What should I prepare for before moving to Thailand to study Thai on a GI Bill?

You need to be specialist of some kind to find a job you are allowed to work in, at least 4 Thai employes pr. foreigner, and the wage has to be above 50.000 Baht / month.

That’s in short what you are up against.

Best possibility at the moment would be working online, but only for non- thai customers, and get the DTV visa

Do your va disability

You can live well on $1500-2000/mo for a single person. My family of 4 (soon to be 5) is spending around $6000/mo and we live pretty much unrestricted, 200sqm condo in the center of BKK.

If DTV is still around that maybe a better bet of you find remote work before you come. Just have to keep an eye on the programs between now and then. It took us about 8 months to get all moved over, and it's been WELL worth it. Keep your eye on the prize and good luck!

Theres plenty of colleges around here and several that the gi bill will support with a stipend of around 2k. That would be enough by itself if you kept a small budget. Or rent a room on campus they're only 1k baht (30ish usd) and they're similar to barracks sized rooms. If you did Thai language and cultural studies and in your free time take the exams for your tefl/teslo(I'm sure I spelled those wrong) you can teach English online during your off time and once you finish your degree in Thai studies you can easily find a job teaching English pretty much anywhere. Or continue to teach online and apply for the dtv, with your degree as a backup if you want to teach at a school and use a work visa. Also if you budget small for the time spent you should be able to afford a thai elite visa. That'd gi e you 3 options to stay in Thailand,a cert to teach online so you can travel anywhere, and a degree to apply for a job in Thailand itself.

There is something called WEAMS. It's on the VA website. They show overseas schools that accept the GI Bill. You can also search on the top right section called "GI comparison tool" They show things like how many students are going there, if the school has any complaints, etc. I couldn't find any schools in Thailand that you can use your GI Bill while learning Thai. I also checked different countries for Spanish. So far nothing. If you find anything let me know. Here is the WEAMS section.

Yeah, get 20 and get your benefits. You are leaving $$ on the table

2 Years is a long ways away in Terms of Thai Policies which in recent Years change like the Weather. Seems you are set. Best advice I could give you is to use a Reputable School House. There 1000s Fake/Scam Language Schools just so you can stay in Thailand Longterm !

Thank you for your service 🙏

Go to a Thai University and sign up for a masters degree. Cheap, I know. They will take care of your education visa. Look into English major problems. Let me know if you need contacts. I was a lecturer/teacher at a government Uni near Rangsit.

Definitely pull up all the Thai universities that take the gi bill on the VA website. You have some options. Probably around 12 universities if I remember correctly. Look up the type of four year degrees they offer. I don’t know if they have a four year Thai degree but perhaps communication type degree. The school you pick will help you with getting your visa.

Don’t !

How many years did you serve so far? You said you are 28 did you enlist at 18? If you already at 10 years just finish the remaining 10 and you don’t got to worry

About money anymore.

Thai language courses are not that long and yes you would required to be fluent before you can taking courses/going to a university. The prestigious Universities like Julalongkorn , Thummasat offering international courses which would qualified you for the visa.

Look at being a digital nomad with your customers outside of Thailand

Did you gain any commercial skills in the army?

E-commerce

You will be fighting the Chinese or the Russians before then.

good to be young ha

Ask again in 2 years