paully

^ Scouse, a quick query if I may. If you are granted a visitor's visa to the UK, can you stay in the UK for 6 months from the date of entry to the UK or is it 6 months from the date the visa was granted by the Embassy abroad?

For Chonburi, that doesn't sound too bad a deal: I should have thought that a 5,000 baht housing allowance should get you somewhere reasonably decent to live in the area (but Pattaya can be more expensive to live in due to the high number of foreign residents). But, you have to remember that, as IJWT and Peaceblondie know all too well, you won't get rich teaching in Thailand. You may not be financially better off than Japan, taking everything into account, probably worse.

The lifestyle here may be more to your liking, but don't expect too much from Thai kids in the intellectual or diligent department: "useless, unmotivated lumps" could easily be applied to some of the kids here in Thailand, if you're in uncharitable mood or having a worse-than-usual day.

I wasn't sure where to put this one, so I thought I would ask the people with their fingers on the pulse of education!!!!!

My GF would like to study for her masters but with a non Thai uni, we don't really want to go back to the UK for her to do this, do any of the UK unis operate a masters programme out here????????

Thanks guys ( and gals)

Mods: feel free to move me if you can think of a better place for this one!!!!!!!

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What degree does she want to do? There are a number of universities here which offer 'international' masters' degree programs, particularly MBAs, taught in English by instructors from the US or UK. Some of these have links with/accreditations from western universities for their programs.

You can always try the Open University in the UK: look at their website, but remember that for many courses they require you to take a short residential summer course in the UK.

There are other UK universities which offer online masters' degrees: I received an unsolicited email the other day offering an online MBA at the University of Liverpool. Check out some university websites.

Yes, the main things to show are:

1. An established relationship, the longer the better. I don't know that there is an 'official' minimum amount of time for a relationship, but I should think you need to show you've known her for at least 6 months. A year would be better.

2. She can show she intends to return to Thailand at the end of the stay. This is best done by showing a letter from an employer which states she is expected back at work, but you can try to use other evidence. Just having children living in Thailand will not, in itself, be evidence of intention to return: as others have already said, it is an accepted practice in Thailand for children to be brought up by relatives if the mother is away - and the consular officials will be perfectly aware of this.

If you can get these two sorted out, then a tourist visa should be perfectly possible. Having both of you there when the application is made is a good idea.

I suspect there is less here than meets the eye, although the English usage is very ambiguous,I think the objective is for the Thai Government or TAT to get a handle on visitor demographics including income to asist in planning tourist infrastructure.Not in itself so silly an idea but just inefficiently implemented by bureaucrats.

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I think you're right, Boris. The TAT already use the TM6s for visitor statistics: how many, where from, first time in Thailand, on group or individual holidays, how long you're staying, etc. I expect that they want to know how many rich/middle/poor tourists are entering the country so that they can see what sort of tourists are being attracted. With these new boxes they will also be able to calculate how many tourists return to their home countries and how many go on to other tourist destinations.

Yes, I'm assuming you could meet the income requirements.

But, if you're not paying for all of the Penang trip yourself, Angie, you may as well go there and get yourself a little holiday with the family, too. I don't know if your son needs to leave the country to get an 'O' visa.

If you've already got a work permit, you don't have to leave the country at all, you can apply for an extension of your leave to remain at immigration and then an extension of your work permit to match it. Should be cheaper than going to Penang.

If she's been there for at least a year and has ILR she can remain in the UK on her own merits and even divorce the husband and apply for UK citizenship. He won't be able to have her forced out of the country. But, if she does leave him, I believe she should inform Immigration as a change in circumstances: no doubt, she would change her address too.

Joe, what other experience and/or qualifications do you have? You haven't given anything about your background. There are a surprising number of opportunities around to teach (nearly always part-time) subjects other than English in English. If you've got a business background and, preferably, a business qualification there are a number of MBA and BBA (Bachelor degree) programmes taught in English here which you can try to sneak on. The pay is safely higher than teaching English and it's not much stress provided you've got some sort of syllabus/programme prepared. I teach Law courses 2 or 3 times a year, I've also taught (or will be teaching) History, Politics, Economics and Geography courses. As I said, these are part-time add-ons from time to time, but quite nice little earners if you get a basic full-time job or you have other ways of keeping the money coming in regularly. Age isn't a problem in my view. Just a thought for you.

If the work is legal and you have a work permit, you can also complain to the Ministry of Labour if your contract is being broken. They have been known to assist employees.

Whilst it is true that adverse history is cleared off the public record after 6 years, this would not stop a creditor who has obtained a Judgment against you. The creditor would simply have to ask for the leave of the court to pursue the Judgment out of time on the grounds that you had been avoiding enforcement.

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True, but the creditor has to start a claim in court against you and obtain judgment first before the six years are up. In many cases, they won't start a claim because it would be to throw good money after bad (the court issue fee has to be paid on issue) and they may be unsure of your address: to obtain judgment the claimant has to show that you have received service of the claim and not replied or admitted that you owe the money.

The debts probably been written off by now, if it hasnt you can wait the customary 7 years and it will be written off by then.

A good friend of mine worked in a debt collecting agency back in blighty (dont hold that against him tho ) he told me that most debts get written off within a year or two if they cant make contact with the person who owes...

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Interesting Wolfie, where do the 7 years come into it, on another thread, I got the idea that the debt is there for all time in the UK.

More info?

Cheers.

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The limitation period for all claims arising out of a simple contract (ie: not, for example, a mortgage or a guarantee) in UK law is six years. In other words, if the bank or lender - or someone to whom your debt has been sold or 'factored' - has not started a claim in court against you within 6 years, any claim will be time-barred. It's not a criminal law matter, only a civil law dispute as long as you have made at least one repayment instalment [there would be no 'intention to permanently deprive' the lender of his money, which is required for theft in criminal law]. So, following this, your credit blacklisting officially lasts for six years. It isn't six years for the lender to claim from the date you signed the original agreement to borrow the money/start using the credit card, but six years after the debt fell due or you refused to pay it. Debts are usually written off if repayment is not forthcoming, although the lender could try to start bankruptcy proceedings against you if your debt was large enough and you were still in the UK.

It was just a joke, mouse.

To try and answer the original question by 4413, his friend should get in touch with the Goethe Institut in Sathorn (the equivalent of the British Council). They should be aware of possible teaching positions in German, including part-time stuff. There may even be a bit of corporate work around: there's quite a few German or German-owned companies operating in Bangkok these days.

The only university I have seen regularly advertise for German instructors is Thammasat Univ, last one I saw was about 2 months ago so I expect there are no more vacancies there for this semester, ie no point in applying there until next April or May for the next university year. The pay is the standard government university language instructor (low) basic pay, that is, a princely 26,100 baht a month. There may be some extra classes available, I've no idea. Teaching hours would be 10-12 per week. I believe (not certain) that Chulalongkorn Univ also offer German courses, check their website.

Other than that, your friend should keep browsing ajarn.com, the occasional European language teaching posts come up. He could also try some international schools in case they need a Modern European language teacher.

Use your MA to get yourself into a reasonable government university instead, don't limit yourself to Rajabhats IMO. The students are generally better and (sometimes) so are the admin and other ajarns. But remember that there is not much gravy on the gravy train of Thai academia: at best it's a pleasant, not-very-demanding job with reasonable holidays, bad pay and relatively low stress. To make reasonable money you need to plug into a uni which has extra classes available in evenings/weekends. Or you could use your extra time to run a business on the side.

I'm afraid it is an unfortunate fact that some with fake degrees get work here. But, this is not to condone it in any way.

another started saying around 2kGBP (about 150KTHB).

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In his dreams, I think!!! 55K baht (including accommodation) sounds more like it as a monthly salary for a private university engineering programme, perhaps as much as 80K for a richer university where you're also doing research. Language lecturers on standard language programmes get much less than this. You need to remember, Bob, that University salaries here are low, not to be compared with US, Europe, Australia, etc. But there are opportunities to make more from pretty lucrative part-time/extra lecturing work outside your salary, as Ken has said.

One place you may wish to try, Kat, given your qualifications, is King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT). I remember a while ago seeing an advertisement for a teaching position (English) there in the School of Architecture which seemed to be quite interesting: technical-type English, not just the usual English I, English II stuff and the pay seemed to be a little higher than the norm. They have some quite good people teaching there including Richard Watson Todd, who is pretty well known in the TEFL field. Mahidol recruits via the newspapers from time to time, I saw an advert four or five months ago: the real money is made at the Salaya (International) campus out towards Nakhom Pathom: it's worth looking into some part-time work there if you can stand the travelling.

Kat, what are you able, or qualified, to teach? You generally don't have to have a Masters' degree to teach English on the normal English programmes taught to undergraduates here. But if you want to get into a Linguistics or 'special' English programme, or you want to teach something other than English in English (Business subjects, Hotel Management, Politics or whatever), then, yes, you'll need at least a Masters' degree in a related subject. The salaries are (not surprisingly) higher for the latter than the former. The basic salary for farang language ajarns (not just English, but French, German, etc) at government universities (including what are considered the best universities in Thailand: Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Kasetsart, Mahidol, etc) is fixed at 26,000 baht a month throughout the country, but there are ways of supplementing this with extra programmes and outside work and the teaching hours are relatively low at 10-12 per week. Private universites, like Bangkok U, ABAC (Assumption), Siam, UTCC, etc pay you more but tend to have more teaching hours and generally expect you to be on campus a lot longer.

Often the best way to get a university teaching job is to turn up at the campus with CV/resume in hand and ask about vacancies. But remember that government universities have a long break between (roughly) 1 March and 1 June: the best time to look for jobs there is April/May or October each year for the following semester. Private universities have different start/finish dates. Look at univ. websites, some universities have quite a lot of pages and info in English these days.

Go to the Language Media Book Center on Siam Square Soi 2, second floor: a whole section for kiddies including flashcards in English (Thai on the back) for about 60 baht each pack.

Remember it's now 2,400 baht (an absolute rip-off) for the marriage affirmation to be dealt with by the British Embassy. Also, you should go to the Legal and Naturalisation Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Laksi to have the affirmation and translation into Thai certified. This is a relative steal at only 400 baht (2 day wait) or 800 baht (same day).

I haven't paid university teacher taxes for a few years, but the last time I paid just over 1200 baht for the year @ a standard govt. 'Ajarn Piset' salary of 17,000 + 8,000 housing...Is your salary the same?

Do you teach in a government university? Since the new wage guidelines for one-year stamps has come into play, are farang university ajarns still getting the one-year stamp from immigration?

Yes, I and a colleague obtained a one-year extension without any problems (I work at a government uni). We didn't have any tax deducted or have to pay any tax, but Social Security payments are deducted from the monthly salary. It's also quite useful to remember that the Social Security payments will cover a couple of trips to the dentist for basic work, you can claim the money back afterwards.

Finally, they've now raised the basic uni salary by a "whopping" 600 baht a month from April this year

^^ You mean to say that you're posting on ajarn.com under a different name, SM? You wicked man :-)

If they don't deduct taxes for you, that's great. But if your taxes don't get paid, you'll have a problem at immigration when go back for a new extension. Tax records for your employer, and you, are among the required documents

Not necessarily, Ajarn. It depends on what your salary is and if your school is very helpful in completing and submitting your tax return for you! You can get a yellow tax receipt saying '0.00 baht' to pay even if no deductions have been made for tax (welfare contributions are deducted though).

^ Ouch

Now, a little while ago I heard a rumor that if you leave your employment you have only 7 days in which to leave Thailand as your working permit is automatically cancelled.

I'm not sure if this is true but if so what is the procedure for changing jobs legally??

It's no rumour, as Ken and others have said. When your work permit is taken back to the Ministry of Labour (as it has to be when you leave your job) you get a little form, Tor Tor 10, which has the date of surrender of your work permit on it. You have 7 days from that date to apply for a visa extension (assuming you had a non-immigrant B visa) or leave Thailand.

So, you have to make your plans accordingly: ideally you'd find a new job first and then resign making the visa extension application within a week. If you're not able to do this, you have to either leave Thailand to get a new visa or pay an overstay fine and apply for an extension in-country if you're outside the 7 day limit.

As others have said, it pays to leave your old job on good terms if you can, ensuring that you take your teaching licence with you and that the old school 'consents' to your leaving. A good time to leave is just approaching with the next school semester due to start in a month's time. Make your plans, smile and thank the old school and leave.