What are the best visa options for a family of six from the UK to stay in Thailand for one year?

Pang ***********

Smart visa gives you and dependents 2 years. Or 6 months and 2 year extensions. It’s pretty geared towards digital but there’s 4 types. you’ll have to see if your circumstances apply?

@Boreiko ******************************************

Oleksandr *********

ED Visa may be an option for you. Our school

offer an excellent value for the annual package + visa

Dan ********

@Oleksandr ********

and you can be sure that learning languages is their no.1 focus, or is that no.2. whatever.

Reply to

Dan ********

Michael **********

You know you gonna spend a small fortune in visas/extensions/flights. There's no cheap way at all

Jennifer ****

Multi Entry tourist visa will give you 9 months if you play it exactly to the date. + 1 other single entry tourist visa + extension = 3 more months.

It’s a bit of a headache and will take planning but works like this.

Apply METV before you come online in your home country. Apply as close to leaving as possible but leaving enough time to process it.

From the date of processing it’s valid for 6 months to enter/exit/re enter as many times as you like.

Each time being stamped in for a maximum of 60 days, which you can then extend by 30 more days each time without leaving.

Doing the minimum entry/exits would be like this

1st entry = 60 days + 30 day extension

Visa run # 1

2nd entry = 60 days + 30 day extension

Visa run # 2

3rd entry and this one is Essential to plan the date exactly. You need to stamp into thailand for your 3rd entry BEFORE your visa expires. Even if it’s 1-2 days before the 6 months runs up, you will still be stamped in for another 60 days and then be able to extend that by 30 days more.

Once that is done that visa is finished and you would need to either go to a neighboring country’s thai embassy and buy another single entry tourist visa (60 day entry + 30 day extension- taking you to 12 months) Or just do a normal exit/entry hop and get 30 day visa exempt + 30 day extension (taking you to 11 months)

It would really require laying it out on a calendar and having the requirements organized. Like having exit tickets booked, some hotel stays, and proof of travel funds.

Each extension would cost 1900 baht per person. For 6 people that adds up too. As do border hop tickets. X 4 times during the year. Not cheap

But it wouldn’t tie you down to any classes like an education visa would.

Nadeem ********

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@Jennifer ***

hi. It’s difficult to fully digest for me! 🤣. I have tried to map it out on a spreadsheet. Let me know if the structure looks right (type of visa, intervals and duration). Don’t pay too much attention to the costs.

Nadeem ********

ORIGINAL POSTER

Jennifer ****

let me reply back to you in a private message. You can do it cheaper with no extensions and just doing an additional border hop in the first entries.

I’ll help you map it out.

Reply to

Jennifer ****

Nadeem ********

ORIGINAL POSTER

@Jennifer ***

hey! Wow this one sounds complex and expensive! 🤣. But also gives us the freedom of not being tied into an ED visa. I might try and map this out on a spreadsheet to see if it’s cheaper than ED visa…

Jennifer ****

yes but you could also do it in another way. And ditch the first 2 extensions and just exit the country 3 times.

Entry 1 = 60 days. Exit

Entry 2 = 60 days. Exit

Entry 3 = 60 days. But use less and exit with enough time to re enter BEFORE THE VISA EXPIRES.

Entry 4 = 60 additional days. Extend this by 30 days = 9 months

This way you pay less in extensions but you have to border hop.

The easiest border hop (and most beautiful) is Koh Lipe/Langkawi. Direct boat between 2 islands.

Second easiest is Mae Sot. But not beautiful at all 😉

A few rules to remember with border hops. You can only do TWO land deals crossings per calendar year.

So this needs to be planned too.

Other hops need to be by air.

With kids you won’t be harassed so much with immigration on hopping in and out for a year.

Edit* And I would not let the kids go on unpaid overstay extension for the first times. But the last time you need an extension you can just not do it for the kids as they don’t get fined. But they will get an overstay stamp in their passport. If leaving who cares. If coming back you don’t want many of these (save almost 8000 baht here for the kids)

Nadeem ********

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@Jennifer ***

thanks! Do you count a boat crossing (Koh Lipe to Langkawi) as “land” ?

Jennifer ****

yes. Sea and land are the same.

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Jennifer ****

Andy **********

Put the kids in school and you can get a visa but possibly not what you are looking for

Nadeem ********

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@Andy *********

what are the costs associated with this option? Schooling costs? The cost of the visa itself? Anything else?

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Nadeem ********

Brandon ************

There's only really 2 options that come to mind:

Option 1: Both parents enroll in thai language courses and get an ED visa, which can last up to 12 months. Children under 14 or 15 I think it is can't be fined or banned for overstay, so just let the kids go on overstay if they are all young.

Option 2: Enroll the kids in school in Thailand and get them on ED visa. Then both of the parents can get a visa based on children attending school. This requires each parent to have 400,000 baht in a Thai bank account in their name only as part of the application and extension process.

Nadeem ********

ORIGINAL POSTER

@Brandon ***********

thanks for your helpful reply. Yes all four of our children are under 15.

A few further questions:

Option 1:

- For an ED visa, how much would it cost for each parent? On this option, do we need to show them 500k Baht in each bank account or is that just for option 2?

- Does the ED course have to be Thai language? What other forms of education could we opt to do? I hear Muay Thai is an option…?

Option 2

- Do we have to enrol all 4 kids into school on an ED visa or at least 2 of them to allow both parents to stay?

- I assume there are then the costs of school that need to be accounted for with this option?

Does Thailand have a digital nomad visa? I’ll be working remotely. Is this something I can apply for which means my whole family can stay under my nomad visa?

Charlie *****

im gonna message you nadeem

Brandon ************

1: it varies from school to school and where you'll be. For example on some of the islands they charge a 10,000₿ visa fee just because they can. You'd need to research schools. There's no requirement to show money in the bank for this option. There are other topics you can study but I don't know of any besides Thai language and Muay Thai.

Option 2: you'd need one child for one parent so at least 2 kids. There would be a charge. Small if Thai school or for international school can get very expensive very fast.

There's a digital nomad type visa called the LTR. It's very new and costs 50,000₿ for 10 years. You can look up the requirements as many people don't qualify. You'd also have to pay 50,000 for each dependant visa so you'd probably just want to get one for your wife and let the kids go on overstay.

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Brandon ************

Chris *******

@Brandon ***********

guardian is 500k.

Brandon ************

@Chris ******

what's 100k here or there 😅😅😅😅 oops