Bangkok Phil

I read Tony's original post with great interest because my own non-immigrant O (based on marriage to a Thai) was due for renewal on Friday 20th April. Reading Tony's story did not auger well because I was technically in the same boat. This would actually be my fourth non-immigrant O re-newal and hopefully I was grandfathered under the old system of showing 400K in the bank. I had no intention of showing an income of 40K a month. Most of my investments and the bulk of my money are overseas and that's exactly where they're going to stay.

I had already sounded out the immigration captain a few weeks earlier (when I went to do my 90-day reporting) and asked him what I would need to show in terms of paperwork. Would the immigration desire 400K in the bank or proof of 40K a month income? His reply was a simple 'up to you'

Anyway, I went to immigration yesterday. All my paperwork was photocopied and nicely paper-clipped. I was suited and booted and my wife was dressed in her navy blue business suit. We were in and out of there within 20 minutes with a new non-immigrant O. I was actually impressed with the speed of things and the immigration officer told me that there was a new boss at the helm and he wants things speeded up in terms of customer service. No more of this going back to the office three times for yet another one-month 'under approval' stamp while waiting for the main office at Suan Plu to get their act together.

I will say this though. The officer spent much of the 20 minutes analysing the bank book and the bank letter (which I had in both English and Thai) to make sure that the account and cashflow were kosher. I'm not really sure why - you can see in seconds that the balance is well above the required 400K and has been for the past two years.

On the whole I was very pleased. It was probably the smoothest re-newal I've ever done.

Quickest I've ever had a TL processed was about three weeks.

I had a very nice couple of weeks in Malta with our kid in the mid 1980s. I don't know much about the teaching prospects there but it was bloody hot! I do know that.

I agree with a lot of what Stickman says, but he's way off the mark this time. Just because loads of applications land on your desk doesn't mean you're left with many once you've discarded the non-native speakers, the unqualified and the inexperienced - which is what happens to most schools and institutes offering between 25 and 35K. How else would I get the same jobs cropping up again and again on ajarn.com? There are NOT enough good, qualified teachers to go round and I'm pretty sure there has been a decrease in the number of teachers coming here to ply their trade.

Thailand just isn't as attractive a proposition as it was in say the late 90's. I wont go into the reasons because we all know what they are.

I know several teachers currently working at Assumption Ramkhamhaeng. All of them are on a pretty good deal but only because they've been there a few years and have managed to make the system work for them.

There was a time when the ABAC Ram gig was one of the best in town (six or seven years ago) but now the starting package for a teacher positively sucks. I think the basic rate is something around 300 baht an hour. It's really the 400-500 overtime rate that tops up your salary to a nice 40-50K a month (not sure even that's quite so 'nice' any more) However (and don't quote me on this) I hear a few teachers are complaining about a lack of overtime or rather how it's dished out to new recruits.

No, working at ABAC is certainly not the gig it once was.

Harry may be an expert or he may not be an expert. That's not the point. The point is that he tried to stimulate conversation with a very interesting and appropriate topic - that's until <deleted> like Fat Harry jump in because they're one of the sad bastards who see English teachers and the world of TEFL as fair game.

This is exactly the sort of post that the mods should be deleting.

Dutchy - If all you have to offer is sarcasm then dont bother.

When this section opened up I feared than the "normal" thai visa crowd would barge in and ruin it with comments along these lines and low and behold we have our first winner. I hope its not the trend.

I'm not really familiar with George's way of 'doing things' just yet, but as one would expect - they seem somewhat different to mine. The post you hilighted Bluebear is pretty much commonplace on the ajarn forum wouldn't you agree. Why is it that it offends you here? I find it fairly innocent stuff.

I hope the others freaks and jerks from your own forum will not follow you and start the same post here.

There are freaks and jerks on every forum mate, not just on mine. I will admit that Thailand's teaching profession does have more than its average share though.

I can count the number of farangs on one hand that I know who have lucked out in the computer industry. If a Thai can do it then a farang isn't allowed to do it is always going to be the motto. I'm not sure actually whether the original poster had a friend who was interested in teaching computers......or fixing 'em!

I'm very critical of teacher job sites where jobs are sent and automatically uploaded. I think jobs DO need to be given the once-over by someone who knows what they are looking for. Automatically uploaded postions are often placed by unscrupulous teacher agencies and low-paying schools who literally have nowhere left to turn to in order to find teachers.

Saying that I did place a job the other week which requested teachers to ask for Khun Lek (or something like that) and it turned out to be a massage parlour on Sukhumwit 22. I think Lek was the most popular girl in the place for a day or two!

Louis (LMDA) is still running the ajarn forum and I'm very happy to leave him to it. I still want George to keep this forum open though and I hope that he doesn't mind me helping him get it off the ground so to speak. There are certainly loads of people interested in teaching topics. You can never have too much good information and I'm hoping that the ajarn regulars will also come over here and see what's happening. I'm going to take a back seat as regards the ajarn forum for the time being, but I'll pop in as a guest from time to time.

Actually, and you'll laugh at this - I can't even get my old name back at the moment si I couldn't post even if I wanted to. LOL

I think Sumitr was implying the first post was maybe a pee take, rather than a post from you?

Doesn't TEFLAsia have a fair amount of jobs etc. on as well (they're linked with you lot anyway aren't they Phil?).

Doesn't TEFLAsia have a fair amount of jobs etc. on as well (they're linked with you lot anyway aren't they Phil?).

They have exactly the same jobs as ajarn.com because I control the database for both sites

It certainly wasn't me who typed the original post.

Not my style. Not my style at all. I don't need to resort to those tactics to get hits.

Hi George,

I'm glad that someone has taken up the torch. The decent teachers out there need a place to post and I'm grateful you are providing it. I don't expect I'll post on here though because I've had enough of forums to last me a lifetime. Time for me to do some work on the main ajarn website itself.

Good luck with it anyway.

Phil

Well, the story I have is that no one was arrested, no one was deported - no one even got fined. The immigration did visit one of the school's branches but it was purely a routine thing (and they probably wanted to see what tea money could possibly be earned now that many other lucrative avenues have been closed down)

Realizing that everything was in order, they went on their way.

The story got embellished in the usual fashion by a disgruntled employee who resigned after six years service (but was facing the sack anyway), and who decided to frighten the teachers left behind with stories of men in brown uniforms chasing teachers around the photocopier rather like something from a Benny Hill sketch. All very sad.

I'm sure quite a few people will get a bit of mileage from it as the beers start to go down.

So anyway.....to continue the story. I went to the immigration this morning with the 'last piece of the jigsaw' - the bank reference letter showing my current balance. The first thing they asked me for was my bank account bank.

"but I don't have it" I said "you told me that all I was lacking was the letter from the bank confirming my balance"

"You don't have the bank account book!" they all cried

"Well, it's not with me. I must have left it at home" I then adopted my tried and trusted hangdog expression - that look as if the world is about to crumble around my ears.

"Never mind" they said "you can get someone else to bring it in on Monday or Tuesday. We just need to make a photocopy"

And the officer then took 1900 baht off me and stamped me in for one month's 'under consideration' and hilighted my name with a hi-lighter pen on every single document that I'd submitted. She told me that 1900 baht would be all I'd have to pay for both further extensions and the one-year visa itself. She also said that there was no need for me to come back in person and I could just send someone down. To be honest - not a wasted morning at all.

Interestingly, she showed me some other applications that were on her desk (to indicate that they ask EVERYBODY to show their bank account bank) Of the 5 or so applications that I glanced at - every one of them had either 401,000 or 402,000 baht in the bank. And of the actual photocopied bank account books I saw - there were deposits of money all over the shop (lots of small amounts going in regularly)

The immigration officer told me that they are only interested in two things - 1) that the balance in the bank account book matches the balance on the bank reference letter and 2) That the bank account book has your name on it.

I don't wish to be a merchant of doom, but even in a small provincial office like this, there seems to be a much more in-depth scrutiny of everything. It's all done with the famous Thai smile but I'm under no illusion now that it's going to be much trickier to stay here long term than it has been in the past.

I picked up the 'bank reference' letter this morning and will go back to the immigration well before the end of the week. Unfortuantely my missis won't be with me and I'm just praying that the staff haven't developed a bout of chronic amnesia. I have all the documents filled out already (with immigrations help) and it should be plain sailing. However, nothing ever works that way in Thailand and I can't help feel that there's some considerable mileage left in this story.

I have just heard that Penang is issuing multiple O's again (with all the right paperwork) so at least I have a plan B. It is very much a plan B though because oh man - do I ever hate Penang!

Phil, I don't get it. Why settle for a non-immigrant 'B' visa when you wanted a 1-year 'O' in the first place? Do they upgrade you from 3-monthly to annual stays on a 'B'?

Hi Trevor,

The problem was one of good old fashioned communication difficulty and a lack of knowledge on the immigration's part. They were ADAMANT that you could not apply for a work permit with a non-immigrant O (you can of course) and even when I said "No, No, No, I want the non-immigrant O because I intend to just sit at home all day and smoke me clay pipe" they still insisted on steering me towards the Non-immy B.

I caved in and said "OK whatever" because I didn't want to look as though I knew too much.

Thanks Doctor (and George) for looking after we discussion board addicts and allowing us onto your territory when we had nowhere else to go. The ajarn board is up and running and I can take the waifs and strays back under my wing and back to their spiritual home.

Some considerable time ago (when this board was probably still in its infancy) George and I discussed the idea of joining the ajarn and Thaivisa boards together, and it was me who said no to the idea because I felt there was definitely room for both boards in cyberspace. I think George must secretly breathe a sigh of relief over that decision hahahaha

I do drop in here quite often though, but I'm a lurker rather than a poster.

Bkk Phil is trying his best and as a moderator he's probably not getting paid much, if anything so relax everybody... Just calm down.

It's quite sweet actually that they are using "our" forum, it's like that time when ITV and BBC1 united on that one occasion during Children In Need.

Nice one scamp.

I don't want to criticize you in your own house, but can you sort that bloody avatar out? You're making the great man look like bloody <deleted> Manchu.

We've got 11 members already, so if we form an inter-discussion board football league, at least we can get a team out (pick me! pick me!) Seriously though, I'm looking at that clean slate and I'm thinking

What are your top five albums?

What sweets do you remember when you were a kid?

What comics did you read under the bed wi' a torch?

And It's bringing me out in goosepimpled anticipation.

Basically you can rant and rave all you want and call me every name under the sun, but you're crying over spilt milk I'm afraid. I'm as disappointed as anyone that my 3,000 plus posts are lost forever but I'm just going to take it on the chin. What other choice is there?

If there are people out there who can't be bothered to re-register and see it as a waste of time, then I accept it. But tell me you feel the same way a month from now when we're back up to a few hundred members.

You never know, some of us may have been willing to contribute to a central fund so that payment of the upgrade could have come from the members

We were not deemed worthy enough of a general message. Whlist I like Phil, and think he is a great guy, he has not done himeslf any favours in his handling of this matter.

We were given 72 hours to find a new forum. I'm sorry Sumitr but in all the panic it slipped my mind to post 'we've been given 72 hours to find a new forum' on the front page of the site. Perhaps I should have, and maybe accompanied it with a little countdown clock? And at zero hour we could have had Dirty Dog, Chang and the Mad Baron all popping champagne corks in one sooper-dooper javascript-inspired graphic. Now that would have been magic!

If posters can remember how many posts they have made, isn't there the possibility of them PMing your board administrators, so that they can put the post number count to the same as it was before the old board went belly up???

I think that's certainly possible. I know I had 1564 posts before it went down. And 879 before it got hacked the first time. And...oooh....1376 before that.

We had the back up but Lunar Pages were not willing to help us transfer the files.

Most of these webhosts are complete w***ers. I've now formed that opinion.

It's never the end of the world to start again. How many times did you ever look at page 2 of any forum? As the great Tommy Docherty used to say "today's news, tomorrow's fish and chips"

The good news is that we should be up and running within 48 hours. The bad news is that we've lost all the information. Such is life I guess.