chillipepper

Here in Egypt some numbnuts fired a gun into the air during a wedding. The bullet came down, hit the ground, ricocheted and then struck one of our students in the head. His life support was turned off one week later...

The problem lies in the fact that Thai parents (and a lot of other Asian and European parents) will not accept a non-native speaker on the same terms as a native speaker. For PYP you will have to get in to an international school and in Thailand this is very tough for a non-native speaker to be hired on the same terms as a native speaker. I suggest you try China, Europe, Australia or America as you would have more chance in these countries in my experience. Your best chance of teaching PYP in Thailand is to wait until recruitment is nearly over and then see if some schools have failed to fill all their places. Many schools will take teachers without PYP training and then send you on the training once you start work. You should definitely think of registering with a recruitment agency and attending job fairs, although it is late in the season for this. I recommend Search Associates for PYP jobs.

Incredible how knowledgeable some of the forum members are... I was bitten by a dog two weeks ago. The dog was trying to bite my small shitsu so I pulled the lead and dragged her up into my arms but the other dog went ahead and tried to bite her. The dog missed by dog but got a good strong bite on my arm. The dog was just doing what dogs do, so I took no further action. No blood but a couple of days later a massive bruise that turned red, then blue, then green over the next ten days. No bite marks were visible and if saw it you could not have guessed it was a dog bite. It just shows how some people think they know so much but actually know so little. Having said that I think the guy attacking the stray dog with a pipe was completely unjustified. If you have a problem with dogs, stay away from them and teach your kids to do the same. Dogs won't attack unless provoked.

To elaborate on my original post. I arrived in Thailand in March on a tourist visa, my current school then applied for a non-immigrant B and a work permit with an extension to stay until April 2015. When I arrived I had five pages of my passport available and it never occurred to me that would not be enough. After only three months I had one page left. Due to fly to the UK for the summer I decided not to apply for a new passport as I had a four year contract and had no idea my circumstances would change. I thought, wait until I return from the summer and then go the Embassy and apply for a new passport. When I was here eight years ago this was how the system worked back then. Little did I know that these days passport renewals are not done at the Embassy anymore but are sub-contracted out or that the passport office in the UK would be in disarray with 3-4 month waiting lists.

After the summer break my circumstances changed and decided to find a new job I also realised that I needed to apply for a new passport. I applied thinking that my three months notice would give me enough time to get my passport back from the UK. I should have known better. First of all it took two weeks of trying, to no avail, to get an appointment with the UK Visa office in Bangkok. In the end I went there in person. I was asked if I had an appointment and had to tell them that I did not and that was the reason I was there in person. Finally they let me in and told me to book an appointment online. I told them I had tried that but the system was not working. A nice man went into the back office and came back to tell me that they had emailed me that morning with my appointment time which was two weeks hence. I subsequently checked my emails but there was nothing. Anyway, two weeks later I made my passport application with very little fuss. I have to say that I found the staff at the UK Visa office nothing but friendly, helpful and courteous. Now I have found out that the waiting time is anywhere from six weeks to four months.

The UK government is sub-contracting services out left, right and centre so that the amount of service from the UK Embassy is now minimal. Although I found the Embassy staff to be very helpful they really can't do very much. Also try calling either UK Visa or the Embassy and you will be routed through a call centre outside of Thailand. We really are left on our own once we leave the UK and we are reliant on support networks like this for sound advice.

I already know of one other teacher in similar circumstances. My advice to everyone is to check you have at least 6-8 pages available in your passport unless you intend to go back home and renew there. Also when you get a new one make sure you pay the small additional fee for the version with extra pages.

Thanks very much, I will give it a go. They can only say no.

Thanks again for the information. My work permit is still valid and I am leaving on good terms. I could finish here next Thursday without canceling the work permit, drive down to Pattaya Thursday night then go to the labour office and immigration in Pattaya on Friday with an administrative assistant from my new school to apply for the new work permit. Do you think this would work or should I cancel the Bangkok permit in Bangkok on Thursday before I go to Pattaya?

Are you sure, my new school has been told this is not possible. I am currently in Bangkok and my new school is in Pattaya. If true, then it is great news.

An update on a previous post. I finish work with one school on the 3rd October and start work with another school on 4th October. I will have to cancel my work permit on the 3rd, apply for 7 day visa extension and then, I thought, go to Laos can come back in with a non-visa B so I could apply for my new work permit. But here is the problem. My British passport is full (I have one page left), I applied for a new one about two weeks ago. The new one could take anywhere from six weeks to four months. Today I went to get an Emergency Travel Document to travel to Laos but the British Consulate told me that Laos and Cambodia will not issue non-Bs on an ETD. They have advised me to go to Singapore or Hong Kong. I originally came here in March on a standard British passport without a visa and then my current school applied for the work permit and non-B without me leaving the country.

Should I take the Consulate's advice or would it be easier to just cancel work permit, get 7 day extension, go to Cambodia and come back in with 30 day tourist visa, extend for 90 days if necessary, wait for new passport to arrive and then do the Laos run for the non-B? In the meantime just not work until I get my paperwork in order. Or, if I have to go to Singapore, how long will I have to stay to get the non-B? Any wisdom or advice is most welcome.

Many thanks for the advice

I have a problem that I hope the collective wisdom out there might be able to help with. I have quit my current teaching job in Bangkok and have a new teaching job in Pattaya. My current job finishes on 3rd October and my new contract starts on 4th October. I have to cancel my work permit on my last day in Bangkok which then invalidates my work visa. My new school want me to get a 7 day extension from immigration on my last day in Bangkok and then fly out to Lao for Non Imm B to give them time to process the new work permit. My problem is that this week I applied for a passport renewal for the UK as my current passport only has one page left. Technically this means I am not allowed to use my passport until I receive my new one (currently about three months wait from the UK). I can get an emergency passport from the Embassy to do the visa run but am wondering if there is an easier way around this. I saw today that 30 day extensions are now given. Is this the case and would I be able to extend for 90 days?