grtaylor

I had a problem with wireless not working on my Acer Aspire One after I installed Ubuntu. I fixed it by downloading and installing a new kernel from this site: http://www.aspireonekernel.com/

Since then - no problem.

Graham

I cannot believe it took until post 57 before the esteemed members of TV realised the date!! Very Good one this year boys and girls, by posting on a subject already in the news and close to many TV members hearts you were able to get a real rise from the first 56 posters.

:D

Actually it seems that it was said earlier, but posts have not been published (at least mine was not).....Certainly to keep the ball rolling until now !

Interesting you should say that - I posted a reply about it being April 1st, around 8:45am today, and it isn't there either . . . . . . I'm not real happy about that

Has nobody noticed what date it is today???

Normaly you can add a new employer to your curent WP if the old empoloyer agrees and both employers fall under the same labour office.

As for the PR, as fas as I know the requirement is at least 3 years on yearly extension of a non-immigrant visa, not having the same WP for 3 years.

Isn't it also a requirement that you have to have been with your current employer for a full 12 months when you apply?

G

Apparently the all important meeting was held today (Monday 16 March) to decide on the PR applicants for 2006. (and possibly 2007 as well).

So fingers crossed, a letter will be on its way to us soon.

Hope this is true - I really want this sorted out soon, as circumstances in my employment have changed and it looks as if I will be going to work overseas for at least two years. I'll be leaving in July, and if I don't have PR by then I might as well kiss it goodbye.

G

Why can't you just fly back to get your PR and Alien books when the finally issue them? Cheers, SD

A couple of reasons:

• There is an outside (TIT) chance that they could ask to see my work permit, and as I won't have one they could argue that I didn't fulfil the conditions of application. I'm not prepared to take that risk.
  
• Some people have the luxury of being able to take holidays from their job at any time. As a school teacher, I don't.
  

G

apparently there's one more meeting in the PR approval process to rubber stamp the minutes of the meeting last Monday.

This should happen before the end of the month ... I wonder if we'll here anything before Songkran?

Here's hoping!!

G

Apparently the all important meeting was held today (Monday 16 March) to decide on the PR applicants for 2006. (and possibly 2007 as well).

So fingers crossed, a letter will be on its way to us soon.

Hope this is true - I really want this sorted out soon, as circumstances in my employment have changed and it looks as if I will be going to work overseas for at least two years. I'll be leaving in July, and if I don't have PR by then I might as well kiss it goodbye.

G

Grtaylor,

Mind sharing the name of your school ? Any feedback about Shrewsbury ?

Thinktoomut,

Good luck arguing with JacknDummy, at least he's a fine illustration of how someone's brain could deal with more critical thinking and a tad less blind propaganda swallowing.

Don't really know anything about Shrewsbury, sorry.

At NIST there is no national anthem in the morning..

Maybe thats because their school starts at 0830

7:30 . . . . . .

Total, utter, complete <deleted>

Please make a list of international schools that do not adhere to the national anthem.

Some people

As a retired school administrator who once did some serious applying for a few international schools in Bangkok, I think JacknDanny is correct. In fact, at least as of a few years ago, even though the headmaster might be a Westerner, there also had to be at least one key administrator that was a Thai national.

Still correct, as far as I know. Every International School, unless privately owned by a Thai national, is required by law to have a Thai as the "Licence Holder" and a Thai Head, referred to at my school as the "Khru Yai". If the school is a "not for profit" organisation owned by a Foundation Board, then that Board must be at least 51% Thai citizens.

FYI, not all international school plays the national anthem in the morning and make their students stand. Maybe they do play it, but not loudly. I think the only ones that do and make students stand are the ones owned and run by thai people.

Total, utter, complete <deleted>

Please make a list of international schools that do not adhere to the national anthem.

Some people

My school does not play the National Anthem on a daily basis - in fact we never play it. We do, however, stand and sing the King's Anthem, when we celebrate Wai Khru Day, Loy Kratong and Songkran.

I too have heard that the process was not only a lot easier, but a lot quicker in bygone years!

The people in Room 301 say that once they have verified that the applicants paper-work is in order, and have completed the interview, video and Thai test, they pass the whole application to the Interior Ministry, from which point its out of their hands.

I can't say too much about this, but I am making an approach at the "highest level" at the Interior Ministry, through family connections, relatives who I know, to try to find out what has happened to the 2006 applications. I'll post any news here.

G

I have a couple of friends who applied for PR in December 2007 and was rather surprised to hear that they had not received any news by the end of last year. On looking into this thread I am stunned to see that the December 2006 candidates have also heared nothing. In the 90s, when applicants were not required to speak even a word of Thai, Immigration could virtually guarantee that all applicants from the previous year would be informed before they opened the new application process in December. In fact the committee for permanent residence involving the different agencies used to convene three or four times a year and applicants in each batch were informed after the meeting, if they enquired. A friend of mine applying in the mid 90s was lucky enough to be in the first batch and was informed of his success in June, following his application in December of the previous year. The Interior Minister generally signed each batch within a few months of approval by the committee and all successful candidates could collect their blue and red books by the end of the year following their applications. I remember old hands saying at the time how much easier it had been for them in the 70s and 80s!

I don't know if things have changed radically but Immigration was the driver of the PR process, unlike citizenship applications where it is solely the Interior Ministry with Special Branch vetting the applications. The Interior Ministry's involvement in the PR process was as one of the several participants on the committee for permanent residence and, of course, there is the Interior Minister's role in signing the applications approved by the committee. Even in the dark days of the late 90s when there were revolving doors of governments and interior ministers, Immigration for all its faults, was able to keep the process more or less on track and interior ministers were politely asked to sign the applications in their in trays before vacating office. Generally speaking the folk in room 301 want the process to be reasonably rigorous but smooth flowing and largely under their control. After all they want to keep the whole system alive with enough people bothering to apply to justify their existence and they are the ones who have to field the phone calls from candidates. It sounds as if Immigration may have lost control of the process and the Interior Ministry, which tends towards opaqueness and unaccountability, may be leaving piles of applications to gather dust. It was Purachai (the guy who bought land and got residence in New Zealand) under the Thaksin regime who raised the bar on PR applications but others seem to have picked up the ball and run with it. Purachai also rejected an entire batch of citizenship applications on the questionable grounds that all of them had suspicious backgrounds overlooked both by Special Branch and Immigration. The Sarayudh government, which appeared xenophobic in its approach to the Foreign Business Act, nevertheless, cleared off a big backlog of citizenship applications piled up by the Thaksin regime. It is not at all clear where the current slowdown on PR applications has come from.

I note that several posters have talked about applying without a job on the basis of supporting Thai family members which is permitted in the regulations. I have never heard of anyone being approved on this basis and I suspect that it rarely happens. Even though they do indeed sometimes give PR to some low paid priests, teachers etc, a key emphasis seems to on salary and amount of tax paid by you and your company but you never know, if you don't try.

At the first stage of the process, the Permanent Residence section of the Immigration Bureau (a.k.a Room 301) collects and verifies the information required to support each application, including conducting interviews with each applicant and testing them on their spoken Thai language abilities. This is normally completed by the end of March following the December application period (three months).

Each application is then considered by the Immigration Commission, whose members are drawn from a number of government ministries. Your application must be unanimously approved by all ministry representatives. This is the part that takes over a year - your file is circulated around to all of the ministries, being reviewed and approved at each stop. Of course, it has to sit in a lot of in-trays on its epic journey.

13-15 months after submission, you should get a letter telling you that the Immigration Commission has granted "acceptance in principal" to your application or rejected it. If it's accepted, your file goes on to the final step: sign-off by the Interior Minister. This should take a month or two, but given the number of different Interior Ministers we've had in the last 3 years, it would appear none of them have gotten around to signing the stack of PR applications on the desk. Alas, as a result even the December 2006 applicants are still waiting.

Last time I asked, in #301, the lady officer told me it was all supposed to have been completed at the beginning of September 08, but that "the meeting got cancelled".

I live very near one of those schools and seeing the thai flag in front of it doesn't stop disturbing me.

Which international school would skip this flag, thai anthem, and brainwashing about pillars of thai society ? I suspect the Lycee Francais is one of them but it's so far from our place plus I'm considering an english speaking education for the young one.

I'm not quite sure if I understand you right.

If you're suggesting that international schools should ignore the flag, the anthem and the history of the "host country", then, as an international school teacher, I think that is quite wrong.

I think you will find that virtually all international schools include something about respect for "host country culture" in their mission statement. I feel that is right and proper. Would you, for instance, expect foreign students at ISP (the International School of Paris) to learn nothing about French culture/language/cuisine?

G

Well, I don't know what they study at the ISP or how accustomed they get to french culture, nor expect anything from them, but I've been through french schooling and finished it without having to stand to the french flag or sing the national anthem, and while I'm not the most patriotic citizen around, I feel OK with a culture largely atheist celebrating the decapitation of its former monarchs, and would feel outraged at my kids beeing taught notions like "unconditionnal respect" or to kneel in front of a monk for instance. Hence the serious question above, and I suspect foreign schools like Harrow would try and push less thai culture elements in its pupils' brain than a thai school like Shwresberry. I guess people have different motivations to stay in Thailand, but bathing in local culture is definetely not one of mine - nor of a bunch of other expats .

Fair enough - we're all different - Thai culture is one of the things which has kept me here for nineteen years.

By the way, international schools are required by the Ministry of Education to have a "Thai Studies" course for students. At my school it covers survival language, cultural customs such as Wai Khru, Loy Kratong and Songkran, and Thai history. Its not optional.

Ok, tax records is no problem - i have those. Think I'll follow grtaylor's advice and visit room 301 and ask. I guess it's no hurry since applications are not open yet, and judging by the wait time for 2006 applicants, I don't think those people are in hurry either !

I don't think the current hold-up is anything to do with the Immigration Department. The lady in Rm.301 told me that, as soon as they have interviewed the applicants and verified their paperwork, they send the completed applications to the Ministry of the Interior. From that point on, its out of their hands. I think that they're stuck at the Ministry, and if I had to think of a reason, I would suggest that the political turmoil of the last two years is it. How many ministers have there been in the last two years?

G

I live very near one of those schools and seeing the thai flag in front of it doesn't stop disturbing me.

Which international school would skip this flag, thai anthem, and brainwashing about pillars of thai society ? I suspect the Lycee Francais is one of them but it's so far from our place plus I'm considering an english speaking education for the young one.

I'm not quite sure if I understand you right.

If you're suggesting that international schools should ignore the flag, the anthem and the history of the "host country", then, as an international school teacher, I think that is quite wrong.

I think you will find that virtually all international schools include something about respect for "host country culture" in their mission statement. I feel that is right and proper. Would you, for instance, expect foreign students at ISP (the International School of Paris) to learn nothing about French culture/language/cuisine?

G

What are the choices ? How much per year ?

Are they still doing corporal punishment at school in Thailand ?

Do you have to have short hair, crew cut, uniform and all ?

I have 2 boys, 6 and 8.

Thanks for any info anyone can provide.

Check out the ISAT (International Schools Association of Thailand) website, where there is a complete list of schools.

As regards fees, most schools have information on their websites, or their admissions office will give it. The most expensive would be those generally regarded as the top six: ISB, Patana, RIS, NIST, Harrow and Shrewsbury.

There should NO corporal punishment in any properly accredited international schools.

International schools in Thailand do have school uniform, as it is very much the tradition of this country. It varies from, at one extreme, shirt & tie, long trousers, jacket and straw hat, to schools (like mine) where it is a polo shirt and short or long trousers. No crew cuts in international schools, as far as I know!

I recently was advised that it might be better for me to apply for pr instead of yearly renewals and that this forum might have some advice. Actually, I have read the requirments in both Thai and English for each category as well as general requirments and I'm not really clear on one issue. So I wanted to know if it is a requirement that all applicants have work permit or not and would appreciate replies from people that have received the resident permit.

My situation is I came to thailand many years (13) ago as an investor, then I sold out of the business and continued to stay here as an employee on work permit. Just recently I resigned to stay at home and help my wife to take care of our new baby (both are Thai citizens). I have been here on continous yearly extensions for over 4yrs and meet all the requirements such as tax paid, minimum income levels - actually it's several times the minimum - which is derived from registered investments in thailand. So, I just wanted to know is work permit compulsory or only for applicants that are working? A pity I missed the december 30 deadline for applying, as I was still in emplorment then.

Thanks everyone for advice.

As far as I know, you need to be:

• working, with a work permit, and have been with the same company for one year at least
  
• have worked continuously for a period of three years before you apply
  
• have proof of tax paid during those three years.
  

On that basis, if you got a job with work permit now, you could apply in three years time . . . . . .

However, as others have said in this thread, the rules are always changing, and there are "exceptions". Why not go and talk to them in Rm 301 at immigration. I found them to be very helpful and friendly.

By the way, I applied in December 2006 and am still waiting for the results to be announced . . . . . .

Well, I have only visited Cebu but I think you'll want to go local:

http://www.livingincebuforums.com/ipb/index.php?act=idx

Thanks Jingthing - I did find that Forum, and have tried to register, so far unsuccessfully, so I can't see all the available sections, and can't post! No response from the forum admin . . . . .

I guess I asked here as I'd like some feedback from someone who has experienced both, not just someone who is a Cebu expat without experience of Thailand.

Thanks for the link anyway.

After nineteen years working in BKK, its looks like I could be relocating to Cebu in the Philippines to work in July, which is a hel_l of a shock after so long. I guess, psychologically, I thought I would never be leaving, but, having decided to change jobs and resigning, I find there's nothing at all coming up in my field at the moment in BKK.

I hope the move would be temporary (maybe up to five years) as it would then almost be time to retire, and I have property here to come back to.

Any perspectives on what life is like there? The salary package is not as good, but has been described by another farang guy there as "comfortable".

Everything I've heard so far reminds me of the T-shirt slogan "same same - but different".

Thanks for any advice/opinions.

do u really not understand the difference between having different prices for locals (who in the case of sports arenas and theme parks probably lent the money to the companies via tax dollars) and different races?

if someone wants to run their business this way, i dont really care all that much, but it does speak to their character as a human being.

i cant imagine being the manager in one of these establishments and having a farang and Thai come in and ask the price.

"Oh for you its this much and for you its that much".

"Why?"

"Because of your skin color".

I'd be too embarrassed honestly.

Its not different races!!! I'm "local" - I'm white, work here, pay my taxes, have a work permit and a driving licence, and I get in (National Park for example) for the local price.

Really? How you do that then? Shoe polish?

I speak to them in Thai and show my driving licence - no problem.

Ridiculous boasting.

Next time you are in BKK let me know if your strategy works also at, let's say, Wat Phra Kaeo.

Not boasting - just another point of view . . . .

excuse me? Speaking Thai, working permit, tax paying and showing driving licence is another point of view?

Or is there something more?

Something more? I don't understand your point, sorry. I'm just trying to point out that if you are "local" you pay the local price, simply that.

1)Are you saying, that every Farang, who speaks Thai, has a working permit, pay tax and has a driving licence pays the local price?

2)Your location:From Bangkok - so you are paying the local price in Bangkok?

1) No, sorry, I'm not claiming that - I don't know - its just personal experience that it was my "permanent" location rather than the colour of my skin which was the factor.

2) My recent experience is based on National Parks around Chiang Mai, on Koh Chang & Koh Samet, I haven't been recently to anywhere in Bangkok which charges. Its probably more than ten years since I last went to Wat Phra Kaeo.

The Koh Samet trip was the one which sticks in my mind. I was with three other farangs and a Thai guy. Two of the farangs were tourists, and the other one is recently retired here but hasn't got himself a driving licence yet. I got in for the Thai price, the other farangs had to pay the higher price. This was just on the strength of the driving licence - I don't carry my WP around with me.

do u really not understand the difference between having different prices for locals (who in the case of sports arenas and theme parks probably lent the money to the companies via tax dollars) and different races?

if someone wants to run their business this way, i dont really care all that much, but it does speak to their character as a human being.

i cant imagine being the manager in one of these establishments and having a farang and Thai come in and ask the price.

"Oh for you its this much and for you its that much".

"Why?"

"Because of your skin color".

I'd be too embarrassed honestly.

Its not different races!!! I'm "local" - I'm white, work here, pay my taxes, have a work permit and a driving licence, and I get in (National Park for example) for the local price.

Really? How you do that then? Shoe polish?

I speak to them in Thai and show my driving licence - no problem.

Ridiculous boasting.

Next time you are in BKK let me know if your strategy works also at, let's say, Wat Phra Kaeo.

Not boasting - just another point of view . . . .

excuse me? Speaking Thai, working permit, tax paying and showing driving licence is another point of view?

Or is there something more?

Something more? I don't understand your point, sorry. I'm just trying to point out that if you are "local" you pay the local price, simply that.

do u really not understand the difference between having different prices for locals (who in the case of sports arenas and theme parks probably lent the money to the companies via tax dollars) and different races?

if someone wants to run their business this way, i dont really care all that much, but it does speak to their character as a human being.

i cant imagine being the manager in one of these establishments and having a farang and Thai come in and ask the price.

"Oh for you its this much and for you its that much".

"Why?"

"Because of your skin color".

I'd be too embarrassed honestly.

Its not different races!!! I'm "local" - I'm white, work here, pay my taxes, have a work permit and a driving licence, and I get in (National Park for example) for the local price.

Really? How you do that then? Shoe polish?

I speak to them in Thai and show my driving licence - no problem.

Ridiculous boasting.

Next time you are in BKK let me know if your strategy works also at, let's say, Wat Phra Kaeo.

Not boasting - just another point of view . . . .

do u really not understand the difference between having different prices for locals (who in the case of sports arenas and theme parks probably lent the money to the companies via tax dollars) and different races?

if someone wants to run their business this way, i dont really care all that much, but it does speak to their character as a human being.

i cant imagine being the manager in one of these establishments and having a farang and Thai come in and ask the price.

"Oh for you its this much and for you its that much".

"Why?"

"Because of your skin color".

I'd be too embarrassed honestly.

Its not different races!!! I'm "local" - I'm white, work here, pay my taxes, have a work permit and a driving licence, and I get in (National Park for example) for the local price.

Really? How you do that then? Shoe polish?

I speak to them in Thai and show my driving licence - no problem.

do u really not understand the difference between having different prices for locals (who in the case of sports arenas and theme parks probably lent the money to the companies via tax dollars) and different races?

if someone wants to run their business this way, i dont really care all that much, but it does speak to their character as a human being.

i cant imagine being the manager in one of these establishments and having a farang and Thai come in and ask the price.

"Oh for you its this much and for you its that much".

"Why?"

"Because of your skin color".

I'd be too embarrassed honestly.

Its not different races!!! I'm "local" - I'm white, work here, pay my taxes, have a work permit and a driving licence, and I get in (National Park for example) for the local price.