# Help! schooling in thailand?



## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

Hi all, My partner and i are both australian citizens (neither one of us being thai) and are looking to move to thailand in the next few years. We have done enough research to be satisfied that we have enough income to live on for the life we have planned. 

We are however uncertain of the schooling system and how it works as we are four months pregnant. Our main concern is that our child receives a decent education with out breaking the bank, location is not so important to us but we would love to be some what close to the beach and city if possible but again we are not too concerned with location as long as it is safe. Ideally the cheapest possible education if not free given that it is a decent one would be sufficient. 

I am aware that thai residents may go to goverment schools for no cost but can foreigners go to goverment schools and what is the cost of this if any? and what is the education like compared to an international one besides the obvious english curriculum. 

We would love for our child to be taught in an international school but we are concerned about the costs as they seem to be astronomical, if you know of any that are decent we would love to hear about it also. Any help or advice from those of you who know or have experience would be greatly appreciated.


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## cooked (Jan 30, 2011)

Whoops? On what visa plus visa extension were you planning to stay here with? It looks as though you may want to do some research on that. 
I assume you don't intend to work here, so you won't get e a visa extension based on work permit. 
When you have sorted out your legal basis for staying in Thailand, you can look at schooling here, I myself am a big proponent of home schooling.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

Hi yes we have done our research and plan to use the following visa.
One Year Non-Immigrant Visa-This visa is often a Multiple Entry Visa to Thailand valid for use for a period of 1 year. You are allowed to stay 90 days per entry which means, every 90 days, will have to go to border and have your exit and new entry stamped at the immigration checkpoint (visa run). The visa holder has the ability to obtain a work permit, open a bank account, and extend their visa in Thailand. I can also show proof of more than 40,000 baht per month incase any one here asks, i can show double that if need be.

We have had a 3 months stay in thailand before and have gone there several times more. We are easy going people and usually eat drink where thais do and where you rarely see a tourist face, so we can understand and speak a little and can get along fine in non touristic areas.

Please if some one could answer the question i have asked it would be great. I have done all the rest of the research and although i apreciate it, we dont need any advice on anything but the schooling at this point and would apreciate it greatly if any one could help.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

We too have been thinking on home schooling if we are left with little choice. But some advice or insight on this matter would be preffered.


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## cooked (Jan 30, 2011)

pokerfien said:


> We too have been thinking on home schooling if we are left with little choice. But some advice or insight on this matter would be preffered.


There are a few groups doing home schooling, in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. It is legal in Thailand.

Virtual Homeschool Co-op [Archive] - The Secular Homeschool Community
HomeLifeAcademy.com | Home schooling
HSLDA: Homeschooling Advocates since 1983
https://www.facebook...eschoolnetwork/ in Thai,
https://www.facebook...37679809682751

Googling home schooling Thailand brings up results. A problem for me is that many of the HS groups are non secular, they have an agenda. I probably won't be doing hS myself as the family is set dead against it.


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## joseph44 (May 4, 2011)

Are you pregnant of your first child? Then don't worry for the coming 4 years. 
Once it will be necessary, your child will be able to speak fluently Thai and that is one of the main requirements of being allowed on a Thai Government School or Thai Private School. 

Until that time domestic-education is the best solution, but it may be a good idea to hire a nanny in order to teach your child some proper Thai. 

Since you are both Australian the visa-possibility non-immigrant "marriage" option will not work. 
The only options you have are:
- non-immigrant B for one and a dependent visa for the other; the non-immigrant B holder is able to obtain a WP, find a job with a minimum salary of THB 50K per month. 
- non-immigrant ED for the both of you
- an ED-visa for you child (in the future) and 2 dependent visa's for the both of you.

Income from abroad doesn't count as a base for a visa as long as you are not married to a Thai. 

Maybe that other member have more positive solutions.


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## cooked (Jan 30, 2011)

That other member can't think of anything better than an ED (education) visa either. These are looked at very hard when they come up for renewal, it has been misused for too long. I know people that have been doing the visa runs for years: expensive and ultimately very wearing I suspect. 
There are illegal alternatives but you may face 1)getting ripped off or 2)detected by immigration, put in a detention center and flown out with a new stamp in your passport, a red one.
Maybe Cambodia, Lao or Vietnam? I don't know anything about their visa regulations.


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## Moolor (Aug 4, 2011)

In my opinion, stay away from public schools. Besides what I see as low quality education, you child as a farang may be isolated and shunned by other students. Your best option, though expensive, is an international school. 

If you don't mind me asking, on what basis do you plan to obtain the non-im visa?


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

joseph44 said:


> Are you pregnant of your first child? Then don't worry for the coming 4 years.
> Once it will be necessary, your child will be able to speak fluently Thai and that is one of the main requirements of being allowed on a Thai Government School or Thai Private School.
> 
> Until that time domestic-education is the best solution, but it may be a good idea to hire a nanny in order to teach your child some proper Thai.
> ...


Hi thanks for the responce, i was not aware that the non immigrant visa required you to be married to a thai person, from all we read i beleive there was nothing about that, although my other half did most the research so i would have to double check that with her. About the non immigrant B visa how long does that allow one to stay in thailand before renewing it and how much does it cost? that could have been the one we read about. Our next move is obviously to go to a thai embasy and tell them our situation and ask for advice and what visa would suit us best.


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## joseph44 (May 4, 2011)

pokerfien said:


> Our next move is obviously to go to a thai embasy and tell them our situation and ask for advice and what visa would suit us best.


That's a good idea anyway!!
A non-immigrant "B"-visa can be obtained with help from Thailand. 
You'll need a letter of invitation of a company, their company registration and a copy of an ID of the main shareholder or owner. 
With those documents you can obtain a non-B - multiple entry - one year which will allow you up to 15 months. You only have to leave Thailand every 90 days using the so called "visa-border-run" providers. 
Once one of you has obtained a work-permit, you can skip the border-run story and just report every 90 days at the nearest immigration office. The other one can go along with the dependent visa and your newborn doesn't need a visa at all........at least not until they are 15 unless you would like to "use" him/her for an ED-visa. 

Is it complicated or what? No, just do everything step-by-step and take your time.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

joseph44 said:


> Is it complicated or what?


Lol so damn complicated, more than anything is the running about going to immigrations and doing border runs constantly that is anoying, wish they just let us live there with out so much hassle. As long as we showed income to spend in thailand ofcourse, but its something every one has to do i guess.
So to avoid doing border runs one of us would have to have a job there? is it at all possible to avoid the border runs with out actually working there??? or to clarify is our only option (if we do not wish to work) to get a non imigrant b visa and do border runs every 90 days? 
At the end of the day as long as we can actually live there.. what will be will be.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

We did some more research, toogether this time. It seems there is a few options like learning thai or "strudying" doing muay thai, volunteering and such which apparently is as little as 6hours per week which is not so bad, i wonder if you would actually only have to do 6 hours though and if they would assign you 1 hour a day or all at once? We are both young so those options are ok with us. We both would love to learn more thai as it would be very useful ofcourse, i have done some muay thai and would also like to volunteer, just wondering how many hours we would actually have to commit to the volunteering if we chose to do that. Any one know?


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## cooked (Jan 30, 2011)

Some people just register at a school and only turn up for lessons once. I wouldn't do this myself. Try ajarnforum.net they are clued up. You might want to register for a TEFL course and get a badly paid job teaching English.


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## joseph44 (May 4, 2011)

Pokerfien,
An ED-visa is an option, but instead of the border-runs you may have the hustle of the 90 day extensions of stay at your immigration-office. 
However your school will provide you with documents, stating that you are actually a student, and that there are even documents from the Ministery Of Education stating that you are actually a student, the Immigration Officers like to test you once and a while whether you are making any progress in your study. 
An ED-visa is an option, but also tricky!!
If you decide to go go for an ED-visa, stick to the rules, attend classes for at least 4 hours per week (approx. 180 hours per annum).

In this case, you AND your partner need an ED-visa, unless one of you is going to be studying at one of Thailands Universities. 

For proper and trustworthy schools and visa-assistance providers:
Thai Language School in Bangkok
Thai Language School

Beware: Schools will offer ED-visa assistance. Visa-fees and extension-fees aren't included in the course-fee. 
An ED-visa will cost you THB 2,500 and every extension will cost you THB 1,900 (every 90 days or in some cases schools manage to do it once a year)

Beware: If you are going to use the ED-visa option ATTEND the classes. The Ministry of Education is randomly checking attendance-sheets and if they find any wrong-doing, they will no longer support your student-hood. 

As a last resort...........stay where you are, live your life safe and secure and take extended holidays to the country of your dreams.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

joseph44 said:


> Beware: If you are going to use the ED-visa option ATTEND the classes.


Yes you are right, if we do apply for an ED- visa and choose to learn thai be assured we will be attending as we would like to actually learn the language. How ever when one is planning to live there for the rest of their lives or atleast for a good portion of it, i imagine there is only so long that one can keep extending a visa to learn thai before they catch onto you and say enough is enough you must have learnt the language in a one year course, what then? choose another subject and keep on milking it that way? is that how people stay? We are content with the option of studyng the required hours weekly but how long can we do this for until we have to do something else in order to stay? All in all i am sure we will figure it out once we are there but just wondering incase you know it would save us lots of worry.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

Thanks very much for all that useful info and the links joseph44, really apreciate it. That gives us a better insight on costs and where to look, thank you.


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## cooked (Jan 30, 2011)

As I mentioned before, Thai immigration is clamping down on repeated extensions based on ED. Even if genuine, applications after the first extension are viewed with suspicion.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

cooked said:


> As I mentioned before, Thai immigration is clamping down on repeated extensions based on ED. Even if genuine, applications after the first extension are viewed with suspicion.


Yes, i assumed this would be the case, so is there an alternative?


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## Moolor (Aug 4, 2011)

Start with a double entry tourist visa, that will give you up to 6 months to feel things out. 

There are visa options available to you besides the ED or tourist visa, but they will require a substantial investment or a job here in thailand.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

Moolor said:


> Start with a double entry tourist visa, that will give you up to 6 months to feel things out.
> 
> There are visa options available to you besides the ED or tourist visa, but they will require a substantial investment or a job here in thailand.


Its kind of feeling like we would eventually be kicked out of thailand and there is only so much one can do until they run out of options or become obvious to thai authorities that we intend on staying there for good.


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## pokerfien (Oct 30, 2012)

As far as schooling we have found a few good options as well as schools with english speaking teachers at decent pricing that we are quite satisfied with, although it is a long long way away it is good to know that is one less thing to worry about. Our only worry that i am sure we will deal with as we go is the thought of not actually being able to stay in thailand as long as we wish and constatly having to think of new ways to convince authorities to extend our visas. It is a bit of a eorry in the back of our heads as no one seems to have answers on how to permanently stay, the whole see as you go keep aplying thing seems like too much of a shot in the air and based on a lot of hope andnothing concrete, which is troublesome to us as our plan of staying for good is constatly being reviewed and decided on and the longer we stay the bigger the chance for us to be sent back home.
Housing, schooling, expences and what not are pretty much thought of and planned atleast in a manner for us to feel comfortable with the idea knowing we are going over most things making sure that it can be done with out a strugle, so we are no longer worried about that.


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## Moolor (Aug 4, 2011)

Without obtaining permanent residency or Thai citizenship, most expats in thailand are here on a year to year basis. 

The option of permanent residency should be open to you in the future as long as you meet the requirements. First thing though, get here. Once you are here you can start working towards those goals. It's a long process, years in fact.


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