What are the new rules regarding ED visas in Thailand since the pandemic started?

@Oliver *******

thanks for the tip, will look into that

@Oliver *******

yeah the Elite seems the best way now but with 5 weeks to go and people saying the British Embassy are not issuing extension of stay request letters. I may have already missed the boat...

@Oliver *******

Not so rich that I wouldn't consider a job but if I wanted to do a full time job I would still be in Taiwan where English teaching requires fewer hours and pays more. I'm here to invest in my future by learning the language so I can read documents myself and communicate with business partners and staff effectively when I start a business.

The choices for hundreds of Brits with education visas expiring between the end of the visa amnesty and xmas/NY seems to be:

- overstay and pray the amnesty gets extended

- get a job, in a shrinking economy, even if you already have a business overseas or income from investments that you're choosing to spend and invest here

- start a gofundme for an elite visa

- start a gofundme just to be able to exit and reenter the country (and cover the therapy costs of recovering from potentially a month in quarantine)

- switch to Volunteer Visa (which a senior IO is advising me not to try)

- abandon your current study plan and the 3 months of classes you're still owed, and enrol at a recognised university on an MBA or other degree that is taught in English, which isn't going to be cheap and won't leave you any time to learn Thai

- ejection into the pandemic, xmas in lockdown back home and don't see loved ones here for a long time. Help...

I had Dengue Fever at the time, with test result. I doubt airing any of this will help my cause but at least it's off my chest

this time last year I was detained and deported on arrival on a hunch that I was probably working illegally and abusing tourist status when I was just a wannabe tourist avoiding the rain and sitting waiting for dry season in a condo I purchased earlier the same year.

really messed up situation when intentional overstay is on the table of options just to not go raving mad alone in a hotel cell for xmas and at least have my gf, cat and friends around

different advice each day leans me to 1 path and then another, but ultimately I'm still a rabbit frozen in the headlights at the moment

especially if we've been abandoned by the British government - rumours abound that our embassy is not issuing letters to ask for even a short extension of stay to get past xmas and NY

@Jim *******

yeah still praying that when they see how many farang will have to leave and decide not to return because of the costs, lost sanity from quarantine time, and plain resentment for being made to do it, and consider the effect that will have on an already wounded economy, something might give... but clock ticking for me, not really any time to wait and see on that

@Jim *******

good to know, thx

@Jim *******

they're certainly not gonna give me one from inside the country on an Ed visa hehe

@Jim *******

ah ok. There's a new longer version of the tourist visa that can be 9 or possibly 12 months I think (to make the cost of quarantine at least buy more time here), but maybe only certain countries can get that, idk

@Jim *******

damn, well at least they have the longer tourist visa now, right?

@Jim *******

i think they are, but only if you apply from abroad when the world is in the grips of a pandemic and I'm already in the country. Madness

covid + wet season... dry season arrives... get out and have a happy quarantine xmas

versus a 6 figure bill to get out and back in the country with all the required tests, insurance, flight costs, quarantine etc. just for 12 months...

and free not so important. I'm not fussed about paying another 1,900 extension fee

@Jay ****

hard to argue with that. Just 3 months to all who lost 3 months

some may say that plan was naive or a foolish gamble but it seemed pretty solid until they suddenly moved the goalposts - at the time of applying for my first year ED visa I was assured by everyone I asked that getting a 2nd year is a formality and only a 3rd year is difficult.

@Greg *******

thanks

the funny catch-22 is that the school gives us 3 months of classes to make up for the ones we missed during lockdown, but we can't collect them on the correct visa status without spending upwards of 100k baht to leave and come back (probably completely barmy after 28 days in quarantine)

for what it's worth, I'm 11 months (8 months, thank you covid) into a 2 year language school plan, which is step 2 of a 3 step plan to integrate here and start a business that employs locals. Step 1 was buying a cheap condo so I don't burn money on rent. Not looking for sympathy, I know a lot of people are worse off than me, but it's still very stressful and I'm getting a bit old to keep starting again in a new country... 😅

The requirements seem to be designed to make sure people like me go back where we came from...

@Greg *******

i assumed so too but it seems to be a blanket rule. Maybe we can hope that it gets changed for the uni students and we get a lifeline in the process