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Early study

Thailand

A parent can come as a parent — which is rarer than it sounds.

5/5
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Tuition
~$20.7–24.8k/yr
Bangkok international schools, secondary. The fee does not climb with the year group the way it does elsewhere — both schools charge less at Year 13 than at Year 12, and St Andrews charges less at Year 11 than at Year 7 — so a single number for "secondary" would hide the shape as well as the spread. A widely cited fee survey put Bangkok secondary at THB 600,000–750,000; the schools’ own documents say otherwise.
Living
30.9% of US prices
A comparison of prices, not a budget: it says what things cost here against the United States, not what a month will cost you. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.
Education
Good
Guardian visa
Dedicated guardian visa, renewable yearly
The visa carries no right to work. A two-parent family generally needs a second route for the other parent.
Safety
2.089 · 101st of 163
Mid-table globally; the index is dragged by the southern border provinces and by political instability rather than by street crime in Bangkok

Where these figures came from

One row per ingredient. Open any of them for the source, how far we trust it, and when we last checked.

Tuition~$20.7–24.8k/yr

Two mid-tier Bangkok international schools, from their own 2026/27 schedules, secondary years only, and every year group each of them prints. St Andrews Bangkok charges THB 757,100 for Years 7 to 9, 823,700 for Year 10, 730,900 for Year 11, 873,800 for Year 12 and 767,800 for Year 13. Bangkok Prep charges 790,800 for Years 7 to 9, 846,500 for Years 10 and 11, 862,200 for Year 12 and 771,200 for Year 13. Both were re-read at source and both agreed with what this record already said. What did not survive is the arithmetic on top of them. The figure was THB 793,225, the middle of a middle of a middle: a median per school and then a median of the two. Nine prices are printed and not one of them is 793,225. Bangkok’s top tier is left out and named so the exclusion can be argued with: Bangkok Patana, ISB, NIST and Harrow. Patana’s own Year 7 to 9 rate is THB 842,000, which sits inside the range below rather than above it, so leaving the top tier out changes less here than the rule expects.

Bangkok international schools, secondary. The fee does not climb with the year group the way it does elsewhere — both schools charge less at Year 13 than at Year 12, and St Andrews charges less at Year 11 than at Year 7 — so a single number for "secondary" would hide the shape as well as the spread. A widely cited fee survey put Bangkok secondary at THB 600,000–750,000; the schools’ own documents say otherwise.

WhatAs publishedPer year, USD
St Andrews Bangkok — Year 11730,900 THBa year$20,700
St Andrews Bangkok — Years 7 to 9757,100 THBa year$21,450
St Andrews Bangkok — Year 13767,800 THBa year$21,750
Bangkok Prep — Year 13771,200 THBa year$21,850
Bangkok Prep — Years 7 to 9790,800 THBa year$22,400
St Andrews Bangkok — Year 10823,700 THBa year$23,350
Bangkok Prep — Years 10 and 11846,500 THBa year$24,000
Bangkok Prep — Year 12Sixth form862,200 THBa year$24,450
St Andrews Bangkok — Year 12873,800 THBa year$24,750

9 figures from 2 separate decisions — a body that publishes its prices in finer detail would otherwise count for more than one that does not. Nothing stands above them, because no one of them is the country’s price.

Confidence
printed in the source
Last checked
2026-09
Living30.9% of US prices

World Bank, 2024, CC BY 4.0: the PPP conversion factor for household consumption is 10.9070 local currency units per international dollar, against an official exchange rate of 35.2935 to the US dollar. Their ratio, 0.309, is the price level against the United States, whose own ratio is 1 by construction. Both figures are theirs; the division is ours. See the Pathoff method, section 12.

A comparison of prices, not a budget: it says what things cost here against the United States, not what a month will cost you. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.

Confidence
made by us from the source
EducationGood

Pathoff judgement, no rubric yet: placed against the other countries here from general knowledge of the international-school sector. Under review — see the Pathoff method, section 9-3.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Guardian visaDedicated guardian visa, renewable yearly

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-1), early outcome band "A parent route exists with limits": A Royal Thai consulate publishes a Non-Immigrant O visa for the parent or guardian of a student, extendable in one-year blocks while the child stays enrolled, with no nationality condition. Below Malaysia for the annual renewal, the deposit, and the fact that immigration normally grants one guardian per child.

The visa carries no right to work. A two-parent family generally needs a second route for the other parent.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
Safety2.089 · 101st of 163

Global Peace Index 2026, Institute for Economics and Peace: score 2.089, ranked 101 of 163. Both figures are theirs; we publish them as they are.

Mid-table globally; the index is dragged by the southern border provinces and by political instability rather than by street crime in Bangkok

Confidence
printed in the source

What it is like here

Thailand issues a visa to the parent or guardian of a child enrolled at a recognised school, renewable a year at a time for as long as the child is studying. Almost no Western country does this. Set against it: Bangkok’s established international schools are expensive by Asian standards — more than Kuala Lumpur, close to London — and the guardian visa carries no right to work.

How the process works

1

Enrol the child at a Ministry-recognised school

The school issues the letter the child’s ED visa is built on.

⏱ 1–6 months
2

Child’s ED visa, then the guardian visa

The guardian application depends on the child’s status existing first.

⏱ 4–8 weeks
3

Extend in country each year

Renewed at the Immigration Bureau against continued enrolment and a bank balance.

⏱ annual

Where families cluster

Sukhumvit / Bang Na, Bangkok
Where the established international schools and their families are
Chiang Mai
Markedly cheaper schools and rents, smaller choice

Open any ingredient above to see where its figure came from, how far we trust it and when we last checked. Nothing here is a substitute for the official source. Last reviewed 2026-09-04.

Photograph of Thailand by Ninara from Helsinki, Finland, licensed CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.