pay for your studies, you need his or her applications and a document confirming his or her financial solvency
A completed application form
You may need other documents in each case, so do not consider this list exhaustive and sufficient for all cases.
As for the confirmation of multiple-entry visa every three months, this procedure does not cause any particular difficulties, just do not postpone the visit to the Migration Service on the last day. It is often the administration of the university where you are studying that takes over responsibility for obtaining a new multiple-entry student visa after one year of study. In general, the procedure for obtaining and renewing student visas is well established and does not cause any particular difficulties.
Alternatives
In the vast majority of cases, a multiple-entry student visa for university studies is the best option. Trying to get a single-entry visa for three months or tourist visas will usually be much more expensive and troublesome. It costs only a trip to a neighbouring country to get a new visa, both in terms of financial costs and time required to solve this issue. Therefore, some alternatives should only be considered in situations where a multiple-entry student visa to Thailand is denied for some reason. However, given Thailand’s policy to develop and improve education, student visa denial is rare. Here again, the advice will be to take care of getting your visa well in advance and not to postpone the event until the last days before you start studying.
This is the general information about obtaining a student visa, which is necessary for a future student at
a Thai university. However, if you use the student visa support and counselling services of Thai universities, the already simple process of applying for a student visa will become even easier and faster.
