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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawVisa NewsAre Immigration Police Targeting ED Visa Holders in Thailand?

Are Immigration Police Targeting ED Visa Holders in Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

In this video today at the title suggests we are going to be talking about Thai ED visas. There have been some substantial developments in recent weeks with respect to immigration enforcement, law enforcement here in the Kingdom. There have been a number of raids over the past few months cracking down on foreigners who are deemed to be either present legally in Thailand or deemed to be using certain types of visas pretextually in order to remain in Thailand in otherwise sort of unsavory activity

Recently in an article from the Bangkok Post titled Nationwide Raids Round up Illegal Foreigners, April 26th, 2018. Quoting, “Police searched 118 locations nationwide mostly international school early Thursday morning and arrested 99 foreigners including Myanmar, Indian, German, and Laos nationals”. Quoting further, “The focus was largely on international schools because undesirable foreigners staying in the country often presented themselves as language teachers.”  In a subsequent article on April 29th, 2018 again from the Bangkok Post, title is Cops Bust Short Course Visa Scam. Quoting directly, “Police are zeroing in on foreign criminals who enroll at language schools to obtain visas so they can live in Thailand and commit crime.” Quoting further, “The move comes after romance scammers busted by police showed student visas to officers.”  Why is this important? Well Education Visas are one of many types of visa categories that foreigners use to remain in the Kingdom long-term. Unfortunately they are also a category which has, at least in the most recent past, been utilized by those who don't have any other really otherwise particularly good reason to be in the country to maintain lawful status in the Kingdom and in fact in the past it was rather widely known that there were certain institutions that would sort of create a pretextual education course and then go ahead and allow people to apply for ED visas based on their “enrollment” at school. Oftentimes that enrollment didn’t hardly exist or they didn't attend the classes but the visas were issued nonetheless and allowed lawful status. As can be seen in other videos we have made in recent weeks on this channel where we talked about increased enforcement measures, increased crackdowns, Thai immigration authorities are no longer particularly lax in their thinking when it comes to immigration matters and clearly they are more focused on educational institutions or purported educational institutions when doing raids with respect to trying to find foreigners who are either out of status or in the country to do sort of nefarious things, for lack of a better term.

What does this mean for those who wish to live in the Kingdom? Unless you are in a really bona fide educational course, an actual college course or some sort of language course that really is a genuine course, it is probably not really a good idea to try to utilize the education Visa again as just a pretext for remaining in the Kingdom lawfully. Those who are wanting to stay long-term, there are the B, the O Visa available depending on one circumstances. Those over 50 may be able to avail themselves of the Thai retirement visa and then there is always the long-term Thai Elite card, the Thai Elite program, which can provide long-term immigration benefits for those who wish to remain in the Kingdom for long periods of time without any other really good reason for being here.

So the thing to take away from this video. Crackdowns are more frequent these days and it seems that the ED Visa category is being targeted with more frequency.