Merylhighground

I don't see why not as it is a bona fide Immigration office.

I don't think there is 'hatred' for teachers here, but a degree of contempt and ridicule, especially towards those who lack any true formal qualifications to teach, bar a certificate which shows they can play party games with the kids, yet they view themselves as true professionals (as opposed to someone who has studied to at least degree level and worked for years in their chosen field).

The ones who tend to garner most ridicule are those who are in denial of their status (you must have seen 'teachers' racing from language centre to language centre on the BTS in Bangkok, totally overdressed, trying to look like businessmen with their cheap nylon suits/shirts from Lotus, shades and briefcases, or in many of Bangkok's 'expat' bars in the evenings, 'playing expats').

Many tend to never mention they are 'teachers' but tend to give alternative occupations when asked like 'in real estate' or 'working in a consultant capacity' or similar. A good few also seem to have a 'golden plan' which will one day make them their fortune before they realise that their 'golden plan' has been tried and failed a thousand times by a thousand others, then they slip away un-noticed and un-missed as Thailand doesn't mourn the passing of yet another TEFL clown off the convey belt....

That said, I have had many mates over the years who have been teachers, all sound lads and happy in their work as they just crack on with their lives.

Had you have posted this ten to fifteen years ago you would have garnered a lot more replies, when the Thai authorities really did allow anyone to teach (sole qualification being a native English speaker was all that was needed) and most 'teachers back then were just here to be close to the bars and the lasses and most didn't give a hoot about their wards. You only had to note some of the demics who would hang around Nana Plaza, Cowboy and Patpong on a Friday evening, to see that something was wrong with the system.

Now, things aren't so easy for casual teachers. Long gone are the days when schools would put up an ad in a Banglamphu guesthouse or two and expats or travellers low on funds would bung on a shirt, hit the payphone and go and do a days teaching for 500 or 1000B a day. Now they need a minimum of a degree, a Work Permit, some kind of teaching qualification and must get a teacher's licence.

It won't be the Skytrain (BTS) from the Airport but the Airport Rail Link which terminates at Phayathai which is close to the Phayathai Skytrain (BTS) from where you can whizz around to Asoke with ease or you could hop off at Makkasan and get a cab from there to Asoke (not recommended in rush hour).

http://www.srtet.co.th/en/

They intend to rewrite it OS according to the Guardian.

I've known Westerners attend Thai universities for a year as a part of their degrees in the West but don't know of any Thai universities who allow foreigners to enrol on Thai degree courses. If your language skills are up to scratch, I'd say try contacting the admissions tutors of any courses you are interested in.

be forced to use my Thai skills in an academic setting where I will be challenged to think critically and write well

Sorry to sound like a jaded old expat but these are qualities not encouraged in Thai Universities.

It is basically 'listen to teacher and hope some of it soaks in come exam time'

I think it could be enormously challenging, but very rewarding.

I'd say it would be very challenging indeed unless you are 'fluent' in Thai.

Good luck and please come back with your findings and experiences.

Another moral to this is never to discard any official documents you receive from any government agency. Ever.

Sage advice there from Jeff. Nice to see some excellent advice amidst the bile.

We have folders of documents from the past ten or so years with everything from my immigration/Min of Labour documents, to wedding stuff, births, making the kids British, her UK visa stuff, her ongoing UK citizenship stuff, moving house, changing address etc, kids school stuff, medical stuff. everything. It took up three shelves and 11 folders and bless my secretary for coming over once every few months to go through everything, date it and file it appropriately and showing Nut how to do it all.

Did we need to keep it all? Every now and again we did need the odd thing but given public official's love of wanting every single shred of documentary evidence it was reassuring to know it was all there and easy to find.

Yes this is normal. Only nationals from G7 countries get 30 days.

G7 countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA.

Northern Ireland IS in the UK therefore a G7 country, so unless eddy has his info muddled, he should have got 30 days on a UK passport?

I recall during the Thaksin regime some half-witted, slack-jawed imbecile 'official' trying to ban 'spaghetti' tops and short skirts around Valentine's day, when that utterly failed even though they had teams of 'morality volunterers in some downtown malls, trying to identify and get 'offenders' to cover up; then came an even sillier proposed ban on Beer Promo girls (which thankfully never came to pass). Thailand really is ludicrous at times in it's attempts to appear conservative and respectable.

There appears to be a whole bunch of serial overstayers of late on here.

Why have so many left it until after March 20th to go,and leave themselves open to a lengthy ban,which I think could well be the case for the OP.

When we were helping our acquaintance clear his 4/5 year OS earlier in the month, there wasn't a great deal of availability before the 20th at a reasonable price until we eventually got lucky and found him a good priced flight to London on the 16th.

As mentioned above, maybe after stupid amounts of time on an over stay people are tying up their lose ends and saying their goodbyes and have no real desire to go back especially if they are still young and have already precious wasted years bumming around in Thailand.

Come on chaps! A lass untouched by anyone and with a few quid too.....a TV member's dream. The complete reverse of the ongoing 'Harold and the Porn Star'.

The 'my missus was a respectable lass, different from the others'' gang (when we all know different) could actually back up their claims here with a 40 foot billboard......

You reckon she is Thai Chinese as well ?....TV members should be frothing at the bit to reach her door as they will have "made it" in Thailand and finally acquired some class, and they they could truly say "mines different"...

I suspect many on here have lasses who know a thing or two about backs involving more than 40....

Fair point pal!

Do not under any circumstances go to any Immigration Office, Police Station or similar where you seriously risk being locked up or detained.

Go only to the airport where they will process you, take your money, let you go on your way.

I have personal knowledge of a similar case as casualobserver above (#20) who went straight to the airport with an ETD, where they messed my acquaintance around a bit, kept him waiting, made him sweat a bit, but he got it all sorted (before the 20th March 16 so he should avoid a ban - though this seems ambiguous) easily enough mind you.

Come on chaps! A lass untouched by anyone and with a few quid too.....a TV member's dream. The complete reverse of the ongoing 'Harold and the Porn Star'.

The 'my missus was a respectable lass, different from the others'' gang (when we all know different) could actually back up their claims here with a 40 foot billboard......

They could have tried 'This is a test, do not panic'' slowly and clearly a few times in English and Thai before testing the alarm proper, but it is the same old silly story; some stuffed shirt somewhere is trying for his 'Thaier than Thai' brownie points with an eye on any coming (fat chance) elections.....

Isn't this the same regime who, post coup, bunged a load of female police 'officers' on the streets to try and establish some 'calm and happiness'?

My wife used to work as a 'pretty' as a Beer Chang girl while she studied at University and being up in MTT she worked a few Motor Shows at Impact. She agrees that the 'show' was out of place but very much in keeping with Thai marketing values and rather harmless......

Is it 100% clear yet whether he'll be banned? I thought another poster reported not receiving a ban, when he met the criteria for one, and we speculated it was because he'd left <90 days after March 20th.

At the moment there have been a few reports of people clearing and doing a 'turnaround' via airports post 20th March 2016 with few problems but most seem to have been over-stays of less than 90 days which doesn't seem to carry a ban if the person 'submits' themselves to immigration.

OP do a search of the forum and see for yourself.

Yes there will be people around to take your money.

When an acquaintance of mine cleared his recently at a similar time, at the 'pay desk' they kept him hanging around for almost two hours saying things like 'if he could wait so long before leaving, another half hour won't hurt' so I'd allow yourself as much time as possible to deal with clearing immigration.

Anything else you should know?

It could be a shame you weren't ten or so days earlier in clearing your mess as now you may face a 3 year ban on returning. At the moment any bans seem arbitrary and down to the individual officer. There is a chance that as you are close to the deadline given by the authorities (20th March 2016) they may let it slip but then again they may not so if you were/are planning to return soonish, I'd ask for some clarification.

Don't get arrested before you get to the airport.....

Don't SE Asians understand Crime and Punishment?

Kheng, also a deputy prime minister, said the government already has a company interested in building a prison, which, he added, had been approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Translation: Kheng, also a deputy prime minister, total crook said the government he and his pals and family already has own a company interested in building a prison, which, he added, had been approved also been the subject of a huge backhander by Prime Minister Hun Sen who may need a luxury suite there one day.....

Sad and coming from a nation with such a crime filled recent history, highly disturbing......

Sounds like a job for Boaty McBoatface &lt;deleted&gt;......

I think the above poster has a point about the prestige of such places here.

The only exercise type of place I've even been a member of was the Tennis Academy of Asia when we lived in Muang Thong Thani from 2004 to 2007. It was a steep 3500B an month for using all the facilities so not being a gym rat nor a tennis player I opted for the pool only bash at a (I then felt) steep 1000B a month.

It was heaven. I had the place to my self most days as it was a steep 200B a pop to use the pool which put most locals off.

The only other people I'd see were the more well heeled locals, mostly from the more affluent (former) Thai Airways Village or Lakeside Estate who certainly were all there for the 'prestige' as both estates had pools already, who would arrive once the Sun had lowered enough to cease to send it's deadly rays on their fair skins but I seldom hung around after evenfall as I was still sniffing around the now wife then and as she was working as a Chang Promo Girl at a nearby eatery I'd have to be in there by 6 most nights to be sure of my prime 'sniffing table' while declaring my honourable intentions to her.

and the suspicion of working illegally.

That's an excellent point indeed.

The reason they began really getting down on visas, especially border runners back in the mid 2000s was due to the alleged large numbers of 'illegal' workers able to remain in the country thanks to back-to-back border runs for a 30 day stamp, or SETV runs to Penang (or similar) which is why they restricted the amount of either you could have in your passport.

The problem could be is if they have you down on their records as a possible (former or future) illegal worker......

Good luck.

Thus far it seems as though whether or not to apply a ban to an over-stayer returning is up to the discretion of the individual IO on arrival or departure. There have already been reports of people clearing small overstays post March 20th 2016 and being allowed to 'spin around' with no problems.

An acquaintance of mine who settled his 4 year overstay, also in 2015, returned in early March of this year with only minimal aggro at Suwannaphumi - his passport was initially passed from pillar to post, then he was made to stand at a number of booths to be frowned at by a number of different IOs, (though he feels they did this to 'make him sweat' as a lesson as it wasn't very busy) before they eventually stamped him in - but he had a non-immi visa from the US in a new passport which may have been the deciding factor for him.

I sort of agree with the ''blood the kids'' train of thought but I think it would be a huge risk to leave out the experience of Rooney and Carrick (or even Milner) with Vardy or Drinkwater or Dier on the bench to come on as 'impact subs' as it were.

They've had their chance and failed dismally.

Time to move on.

Look at what France did in 1994 and what it led to in 98/00.

Can't disagree with any of that.

It's funny - I've seen them randomly at the side of the road as I'm driving to Tesco, but when you go looking you'll inevitably see nothing!

That's always the way! Some of my best 'spots' have been while sauntering out and about and not actively looking so to speak.

Get a room with a decent fridge and stock up on non-holidays and have a great time, just to spite the likes of Roland....

Labor Day, Coronation Day and the Royal Ploughing Ceremony Day are technically 'booze days' but as mentioned, given the links to Royalty, the powers may 'request' places observe their archaic laws which could mean anything in actual execution...

There is often some puffed up local official who likes to make himself seem 'Thaier than Thai' (especially if elections are on the horizon) and may try and pass some sort of obscure local 'ordinance' clamping down on the fun of others to suit his ego/possible election campaign, while he gets plastered down at the Golf/Country Club with his cronies while covered in dolly birds.....

I wouldn't worry too much about mealy mouthed Daily Mail types here. They tend to be the ones who have married 'Tee Rak', find themselves stuck in some flimsy shack in Nakhorn Nowhere and have now been banned from any sort of fun as she needs all his cash to fund her 'brother's' moto taxi license and the new buffalo.

Have a good do ya lucky swine!!!!

Good evening from KL. Short update on the case.

Got after a bit of "swinging the sword" like : "You will have biiig problem now" my fine to pay and left the country as planned.

The guys there seems not to be used to deal with OS as he had not even the books there to write my fine. Finally after leaving for like 20 minutes he came back and we began to write my crime. 4 times we count together the days I'm over due - 57 days we agreed on finally. He counted 28.500 Baht fine... my disagreement on a fine higher than 20.000 made him not really happy. Long story short. He had to look for each line in that form into precious site in that crime record book to know what he has to write into it. I finally got it done with an friendly officer that even made his way out of his Box to send me away with a shoulder clap and handshake and the advice to get a visa in KL. Lucky I mentioned my kid - located upper country - which was his birthplace and home of his parents. That gave me a lot of sympathy.

Hope I will get the right stamp in Penang with out any issue about this OS. Will know very soon.

Thanks again for all the kind advices and finger points.

Good luck. Be sure to report back as to how you got on....