CWMcMurray

I am still stunned that the ordinary and quite poor people of Thailand supported the PPP, it is just beyond belief after Thaksin is almost certainly guilty of robbing these people of Thailand's inheritance of billions of Baht and ensuring their future will take many many more years before they can escape the poverty trap whilst Thaksin and his cronies just get richer and richer

I disagree with many of the people on this forum. While I believe that it can be debated as to whether or not Thaksin actually helped the poor people of Thailand, the PPP was elected by the poor people of Thailand because they perceive that the PPP (Thai Rak Thai) is the only party that ever even bothered to put forward any type of populous policies in this country.

What that means is that now the political debate may end up shifting in order to gain the vote of this large voter segment. I think that you will see many of the political parties begin talking about a populous agenda and helping the poor.

This may be little more than talk but at some point they may begin to actually deliver on their promises in some minor ways.

I believe if PPP did not win this election then the poor people would be written off and everything would just return to politics as usual, Bangkok is all that matters.

It may take quite a few years before the poor and uneducated become sophisticated in terms following politics but they at least have politicians interested enough in them to lie to them, which is an improvement in itself.

I am sure someone with more experience on this issue will be by shortly but from what I have heard, you must prove that the money you used came from outside the country. I am sure that the housing company will be more than happy to give you their bank information and then you can simply send them the money on a monthly basis.

*Hallo everyone. I'm new to Thai Visa and think it is excellent. Your information is so valuable. You are all very helpful, I feel. I wonder if you could help me with my problem?

I am English (living in London) but have paid a deposit (while recently in Thailand with my gay Thai boyfriend) on a condominium (one unit: studio flat) in BKK. I shall return to Thailand in June. I hope to work and live there. Anyway, from next month (December) I need to start sending monthly installments of money to the housing firm to complete the purchase of my condo over the following 6 months. My question is: do I have to transfer the money directly to the condo company itself (under Thai law), or can I send a lump sum to my (very much trusted) friend in Thailand (to his bank account), and then he will administer the monthly payments to the housing company (but then it would be from his bank account, not mine - as I do not yet have one in Thailand)? Is there a Thai law that says the money from a foreign condo-purchaser must come from his/her own foreign (e.g. British) bank account?

Also, can I apply for a work visa in Thailand from outside Thailand (while still in London), or do I need to go to Thailand on some other kind of visa first and then apply for a work visa? Thanks very much if you can dispel my ignorance! All best wishes and thanks to you. From Tony (London).

I say sell it as well, if you are only looking for 475 a month that means you only need a 5.7% return to maintain that income. Anything over that could be used to increase the principle.

Will be finishing school after the new year and then will be working here in Thailand. I am married and have a daughter, do you know if ex-pats can claim the child tax credit? I have tried to research this and ther only documentation I can find says that the child must live with you in the US for a certain number of days per year. I am guessing that this is meant to stop people from claiming children living with family overseas being claimed but what if they live with me and we all live overseas?

Anyone have any ideas?

It is unlikely that after the $80k foreign income exclusion and the virtually dollar for dollar foreign income tax credit for your Thai tax you will ever owe the IRS anything. This assumes you have no income based stocks, interest, or such.

You would have to be making well over $150k a year to owe any US tax.

Why would you need the child tax credit? If you are referring to claiming your child as a dependent, then you will need to get your child a SSN or TTN in order to claim them on the return. Same for your wife.

I claim both my wife and step daughter (neither are eligible for SSN) on return having got them TTN's some years ago.

TH

The reason I am interested in the child tax credit is because if my understanding is correct, if I don't owe taxes and I qualify for the tax credit then if I file I get a refund for the ammount of the child tax credit.

Is this the case?

If I ask for permission, obviously it won't be given, so I'd like to just take them when others are not around...what is the legal status of this?

I believe the term you are looking for is theft... Whether or not you would be prosecuted I can't answer.

It may even be posible that the company's creditors may have an actionable cause against you if you took the assets.

In bankruptcies there are pretty hard and fast rules about who gets paid first. That being said, I have no idea how strict things are here about such things. I would advise you to talk to a lawyer before you simply "aquire" the assets to find out how likely it is that you would be prosecuted.

I can just see the head line now: "Foreigner runs with all of the companies assets as the Thai workers go without getting paid"

edited to add a suggestion:

Try going to the labor ministry, they are very pro worker and can help to try and insure that employees are paid their salaries before the company is allowed to go under.

Will be finishing school after the new year and then will be working here in Thailand. I am married and have a daughter, do you know if ex-pats can claim the child tax credit? I have tried to research this and ther only documentation I can find says that the child must live with you in the US for a certain number of days per year. I am guessing that this is meant to stop people from claiming children living with family overseas being claimed but what if they live with me and we all live overseas?

Anyone have any ideas?

I had many good friends in the US but I have lost touch with them in the 3 1/2 years I have been living in Thailand.

I have a few close friends here in Thailand, a couple foreigners and a couple Thais, and many aquaintances; I am not certain if my friends here would drop everything in order to help me or not, but I know that I would do so for them and I hope that they would do the same for me.

Samran beat me to it, he is spot on.

We only have one earner in our family since my wife got pregnant, she worked for the first couple of months but she had a difficult pregnacy and I finally was able to convince her to stay home and take it easy at least until she was feeling better.

We had many conversations on this topic and she decided that if we could afford it she would like to stay home and raise our daughter. I didn't presure her in any way, we discussed the pros and cons of her working, the salary that she would bring in and the additional costs of day care.

At the end of the day, the additional ammount that she would bring in was not all that much once you consider the cost of hiring a nanny as well as her transportation and other costs. You also have figure into this being able to find a nanny you can trust and the quality of life we would have considering the number of hours that she would need to put in at work.

Once our daughter goes back to school she said she may decide to go back to work, and if she does decide to do that I would support her decision.

I have previosly studied spanish through the intermediate level but I have forgotten most of it from lack of use. I would like to take a refresher course and then continue my learning.

In my job I will be talking with some of our partners from Spanish speaking countries and would like to be able to speak with them in their native language when ever posible.

Please PM me if you are interested in making some extra money.

Yes, such a book does exist and it is a fairly large book here in Thailand as well. I am not sure if there is anything online or not, I'll check on it for you...

As many have said already, being able to speak Thai is not enough to get you a job but it definately is helpful. I think my being able to speak Thai in addition to my other skills may have played a part in me being offered a very good job here in Thailand. It is hard to say whether I would have been ofered it or not if I couldn't speak Thai but I think it definately helped.

But isn't that the way of things, there is rarely one specific thing that you can do that makes a company want to hire you. In most cases it is the complete picture that allows you to market yourself to potential employers.

What about the child tax credit or the earned income tax credit?

My Thai salary is plenty for me to live on here but it is not much by American standards.

This will be my first year working here and my daughter was also born born this year and I want to know what I need to do in order to keep things legal and what my tax burden will be and if I may infact qualify for any of the credits even though I am not living in the US.

Yeah, the origonal plan was to get the international experience here, go back to the states and work for a few years but being very up front about what my career goals would be with my employer, and try to move myself down the path that would bring me back to asia. I thought I would try to find something here but I wasn't certain if it would be posible, I figured worst case I will go back and go that route, best case I can find something here. Since I have been here I have found opportunities than may allow me to skip the going back to the US part and continue to work and gain experience here.

I have accounts at Krung Thai and Siam and get interest at both.

I have always planned to work overseas and in asia specifically (but not Japan or Korea or Signapore or Hong Kong), so I thought the experience far outweighed the fact that the school I went to was not as highly ranked. The school I transfered from was ranked 42 in the US for its MBA program by the Wall Street Journal about 5 years ago but I wasn't happy with the International Business program, it didn't seem to be much different from the general business degree.

The way I looked at it, experience trumps everything else. Many have already said that what university you go to only really matters for your first job. Thats because most graduates don't really have much to offer other than that.

Its important to keep in mind that I would only be aplying for jobs that would entail working with MNCs with the career path in mind of working outside the US.

Now you are screening applicants for this type of company who is looking for someone that will eventually be able to fill those shoes. Who do you want? Someone who was able to move to a strange country, learn the language in a very short time, study and work in an environment where cross cultural issues are common place, who has done internships with both an American owned company and 2 Thai owned companies in that country and so you know right from the start will be able to handle an overseas assignment without making a runner for the airport after a couple of months.

In addition to this he has also done short study abroad trips in 3 other countries and lived in another asian country for a year and speaks a third language (all be it quite poorly these days, but with a short refesher course...). He has also done internships with a large American auto maker (in the US) as well as some other non related work experience (also in the US).

Or do you take the guy who went to a bit higher ranked University and nothing else?

I don't have any regrets, I think I made the right choice...

I am with you most of the way but the limiting of your countries would have me asking questions.

I am totally mobile and i would want my guys mobile - saying you want to work in Asia but not certin countries would limit you - I work as a Asia regional mamager in IT for a very large company - we can move jobs and projects around pretty quickly - would you run for the airport in 2 months because you were not in Thailand?

Guys who are doing anything just to be in Thailand set alarm bells ringing big time and we do not want to find out anything later.

I am not limiting my countries, I would be willing to work else where. I am just saying that my original plan was to work in a developing country in Asia but if other opportunities presented themselves I am still interested. But for now it looks like Thailand, I have been offered a couple of good positions here.

I have always planned to work overseas and in asia specifically (but not Japan or Korea or Signapore or Hong Kong), so I thought the experience far outweighed the fact that the school I went to was not as highly ranked. The school I transfered from was ranked 42 in the US for its MBA program by the Wall Street Journal about 5 years ago but I wasn't happy with the International Business program, it didn't seem to be much different from the general business degree.

The way I looked at it, experience trumps everything else. Many have already said that what university you go to only really matters for your first job. Thats because most graduates don't really have much to offer other than that.

Its important to keep in mind that I would only be aplying for jobs that would entail working with MNCs with the career path in mind of working outside the US.

Now you are screening applicants for this type of company who is looking for someone that will eventually be able to fill those shoes. Who do you want? Someone who was able to move to a strange country, learn the language in a very short time, study and work in an environment where cross cultural issues are common place, who has done internships with both an American owned company and 2 Thai owned companies in that country and so you know right from the start will be able to handle an overseas assignment without making a runner for the airport after a couple of months.

In addition to this he has also done short study abroad trips in 3 other countries and lived in another asian country for a year and speaks a third language (all be it quite poorly these days, but with a short refesher course...). He has also done internships with a large American auto maker (in the US) as well as some other non related work experience (also in the US).

Or do you take the guy who went to a bit higher ranked University and nothing else?

I don't have any regrets, I think I made the right choice...

Having said that if a CV passed my desk with a Uni in Thailand on it, it would stand out (which IMO is never a bad thing), but I would be curious to know the circumstances that led to someone taking a degree in that part of the world......and I would suggest that someone should have a good story to explain the decision to spend 3/4 years in the Land of Cheap Prostitutes instead of working. I know I have one

So I guess that means I get my interview

But any further would depend on your "story".......not to say their are not 100% good reasons to have a Thai degree. And to be honest if I thought the person was right for the job then even a "bad reason" would not bother me - but I suspect I probably am in minority with that attitude

At the end of the day that remains true for all aplicants and all stories...

But I don't think I will be able to put my theory to the test because I have been given a couple of good job offers here in Thailand, so I don't have any plans on heading back to the US anytime soon.

Having said that if a CV passed my desk with a Uni in Thailand on it, it would stand out (which IMO is never a bad thing), but I would be curious to know the circumstances that led to someone taking a degree in that part of the world......and I would suggest that someone should have a good story to explain the decision to spend 3/4 years in the Land of Cheap Prostitutes instead of working. I know I have one

So I guess that means I get my interview

It is true that Thai Universities don't do much research and that hurts them in the international rankings but in my opinion I feel that the University rankings are far to heavily weighted in that direction. The more research the University does the less time professors tend to spend with their students and in many cases that means students are taught primarily by grad students.

That being said, this is the system we have to work within.

I am going to school at Mahidol University at will be graduating this year and I can say that I am happy with the quality of education that I received here and I feel very confident that I could market myself effectively for a job back in the US with my degree. I am studying International Business, so the international experience that I am gaining here is very marketable.

At the very least my resume will stand out a bit, which may help me to get an interview. If I can get into the interview, I am certain I can sell myself.

Another thing that students studying here or anywhere overseas should think about doing is getting their creditials evaluated, http://www.wes.org/students/index.asp , it is worth the money and will greatly increase your chances of gaining employment. Most people won't know your University or be bothered to research if it compares in anyway to a US education (I said US but you can insert any country you like here, I realize everyone is not from the US) so if the see this report then I think you should be ok.

If you are thinking about what schools to go to then go to the preview page and spend the 20 USD to get a preview of 2 Universities in Thailand to see how they compare.

Ya some info would be great.

I should be based in Pattaya but maybe Sattahip - haven't got the place yet hence me still being here.

Do they have problems with english speaking sudents? i dont speak a word of Thai. Is Englaish really a second language or is that my other half trying to be nice to me??!!

No problem with English speaking students at the University I gave you the link for. Not all Universities offer english language programs but there are many who do.

As far as the english language goes, I wouldn't quite say that they have reached the level of it being a second language country wide, but in the tourist areas it pretty much is. The further from the tourist areas you go the less english is spoken and in many areas none is spoken at all. You should be fine, many people have lived here for decades and have servived without out knowing much Thai, if any

That being said, the more Thai you know the more enjoyable your experience will be, the more friends you will make, and the less different or strange things will seem. It looks like you are planning to study Thai, so good for you. Don't let anyone tell you it is too difficult, it can be intimidating at first but you will be surprised at how fast you can learn as long as you practice using it everytime you leave the house.

also if your boyfriend will be spending a few years here you may want to do all of these. When you need to extend your visa just get a letter from your new school.

One more thing about the student visa, you will need a letter from the school addressed to the embassy or consulate you will be applying to. When will you be coming to Thailand? If you have enough time you can get all of this set up and get your student visa before you get here.

If not then you may have to leave the country to get your student visa after you get here.

I am based out of Bangkok and there are obviously many more schools and classes in the city than you will be able to find in Pattaya and I will admit that I don't know a whole lot about the area. I did a web search and was able to find a few different websites that you may find interesting.

Here are some things to check out in the Pattaya area:

http://www.asianust.ac.th/special/gapyear.htm This is at a University just outside of Pattaya, the ed visa shouldn't be any issue for this one and it looks like a lot of fun.

http://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/pattaya_ad/bec/bec.html This is a school that offers alot of the tpe of classes that you are interested in, I would contact them to find out if they will write you a letter for a student visa

http://www.learn-in-asia.com/ I don't know if you are interested in Scuba diving or not but I have heard of people getting education visas for studying suba diving.

There may be many other schools in the area but these were all that i could find online. If there is anyone based out of Pattaya maybe they can help you find some more.

Or if you decide to come to Bangkok or Chiang Mai then I know of some other Universities that you might want to check out. Altholugh I realize that would depend on where your boyfriend will be working more so than any sort of personal preferance.

I hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions.

I am finishing up at school and will be working for a Thai company starting next month, right now going through the process of changing my visa and getting a work permit so I can start paying taxes and hope to go for my PR as soon as posible as well.

I hope everything works out and you are able to get things rolling.

It seems like we will be starting our 'residency clocks' at about the same time, so we should be applying for residency at the same as well.