They essentially said is unlikely to be possible for an Ethiopian because of how long everything takes. I tried asking around for ways, but the person on the desk didn't really know much and didn't know where I could go and ask.

@Eric *********

thanks, I've been round maybe 8 in person, they very quickly say they can't help an Ethiopian (if they recognize the country name at all), and I don't want to get involved with an agent that is very corrupt - want to keep our long term options open.

I am only saying they couldn't help with our visa, I am sure Duke's tuition is excellent. Interesting to hear that about Chula thanks.

We really want to study Thai, I think it would be experience transforming for life there. Duke was unhelpful, AAA Thai was better but still said timeframe was weeks, but good point I'll write to them.

How long does it take normally with eg a British passport? I think we'll need to get my wife an Elite, and me Education, so I'm now pondering timings.

That must have been a nerve-wracking experience.

Very much appreciated thanks Av

Laos just refused. Standard practice I believe is to courier from Ethiopia to Kenya. Is your rule just when outside your home country?

Fully agree though, the idea of couriering it makes me very nervous, Eth embassy unlikely to get emergency travel docs to us in event of loss or lateness (we're covered by India here). Hence this fairly desperate post at this point for alternative ideas.

Because she is Ethiopian she needs to get a report from Thai police, which a school said takes 2-4 weeks. Then ministry of education we were told 2-4 weeks. Then immigration 2 weeks. The last part we could do in Laos but that's still 4-8 weeks.

Were we given overly pessimistic estimates?

I was asking (among many, many questions) whether possible to apply for tourist visa in country so this is helpful, apologies if my post wasn't clear.