Thailand Visa question No. 207/21: Non-immigrant ED

Questioner: Matthias

I have some questions regarding emigrating to Thailand on the basis of an education visa. Hopefully I will get some additional useful information this way.

My wife and I are planning to move to Phuket for at least a year and maybe several years and who knows even permanently if we like it. We have been holidaying here twice a year for 10 years. We are both 35 years old, so we do not qualify for the retirement visa. After some research I came across the educational visa. Here, according to the website of the consulate, one can obtain a visa per year that must be extended every 3 months. So our plan would be to take Thai lessons. When I contacted the school, they told me that everything together would cost 55.000 Baht, this being the total visa costs and the training. (30.000 + 25.000). I had read on the website of the consulate to be sure that the visa application would be approved, that one should follow at least 3 and optimally 4 subjects.

I reported this to the school and they told me not to worry about it because it depends on the local immigration officer and most of their students only take Thai lessons and not 3 extra subjects. Another school also confirmed this. Now that the law says A, in practice people say B. Has anyone had experience with this or should I really worry about it?

Financially, I have a passive income of around 60.000 Baht per month and a little savings. I assume this is sufficient? We don't intend to live here as tourists. Just rent a condo for around 8000 bath, buy (or rent) a Honda pcx, rent a utility condo, visit an Italian restaurant once or twice a week and spend a lot of time in nature and on the beach. We will mainly cook ourselves, except for 2 to 1 days a week.

Is it financially feasible to make it in Thailand without any problems with this income? My wife would be out of work as she has no work permit. For example, she could work remotely for a non-Thai company as a Russian translator (she is a dentist), but the problem is that she will be staying in Thailand for longer than 186 days and therefore needs a work permit, which I am probably still mistaken. overlook.

So I estimate the chance that she can work as non-existent. Am I missing something here or does anyone have experience with this?

This visa also has the advantage compared to the retirement visa that one does not have to set aside 800 Bath. Now living here on the basis of educational visas, do we need a. Doing tax returns in Thailand or Belgium?

Besides this visa, is there no way to stay in Thailand for a year without any worries for people under the age of 35? Except for a volunteer visa?

Thanks in advance and have a nice day!

Reaction RonnyLatYa

To apply for your Non-immigrant ED in Belgium, you will need to have supporting documents from the school. Upon arrival you will then receive a residence period of 90 days. Depending on the school, you can extend this with the duration of the school year or the lesson package, but you may also have to come and extend it every 90 days with the necessary proof from the school and proof that you regularly attend the lessons. The visa costs 80 Euro and an extension 1900 Baht.

You can read what you need here.

Studies-EN_July.doc (live.com)

You could also apply for this in Thailand.

Here you can read what you need for this. Costs 2000 Baht.

change_visa10(O) (immigration.go.th)

 You can read about extending your stay with an ED here

For foreigner – Immigration Division1 | 1

NR 8 – In the case of study in a government educational institution  

NR 9 – In the case of study in a private educational institution:-

 But what I understand is that the school also wants to arrange that visa for you and then they may also suddenly be able to arrange a year extension. Maybe they also arrange other things for you and get other things done in the longer term. The reaction of the school "don't have to worry about that because it depends on the local immigration officer" will not be strange to that, but I will not go into further detail. You have to agree that with the school.

 Apart from this, volunteering and possibly working in Thailand, there are indeed few other alternatives for -50 year old foreigners to stay in Thailand for a long time.

 Which tax return do you actually want to do, because officially you do not work in Thailand and you only have that passive income of 60 Baht from Belgium, I suspect. But I'm not familiar with taxes. Only know mine and that remains taxed in Belgium due to the tax treaty with Thailand.

 Whether 60 Baht is sufficient will mainly depend on your spending pattern. If you have been coming to Thailand twice a year for 000 years, you should have an idea of ​​what something costs here. Have you also thought about health insurance, possibly registering / deregistering in Belgium and the Belgian embassy, ​​...  

 Perhaps there are readers who also stay here on the basis of an ED visa and can also give you other tips about that or such as taxes (Belgium / Thailand), etc..,

 Good luck in advance.

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