Getting the Right Visa for Your Stay in Thailand

In order to train and work in Thailand, you will need a visa. There are several different types and the differences can be confusing. Aquanauts Instructor Training, however, offers free visa assistance to all students. When you enroll in one of our internship or traineeship programs, we will tell you which visa you need, how and where to get it and supply any documentation you’ll needs.

However, as many people have questions about visas, we have put together the guide below.

Which Visa Should I Get?

The visa you’ll need depends on how long you’ll be spending in Thailand. The table below shows what we recommend for visitors coming from the U.S., U. K. or Western Europe.

How Do I Get a Tourist Visa?

Tourist visas are granted only outside of Thailand, so you must obtain one from the Thai embassy or consulate in your home country. Apply in person or via mail several weeks ahead of your trip. We strongly suggest you apply for a multiple-entry tourist visa. You’ll need two passport-size photos and your passport, plus a small fee.

While a tourist visa is only for 60 days, it can actually last 120 days if you have a multiple-entry visa. After the first 60 days you can apply for a 30-day extension in Thailand. At the end of those 30 days, make a half-day trip to the border, exit the country and re-enter and you’ll receive another 30 days. Note: You cannot legally work on a tourist visa. For that, you need a Non-Immigrant visa.

How Do I Get a Non-Immigrant Visa?

Non-Immigrant visas are issued for 90-365 days and (if you get a Non-Immigrant "B" or "O" visa) allow you to apply for a work permit to legally work inside Thailand. You will need assistance to obtain any Non-Immigrant visa in the form of documentation from Aquanauts Instructor Training.

Non-Immigrant visas cannot be obtained inside Thailand. If you enroll in a Aquanauts Instructor Training program before you leave home, we will send you via express courier you the documents you need to obtain your visa. If you enroll after you arrive in Thailand, you’ll need to leave the country and apply at a consulate or embassy. Again, apply for a multiple-entry visa, which will allow you to use the same extension/border technique described above to extend your visa.

The fee for a Non-Immigrant visa varies depending upon how many entries you purchase. Also, some consulates will not grant one-year visas to first-time applicants, instead issuing only three-month visas. However, as noted above, it is possible to extend 90-day visas several more months.

The Visa You Get Depends on Where You Are

In a perfect world, there would be one set of immigrantion laws and all the Thai embassies and consulates in the world would adhere to the letter of the law. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world and what visa you can or will get varies wildly depending on where you apply for it. Your best shot at getting the best, longest visa is to follow our instructions exactly. See below for advice specific to your country:

• United Kingdom -- You can get either a Non-Immigrant "B" (business) or "ED" (education) visa without any problem. We recommend sending your application to the Thai honorary consulate in Birmingham, England, with which Aquanauts has strong connections. However, visas have also been granted in Hull, England and in Scotland. Again, better to be safe than sorry, so send your application to Birmingham. At this time we're generally requesting Education visas. If you require a business visa -- for example if you plan to get a work permit in Thailand -- then let us know during enrollment.
• United States -- This is currently one of the hardest places in the world to get a decent visa, although an October 2007 administrative directive from the Thai Embassy in Washington has made things a bit better. Previously, Thai authorities in the U.S. would not issue Education visas for dive centers, as they were not registered with the Education Ministry. Dive centers (and muay thai boxing schools) were granted an exemption in 2007 and now Education visas are available, although the consulates still vary on the length of the visa they'll grant. If you want a 1-year ED visa you must only apply to the Washington D.C. embassy. Ignore this advice at your own peril. Go through Los Angeles, for example, and you may not get anything.
• Canada, Australia, South Africa and Elsewhere -- As of April 2008, we've not experienced any difficulty in obtaining 1-year ED (Education) visas for any of our students from Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland or elsewhere. However, we always advise, even in the counties mentioned, that you apply for your visa through a regional consulate, not through the country's embassy. Consulates are generally staffed by locals, not Thais, are traditionally have been more generous with visas.

What Happens If I'm Rejected for a Non-Immigrant Visa

We have never experienced outright rejections of applications for Non-Immigrant Visas have been unheard of anywhere except from the United States, the Philippines and Southeast Asia. However, if it should happen to you, you still can come here and complete your training. Your immigration issues will simply be more expensive and complicated to resolve.

• Tourist Visa -- The first fall-back is to get a 60-day tourist visa. Hopefully you can obtain two or, ideally, three entries, although you can forget about multiple entries if you live in the U.S. If you only get a single-entry tourist visa, you'll then need to make a minimum 2-day trip to another country after it expires and obtain another one. If you need yet more time, you'll either need to repeat that trip again in 60-days or make monthly border runs for 30-day stamps. This can only be done 3 times, however. So, assuming you get only a single-entry tourist visa, you can still get at least seven months of visas, more than sufficient for most interns.
  
• Passport Stamp -- If you are truly cursed and don't manage to get even a Tourist visa (which would be really hard to do), you will have to come here on a 30-day passport stamp. You can do monthly border runs three times or, better, you'll need to make the minimum 2-day trip to another country to get a 60-day tourist visa. Again, you'll get about 7 months of visa time this way, although the cost of all those border runs, overnight trips and visas do add up.

This would be an appropriate place for some commentary on how dumbfounded we continually are at how hostile to tourists the Thai immigration process is, but we'll leave it at this: If you do what we tell you do, you have the best chance of getting the best visa. Seems obvious, but you'd be surprised at the number of past interns who through they knew the immigration process better than us and ended up with bad or no visas.

If you need more information on visas, here's a few links to check out:

• Contact Us! – We’ll answer any questions you have via e-mail or telephone
• Thai Visa.com – A well-known resource for all things visa-related in Thailand.
• Your local Thailand embassy website – For the official info on visas and prices.

What About Work Permits?

To work legally in Thailand, you'll need a work permit. Even the very largest dive centers in Thailand cannot afford to provide work permits to all of their instructors. So most times an instructor has to pay for his own permit.

That can be done by setting up a company and issuing a work permit through it. The setup and first permit alone can run $2,000 and you'll incur monthly costs of $200-$300 for taxes, social security, etc. In some places in Thailand, you can get a work permit without having to set up your own company, but you'll still have to pay about $200 per month. And, of course, there are those who simply choose to work illegally hoping they won't get caught. Many go for years that way, but the risk is considerable. You can be arrested, jailed, fined heavily, deported and even blacklisted from Thailand if caught.

Work permits are not something you need to worry about at this point. You don't need one during your internship and if upon graduation you think you want to work in Thailand we can talk to you personally about your options and point you to people who can help you get started.