Education Visa (ED Visa) in Thailand in 2024

Alternatives to a Education Visa (ED Visa) in Thailand

Conversations about the Digital Nomads visa resulted in the introduction of the DTV visa, which turned out to be very demanding for applicants (50,000 verified monthly income and 500,000 baht in a Thai bank account) and, in fact, not so convenient (with this visa you can stay in Thailand for 180 days and then you need to extend it, with a maximum extension period of 180 days, that is, after a year you need to leave the country in any case).

Therefore, a school visa is still an excellent candidate, with which you can live in Thailand for 1 to several years.

What's new in Thai Education Visa in 2024. How much does an Education Visa cost in Thailand in 2024?

Let's look at the rules for obtaining and the cost of an ED Visa in Thailand.

When you arrive in Thailand, you receive a 60 day VOA (visa on arrival – that same stamp).

The school will need 28 days to process your documents. That is, you do not need to wait for the end of the 60 days you have – it is better to contact the school to complete the documents in advance.

After the school prepared a package of documents, previously it was necessary to travel to Laos (or any other country) to obtain a student visa, since visas were not issued in Thailand itself. Currently, this option remains – you can go to Laos for a student visa.

In addition to this, another option has appeared – converting a visa on arrival (VOA) into an Education Visa within Thailand. This procedure costs 14,000 baht. That is, you do not need to go anywhere, you just need to pay.

There is a difference in obtaining a study visa in Laos and converting a visa. When you obtain a visa in Laos, you will be issued a visa for 12 months.

If you convert your visa, you will only get 10 months. The logic is this: you already have 2 months thanks to your visa on arrival (VOA) and they extend this period to 1 year.

The cost of studying Thai in Pattaya at ProLanguage School (School website: https://www.prolanguage.co.th/) is 25,900 for 90 hours. This cost seems to be for 1 year, but in fact, with a schedule of 2 classes per week, 2 hours each class, 90 hours will be completed in 5.5 months. You will then be asked to pay for the next hours.

Additional costs: visa extensions. A student visa is issued for a period of 3 months, but it can be extended 3 times for 3 months – a total of 1 year. Each visa extension in Pattaya costs 5,000 baht. There are 3 such extensions in total.

So, the cost of obtaining a student visa:

• 25900 baht – studying (formally for a year, but in reality the hours will end in six months)
• 14,000 baht – visa conversion in Pattaya (you can get a student visa in Laos, this can save you several thousand baht, but you will spend a few days on it)
• 15000 baht – visa extensions

So, we get the total cost of an annual visa: 54,900 baht. This is NOT the final cost, you will need to pay for additional training hours mid-year.

Now you don't have to go to school

Schools are now officially offering online learning. You can choose this option.

Now in Bangkok you can get an Education Visa for 1 year when studying the Thai language

Previously, when studying the Thai language in Bangkok, it was possible to obtain an ED Visa for only 9 months. Now there is no such restriction, you can get a study visa for 1 year.

How to make an Education Visa cheaper

You can choose another school with lower prices.

I am in no way affiliated with ProLanguage School, but I like this school because there are several groups and each student starts from the very beginning.

In some schools, where there are not enough students to form new groups each month, there may only be one group and you may find yourself in the middle of the course when you start there. It is usually impossible to learn anything under such conditions.

That is, if your goal is to get a student visa + learn a language, then find out exactly how the learning process goes. If your goal is only to obtain a student visa, then it is probably more rational for you to choose a school with cheaper courses.