Whitey

For better or worse, we're all in this together. That means passing along information that we have that others may not know. Giving advice when needed and giving a heads up when we encounter something new.

Some of you are very jaded individuals indeed. I posted this as a warning to other parents in the same situation and you all jump on me. Forget it, I am out of here.

sbk, you are right, there are different rules for children and adults concerning visas. Most of the posters here with kids have Thai kids, not farang kids. Ok, luk krueng, but luk kruengs have Thai passports.

Mr Astral, the Penang consulate wouldn't issue visas as they said, not required. If you bothered to read the post, you would see it. When I ran by the possible scenario over on Ajarn, Kenkanniff and many others said it was impossible and wouldn't be applied like this, but it looks like the armchair quarterbacks over here know everything. My local immigration office advised me the same thing as they do at least three other families locally.

I have better things to deal with in my life than trolls when I am just trying to help out others in the future so they are not shocked when it happens to them and they can PLAN AHEAD.

Whitey, I'm sorry to hear about this problem, and I'm surprised it even exists. Yes, there are thousands of children in Thailand with parents who are farang and teachers, but how often do they go outside the country? I would have thought that most of them stay home with their Thai mother, but then some of them don't have a Thai parent, and both farang parents have to do visa runs.

We don't mean to be giving you a hard time, mate. It's too easy for many of us to just think that "Hey Jack, I'm okay, so you must be okay" and then when Jack says he has a problem, we think Jack just needs to take the next first class flight to Boston or London and get the right visa.

I only posted this as a warning to other parents who might be in the same boat. I know of 3 parents locally this applies to...and this wasn't a visa run trip. It was a trip out of the country on vacation. Parents who make a trip outside of the country once every 6 months or once a year had better get visas(if the consulates will give them) for their kids. Just a warning, no more, no less.

There were no warnings that it applied to kids. This means that the literally thousands of foreign children of teachers and other workers need to get a non-immi O for their kids. Funny, when I tried to get a non-Immi 0 for my kids, Penang said no, they don't issue them for kids under 7. So, Mr. Astral, what do you suggest?

I learned today that the 90 in 180 days rule for visa exemptions applies to kids as well as adults and it's being enforced. My 3 year old son exited after a stay from October to March. Theoretically no fine(that's for another post) for overstay, but upon re-entry, they did count stamps and they did count days. They counted more than 90 days and told us no dice, the 3 year old can't enter Thailand. After much hassles, they stamped him in with the stamp saying he had used up all of his visa exemptions.

Just an FYI for any parents who might be in the same boat. 90 in 180 is alive and well(I saw one person refused entrance today.)

Anybody else remember Thailand's obligations to join the WTO where they agreed to have full telecom market liberalization by 2006 where all qualifiers, local and foreign, are allowed to enter and exit the market at will on an equal basis?

I don't see this big rate change.......Bangkok Bank is still displaying about the same exchange rates.

USD50 USD : 50-100 35.58 36.23

There is no such thing as any easy legit degree.

I spent 3 years at university and for personal financial reasons I had to quit college and work. I traveled a lot and fell into teaching. No one cared about degree and I didn't need to lie about it. But then I found myself in Thailand and decreasing job opportunities. I left Thailand to finish my degree. I found an accredited distance program that allowed me to take CLEP and DSST tests to finish up enough credits to get my degree. The tests weren't easy and i had to study for each test to prove I had a handle on the material that anyone studying in a traditional university would have gained. By the way, CLEP and DSST's are done by the same people who do the SAT and GRE. Anyways, I managed to take enough tests in 3 weeks to finish my degree. All in all, it cost me about $2200 for all the fees.

Next for me? I found a state university back in the states that has online graduate programs and that is what I am working for, a masters in instructional technology.

For other Americans: I really suggest finding an online university for you to finish your BA degree or even going for a master's. The online programs can be done anywhere you have an internet connection. Maybe that isn't that special, but what is special, you can get federal financial aid for online programs. For a BA, if you choose the right university, your pell grant will pay enough to pay your tuition(remember, you are earning next to nothing in Thailand) and if you choose to take out any loans, you can get enough to pay for your living expenses while you study. For example, a Master's program provides enough loan financial aid for more than what you would earn as a teacher in Thailand. The same goes for a BA student.

I don't see what scantily clad girls have to do with selling just about any product other than scantily clad girls. I don't care if DTAC has scantily clad girls gyrating in front of a display if the dtac service sucks. same goes for girls selling Nescafe or Leo Beer or whatever. Of course, I may not be a typical consumer in Thailand, I suppose.

It is ok for those of us who are earning in baht and sending money back to the states in dollars. 25 sounds really good to me.

Actually, I foresee scout short on scout day in my future. I don't know why, but when I read it, I thought that sounds like something my admin would think up.

At our school's mother's day ceremony, all the dignitaries, mothers and thai teachers went under the tent. Foreign teachers were asked to sit out under the hot sun with the students.

There is demand in the English Programs for subjects other than English. My school teaches Math, Science, Health, Computers, Social Studies and PE in English.

I have heard rumors about the new requirements but I am not sure what they are. I talk to the head of another department at my school when I was at Carrefour a couple of weeks ago and she is very concerned about the new requirements and her ability to recruit teachers next year. That is about all I know about the requirements.

You might want to check out Teflwatch for that.

Hi everyone, some of you may know me for over 6 years over on Ajarn.com, because of the recent moderator induced purge of long time posters, I have been exiled away from Ajarn along with a few other respected posters.

In the interim, teflwatch has kindly laid out the welcome mat and as an intermittent poster here in other rooms, I am finally taking the advice of one of the mods here and I will be here to answer any questions you have about teaching. With 6 years of teaching experience in Thailand, I think I can answer questions and generally be helpful.

End of introduction.

Well, I sure in heck wouldn't buy a gprs card here in Thailand, all of the ones I have seen are overpriced and under performing.

#1 Don't buy one unless it has at least Class 10 GPRS, all of the cards I have seen in Thailand are only Class 8. The difference? About 30% in download speeds.

It was funny, I found a GPRS card for 6000 baht and it did class 8 gprs(slow!), but my motorola L6 (4600 baht at Blisstel) does class 10 gprs. So with the l6, I get better gprs speeds and I have a phone with a camera to boot. No need for charger either since the l6 charges off of the usb cable it connects to the computer with.

If you want to go even cheaper, the motorola c390 does class 10 gprs and blisstel is selling is for 3100 baht with a bluetooth headset.

So why get a gprs card when you can hook up a cellphone to your computer and get better speeds at a lower cost?

I don't see a problem with that in the USA you can't advertise alcohol on tv and I do not recall seeing a poster on the road advertising beer no one is being affected with this law except people who market and advertise the products they will survive

What about all the beer and wine commercials on TV in the USA? No problem advertising it in the states.

Remember folks that buddhism is strongly against alcohol and other vices. I have a feeling that we might be heading on a pendulum in that direction. Remember the dhamma soldiers who helped to overthrow Thaksin. Maybe this is what Thailand needs for itself. Maybe Thailand will care no longer about western tourists, maybe just maybe Asian tourists are more important.

Heard about the militant hindus in India?

Before I installed Kubuntu, I used Partition Magic and resized by c -partition smaller, resized my d parititon a bit larger then converted the D partition to Fat32 so that is fully accessible to both Windows and Kubuntu. After resizing, I had a 5 gb chunk of space left for Kubuntu and just let the installer install in the largest available partition.

Kubuntu does everything Windows can do..just gotta find the programs and use WINE.

Well, Argentina would sure beat out Brazil. They have a rentista visa that only requires you to show some kind of paperwork showing that you have investment income of at least $800 a month. That could be accomplished as easily as creating a corporation in your home country and have the corporation issue a letter saying you have the investmnet income.

It too leads to citizenship.

Housing? 20 to 50k US will get you an apartment outside of BA.

And what about the general mood over there ? Crime ?

I remember the terrible economic disaster in Argentina a few years ago... I was not there. But from the outside, it looked pretty uggly.

They are going on 4 years of 8 to 10% economic growth. You can find out for yourself what is happening there. Google is your friend.

It is going to be some thing.....why be in Thailand any longer? Why be someplace you are not wanted?

Well, Argentina would sure beat out Brazil. They have a rentista visa that only requires you to show some kind of paperwork showing that you have investment income of at least $800 a month. That could be accomplished as easily as creating a corporation in your home country and have the corporation issue a letter saying you have the investmnet income.

It too leads to citizenship.

Housing? 20 to 50k US will get you an apartment outside of BA.

I don't like to spread unfounded rumors, but the immi officers at the border are the one who make the decision. Let me just say, there is a supervisor at least one border post who is saying that when they decide to let you enter or not on a 30 day permit, it will be based on how much time you have been in Thailand in the last 6 months, whether that is on 30 day permits or tourist visas, it doesn't matter. This come directly from the mouth of a supervisor at a popular southern port of entry.

The only real news article I have seen is the one in the Nation which refers to VOA. The Visa On Arrival is different from the 30 day Tourist Permit. Understand the difference between VOA and Permit? The Visa on Arrival facility is going to be limited. I haven't seen anything from any news source that says the 30 day permits will be disallowed. I think some people are blowing this out of proportion.

Sorry if I came off pyscho crazy, I have just seen it one too many times in rpint that John Karr got his degree from a diploma mill. I worked hard and made sacrifices to make sure that I had a degree and wasn't working on dodgy paperwork. To see someone casually refer to it as a diploma mill made my blood boil.

You are right, Niteowl, I do agree with the rest of that post. Why? Because i have thought the same myself. Why the heck was he teaching in public schools in the US when he didn't get his degree until 2000 and even then it wasn't a teaching degree.

Onto what PeaceBlondie says about the verification of credentials. This is always a tough one. I have been involved in hiring in the past and when I come across a university that looks dodgy, I just check for if they are accredited by a "real" accrediting organization. For the US, the DOE has really made it easy. Here is the site again:

http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/

Peace Blondie also talks about the sheepskin. Ha, when I got my degree, the thing I thought first was, well, this would sure be easy to copy, I could make easily made a fake copy of it and saved myself a lot of hard work.

My prior university transcripts are a joke. They were simple paper with the seal embossed on them. I don't know if they have improved them in the last few years, but when I was working in the computer lab for work study, a co-worker was printing off the semester grades and he gave me and anyone who wanted them blank copies. I wouldn't dare pass out any of those copies, real or fake because they looked so dodgy.

John Karr was not a properly certified teacher in the US. He attended college in Alabama, but dropped out before completing his required student teaching assignment. He was subsequently awarded a BS degree (as opposed to a BEd degree, a requirement for a teaching certificate in most states) by Regent College in Albany, New York. Regent College (now Excelsior College) is an online diploma mill, basically a half-step up from a degree from KSR.

Niteowl, did you even bother to check things out before you posted this drivel? Did you visit the website of the school? Did you do any research? I am not going to argue semantics, but when you post this drivel, you lose all respect people have for you.

You called it a diploma mill, just what is a diploma mill? To me, I think of a diploma mill as a university, college or school that is in the business of printing up diploma. But better than take my word for it, let's look at wikipedia says:

A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is an organization which awards academic degrees and diplomas with little or no academic study, and without recognition by official bodies. Such organizations are unaccredited by standards of traditional institutions, but they often claim accreditation by non-standard organizations set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity.

Diploma mill: An institution of higher education operating without supervision of a state or professional agency and granting diplomas which are either fraudulent or because of the lack of proper standards worthless. —Webster’s Third New International Dictionary

The FTC has a long list of things to look for on their website, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/diplomaalrt.htm and they tell you to look to see if it has a genuine accreditation to determine if it is a diploma mill or not.

Since all three definitions talk about accreditation, let's see if this Excelsior College is accredited. The Department of Education maintains a website to check the status, the web address is: http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/

Can you guess what it shows?

ACCREDITATION

Regional Institutional Accrediting Agency

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Higher Education

National Institutional and Specialized Accrediting Bodies

National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission

Nursing (ADNUR) - Associate degree programs

Nursing (NUR) - Baccalaureate and higher degree programs

Wow, Excelsior College is accredited by the same people who handle all legitimate universities through the Middle States area! I guess Niteowl is only left with arguing whether the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools is a genuine accrediting body or not....

So it is accredited by an accreditation body that matters in the US. Ok, what else is what makes a diploma mill? Little or no academic study? Well, what does it take to get a degree from Excelsior College?

It takes 120 semester hours of study, 30 of those credits must be upper division hours. How do you get the credits? Excelsior College only offers a limited number of courses, the bulk of the credits need to come from credits transfered from an accredited univeristy or college. Credits are also accepted for the CLEP and DSST exams, not unusual since thousands of universities and colleges in the US accept them for credit as well. In other words, you need to do just as much work to get a BA or BS from Excelsior College as you do to get one from a "normal" institution of learning.

Ok, so it isn't little or no academic study....what about "life experience" credit? No way, they do not give credit for life experience. You need bonafide credit from an accredited university. I even had upper division credit from a state university in North Dakota bumped down to lower division.

Ok, Webster's talks about without oversight of a professional or state agency. Who exactly runs Excelsior College. Up until 199, it was run by the state of New York. Now, it is a private university that is a member of the University of the State of New York. Degrees issued by Excelsior is under authority of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

Who are they? Do they matter?

Established by the New York State Legislature on May 1, 1784, the Regents of The University of the State of New York form the oldest, continuous state education entity in America. The Regents are responsible for the general supervision of all educational activities within the State, presiding over The University and the New York State Education Department. The Regents are organized into standing committees and subcommittees whose members and chairs are appointed by the Chancellor.

The Board comprises 16 members elected by the State Legislature for 5 year terms: 1 from each of the State's 12 judicial districts and 4 members who serve at large. Regents are unsalaried and are reimbursed only for travel and related expenses in connection with their official duties.

The University of the State of New York is the nation's most comprehensive and unified educational system. It consists of all elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions, libraries, museums, public broadcasting, records and archives, professions, Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities, and such other institutions, organizations, and agencies as may be admitted to The University. The concept of The University of the State of New York is a broad term encompassing all the institutions, both public and private, offering education in the State.

Wow, so Excelsior College is under a state agency, the oldest state educational entity in the US? Niteowl, are you still with us?

So what criteria is left? Someone on another board mentioned getting the degree from the mailbox. Ok so the degree comes in the mail? My sister is finishing her BA from Fort Hays State University in Kansas. She has the option of taking all of the courses for the degree through online study or she can take the classes in person, she has opted for online classes. Her degree will come by mail, oops does that mean FHSU is a diploma mill? Of course, Excelsior College students do have the option of receiving their degree at a graduation ceremony. So, if the student takes part in the graduation ceremony than it is a real degree, but if he doesn't then it is a diploma mill degree? Seems like shaky standing.