Hey everyone and thanks in advance for your advice. My partner and I are in a fortunate position where we are moving to Thailand, and have the means to support ourselves while we explore our dreams on what we want to do with our lives career wise.

I'm an ecologist, and want to be able to volunteer my time and expertise but also learn from the various conservation projects going on around Thailand. I see Chiang Mai Uni has a great forest ecology department so I'll be dropping in there for a chat with the staff. If I've done my homework correctly I will need the Non immigrant business visa with a work permit to do any of this kind of hands on volunteer work. The question is, am I able to apply for this before I go to Thailand and before I've actually secured any of these volunteer ideas?

We're looking at a longer term visa option with the ability to become residents in the future