There was an example of a guy coming from the states last week. He had all the right docs, an approved CoE but his flight out was for 90 days after arrival. The airline refused him boarding until he booked a ticket out within the inital validiry of his visa. As he had got there late due to traffic thet closed boarding before he could get on.

So its just hit & miss. I've been asked pre covid when coming on a visa exemption from Sri Lanka, but i also came in 4 other times without being asked i was also asked when I came in on my STV this time.

@Benjamin *****

but he can study remotely no ? Though perhaps the same thing about your TM30 registration still applies in that case as it does for an STV. Such a weird requirement of the STV visa. Come here, travel around, but not too much...

Anyway, OP stear clear. Its worked out fine for us but its been a right pain for many. We've just been lucky so far.

I'm here on an STV. The visa itself & the extensions are cheap compared to normal visas. The 90 day extensions cost the same as 30 or 60 days on othet visas.

What is expensive is the insurance - its not normal holiday insurance, but then you're here for 9 months so you shouldn't expect it to be. Either way its not cheap.

The requirement that you have to pay up front for your next 3 months of accomodation when you do the extension is def a pain.

But mostly, like Covid extensions, the biggest pain is that each immigration office seems to have different requirements. So where I extended they wanted all sorts of stuff from the people who owned our hotel even though its not in the rules.

Your better off coming on a normal tourist visa & then swapping to an education one once here tbh.

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

yeah i guess its just luck of the draw. Thankfully flights tend to be very flexible now.

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

interesting..i came in on june 7th this year & we were asked for our proof of flight out when we arrived at immigration. It was also the only thing we weren't asked for upon check in! Guess it depends on the airline & what day of the week it is!

There are 3 possible points hwre you might be asked to provide proof of a flight out 9f thailand. It depends on the embassy & the immigration official. 1) when ypu apply for the tourist visa in the 1st place. The london embassy where certainly asking for that about 4 months ago.

2) When you apply for a CoE

3) When you arrive in thailand.

The London embassy are usually really.good at answrting questions if you email them prior to applying - or when you start the process online it will tell you what you need.

Note it doesn't need to be a flight back to the UK.

My friend just mentioned someone having this exact conversation at Laem Ngop this morning. - so it def seems to be the case there. Seems like your immigration official thought the same. Did they give you a list of ones which would be accepted by any chance?