What is the cancellation process for an ED Plus visa upon graduation in Thailand?

[Chiang Mai] I just ran into this with my son who was on a Thai language visa last year, but then we didn't renew and he re-entered 2 months later on a Visa Exempt entry.

Last year, we left the country without officially canceling the Education visa. During the time we were away, the stay expired. Upon re-entry to the country, he received a 60-day Visa Exempt entry with no problems.

However, when attempting to extend another 30 days in country, the officer informed us it would not be possible until the Education visa was registered as canceled in the system--which required a letter from the language school dated with the day he left Thailand last year. Fortunately, we had extra time left on his VE entry or he would've overstayed while getting the paperwork for canceling his prior visa.

Once the ED visa was canceled, he could extend just fine. I'm guessing you can technically get by with not canceling if you never extend a future VE entry, but the school should definitely have to issue you a cancellation letter if you demand it. I believe the local immigration office would probably advise the same (and I recommend still contacting them with passport in hand).

Doesn’t leaving the country without a re entry cancels it automatically?

Also, is there a reason not to let it expire by itself?

I dont know about ED+ Visa, but when i graduated from Thailand university, i had like +4 months of stay on my ED Visa. I specifically asked my university's liason department to leave it as is, i wanted to use the remaining leftover months to explore Thailand. Several of my International friends who had various extra time on their ED visas had also requested NOT to cancel them. Long story short, most of us were only able to use about 40+ days before leaving Thailand, NEVER having to report/cancel the visas at all. Years later we reunited, pretty much every now and then during alumni homecoming and we all arrived either by visa exemption or TR. Not a problem, not a question asked about "why didnt we personay cancel out our past year's ED visa".

So yes, i would NOT worry at all about cancelling your ED visa and just leave it expires. You will be safe as long as you are out of the country before the expiration date, then later re-enter under different visa scheme.

Just my opinion but the school supplied the paperwork for the 12 month extension, it would be logical that the school should also supply the paperwork to cancel the extension of stay. Try pushing your school to do so.

I'm not sure anyone will be able to answer this except for your immigration office.

The ED Plus is still kind of new, and not many people take advantage of the extra year.

I asked the visa expert who knows the most about visas, and he also doesn't know about if the bonus year needs to be cancelled, and if it does, how to do it.

So unless someone who has already been through this comes here to reply, I think you're going to be stuck going to your immigration office to ask.