Callan/walen Ed Visa

[MacWalen]

Dear Mattias,

I see your personal vendetta continues for no reason. You have never been one of our students so obvioulsly you cannot say anything about our school, but where you really made a fool of yourself is with saying that your friend has been studying here for 'a year'. We have been developing the method for over 2.5 years but started teaching in May 2007 so there are not students studying Thai here for a year. The sister school Callan that owns

Walen has been around for over 6 years but i guess you have not mixed up languages, right?

So stop making a laughing-stock of yourself, nobody will treat you seriously on this forum. Our school has nothing personal against you but you obvioulsy have some issues.

Wish you peace and don't wirte rubbish.

[MacWalen]

MacWalen, If you are such an honest businessman, then why don't you have honest advertisements?

Can you not sell your school on its own merits? Why is it necessary to target foreigners with this

fictitious low price for a 1 year visa, and then have them painfully discover the truth later on? Everytime

you get behind that keyboard you show us how you think. "Captain bullshi_ts school of Thai"

At least you agree that the price is indeed low.

[MacWalen]

Mattias33 is right. The only thing that's clear is MacWalen is planning his cushy retirement

by preying on the vulnerablity of other foreigners. "Captain Bullsh_ts School of Thai".

You obviously have no manners

[cali4995]

AAAHHHH......"fictitious" means not true MacWalen, I didn't mean to throw

you with that 3 syllable word. Never too late to go back to school yourself.

[lopburi3]

Personal attacks are not allowed per forum rules. Please be careful.

2) Posting another members personal details, photos or web site details is forbidden and will result in being banned. Excessive, aggressive posts against other members, moderators and admin; or flaming will not be tolerated. 'Flaming' is best defined as posting or responding to a message in a way clearly intended to incite useless arguments, rants, and/or for launching personal attacks, insulting, being hateful, useless criticism, name calling, swearing and other bad behavior or comments meant to incite anger.

[A_Traveller]

In realistic terms, the main complaint is the focus and detail of the advertising. Looking at it one is left with the impression of the barker proclaiming 'get yer visa here', rather than 'lean Thai, enjoy the culture, and make staying in the Kingdom easier' {the last might be open to debate}. This view is reinforced by the other media ads..

Now it is entirely possible that this emphasis is unintentional, and that with judicious editing a better balance could be sought. For example, some Thai institutions advertise their links and therefore opportunities for students to study abroad, but by and large this is shown for what it is, an added value, not a core competency.

The sponsor is to be commended for not taking the forum rules way out [7 ... Our contracts with our advertisers prohibit comments with regard to advertisements which appear on our forums. ... ] and on that basis I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt, but if for example the advertising strategy continued then I'd revisit that position.

Regards

PS If this thread and others was to suddenly close or disappear {someone having suddenly noticed rule 7} I'd be inclined to revisit as well.

/edit typo//

Edited October 15, 2007 by A_Traveller

[sbk]

The Walen school sponsor has explained their situation clearly and succinctly yet they have been attacked by people who apparently have nothing to add since they have no personal experience of the school.

If you do have some advice to offer may I suggest doing it in a constructive manner rather than the insulting one that seems to be a favorite tactic of some posters?

[madjbs]

If anyone is still interested, I extended my NON O visa today for education. I am attending a government university so all I needed was a letter from the Dean of my faculty (they didn’t seem to care that it didn’t include all of the details they say it must include on their website), passport copy and the form TM 7. Took all of 20mins and they gave my passport back after I waited, so no need to go back. Remember that this is for a government uni and not to study Thai language so I got a 1 year extension from the END of my last entry stamp, which was 2nd nov. So now im permitted to stay until 2nd nov 2008. I always thought that they extended 1 year from the start of the previous entry, not the end, right?

[lopburi3]

This seems to be an unannounced change for first one year extensions in the last several months - extensions from the end of permitted to stay - as is normal for other extensions.

[madjbs]

Good bit of luck for me then, I nearly went on another visa run because I thought my extension would run out in the middle of summer, when I wasnt planning on being here. In the end I couldnt be bothered though.

[justarrived]

Is the Walen school responsible for the changing visa rules in Thailand? Sure they offer a 1 year ED Visa.

What do you get? A 3 month visa which you can extend 3 times. I think that's 1 year. The walen school never confirmed to take over all Visa fees. The only thing is that you shouldn't pat 29.500 bht at once, but in 4 parts.

I didn't start the school right now, but they have shown how to take care their clients. I went to Savannakhet to apply for the ED Visa. They denied because I only got a copy of the letter MOE. The Ministry of Education confirmed that they are not able to handle the original. So Mac Walen and his team fighted with the Consulate in Savannakhet and the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok.

Unfortunately these institutes don't work together. After a 3 hours fight the only solution was an advice side of the immigration to go to the Embassy and avoid Savannakhet.

And you complain an additional amount of 5.700 bht = 634 bht/month

A thanks to Mac Walen and his team.

[Maestro]

...we would actually prefer not to assist with visas as this is very time consuming, requires preparation of a lot of paperwork and being stuck in terrible trafic jams trying to get to MOE, 4 trips for every application!!!...

Four trips for every application, that’s amazing and doesn’t help Bangkok’s air quality.

It is about time that the Thai bureaucracy woke up and started to make better use of the Internet, but don’t anybody hold your breath while waiting for it.

--

Maestro

[MacWalen]

Is the Walen school responsible for the changing visa rules in Thailand? Sure they offer a 1 year ED Visa.

What do you get? A 3 month visa which you can extend 3 times. I think that's 1 year. The walen school never confirmed to take over all Visa fees. The only thing is that you shouldn't pat 29.500 bht at once, but in 4 parts.

I didn't start the school right now, but they have shown how to take care their clients. I went to Savannakhet to apply for the ED Visa. They denied because I only got a copy of the letter MOE. The Ministry of Education confirmed that they are not able to handle the original. So Mac Walen and his team fighted with the Consulate in Savannakhet and the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok.

Unfortunately these institutes don't work together. After a 3 hours fight the only solution was an advice side of the immigration to go to the Embassy and avoid Savannakhet.

And you complain an additional amount of 5.700 bht = 634 bht/month

If students paid the fee in four parts, that is for 45 lessons each time then the MOE would not issue a letter requesting 1 year ED visa as this course would qualify you at best for a 3 month period and extending this visa for one year would not be then possible as the ministry would not issue the second letter.

The issue of the copies of the letter is a bit confusing to the readers so in order to make it easier to understand here is a short explanation. When the ministry of education issues a letter there might be more than just one student on it, if for example at the time of application we apply for 4 students so there will be 4 names on one original letter so obviously it is impossible to give everyone the original letter, so the school certifies the copies with our stamp and the signature of the head teacher and it always worked. We called that consulate and for about 1 hour tired to get a clear answer why they did not issue the ED in this case, unfortunatelly the person in charge was not there so we were unable to get to the bottom of it. Obvioulsly a mistake was made but as the gentelman who posted this comment was not able to call us form Savannakhet we could not respond immediatelly to this situation. It should not happen again and apart from this one case and this one consualte copies are accepted. Immigration in Bangkok was not able to help and correct the mistake.

It was not possible today but we will make a follow-up tomorrow on this situation and hopefully can talk to the person in charge and get a better explanation, it seems that it was just a mistake or luck of understanding that there can be only one original letter so if there are more than one student they will have to use certified copies of that letter. Perhaps they do not have a lot of ED applications at that particular place, I don't know, perhaps there are some readers who got ED from Savannakhet and can share their experience. Please share with us if you had any prblems with obtaining ED from Savannakhet.

Mac Walen

A thanks to Mac Walen and his team.

[cali4995]

Would it be a fair assumption that the Walen School is a franchise under Callan?

http://www.callan.co.th/Html/openschool.html

That would explain the mixed-messages about the non-traditional marketing methods.

So much of the visa approval process seems beyond the schools control, with the MOE,

Immigration and then Embassies/Consulates all having their individual guidelines.

[MacWalen]

We haven't heard from any other people applying for the ED visa in Savannakhet. I'm sure there must be some more so please share your experience, we have contacted Savannakhet consulate again unfortunatelly the officer in charge was still on a holiday, till next Monday, we were able to speak only with the second in command and we were not able to get any clear answer on the policy. For the future applications we have added the explanation in the paperwork why all students cannot provide the original letter but only a certified copy. We believe once we explain the situation in more detail to the officer in charge this consulate will be safe to apply for the ED visa in the future. Till the matter is cleared we do not recomend Savannahket as a place to apply for the ED visa.

[MacWalen]

Selling visas as a commercial enterprise will end badly.

We are not selling visas, we are only assisting in obtaining ED type of visa and only for our students.

[LivinLOS]

If your really not selling visas then why is that a major focus of all of your advertising (that I have seen)..

From my position as a totally unaffected bystander your adverts seem to push the visa almost more than the language.

[Aussietraveller]

Macwalen,

I hope that as a result of this thread, your business continues to receive a lot of additional students.

You have contributed to this forum, by putting your money into advertising. This is more than most of your critics on here can say.

There have been a lot of things said and you have replied and undertaken to review your advertising.

You have answered most of the questions asked, and done so in a civil manner.

Unfortunately the manners of some members are not quite up to that standard.

Your marketing is spot on.

You are marketing to foreigners in Thailand, who wish to have a visa to stay here. So promote that fact.

(this forum is full of threads complaining about the lack of Visa options)

The school name says that it is a school for learning Thai.

Marketing is about selling the strong points of your business to your potential customers.

Having the ability to get a Visa by undertaking these studies is a big selling point, and you are correct to highlight that.

Are all of those who are complaining about this personally affected by it? Are they potential students?

Or are they the same people who, in other threads complain about lack of visa options, price of milk, Visa runs, Thai people, etc...

Good luck with your business.

[neilrob]

I agree with Aussietraveller. Contrary to the apparent intention of the original poster, this thread has given me a higher opinion of the Walen school. When I saw the ads, I assumed it was a visa mill. Having read the comments, I would be very inclined to try the school, were it not that I live in Chiang Mai, not Bangkok. Neil

[bapak]

I agree with Aussietraveller. Contrary to the apparent intention of the original poster, this thread has given me a higher opinion of the Walen school. When I saw the ads, I assumed it was a visa mill. Having read the comments, I would be very inclined to try the school, were it not that I live in Chiang Mai, not Bangkok. Neil

Hear, Hear, Aussietraveller... You said it all.

Cheers, Bapak

[MacWalen]

Gentelmen, thanks for your support and positive comments, good to know that there are people like you who do not make quick judgments based on bias opinions. Thanks again.

Mac Walen

[matter]

I'm off to the Walen School. And no..... i dont need a visa.

[mattias33]

I'm off to the Walen School. And no..... i dont need a visa.

employee?

[jetzie]

just some note, gf's already attended mac's school for 3 weeks, she's currently now off to yangon her hometown to collect her ED visa, will let yall know if it's successful, which im pretty sure it will be as promised

[JUDAS]

Macwalen,

I hope that as a result of this thread, your business continues to receive a lot of additional students.

You have contributed to this forum, by putting your money into advertising. This is more than most of your critics on here can say.

There have been a lot of things said and you have replied and undertaken to review your advertising.

You have answered most of the questions asked, and done so in a civil manner.

Unfortunately the manners of some members are not quite up to that standard.

Your marketing is spot on.

You are marketing to foreigners in Thailand, who wish to have a visa to stay here. So promote that fact.

(this forum is full of threads complaining about the lack of Visa options)

The school name says that it is a school for learning Thai.

Marketing is about selling the strong points of your business to your potential customers.

Having the ability to get a Visa by undertaking these studies is a big selling point, and you are correct to highlight that.

Are all of those who are complaining about this personally affected by it? Are they potential students?

Or are they the same people who, in other threads complain about lack of visa options, price of milk, Visa runs, Thai people, etc...

Good luck with your business.

Well said Aussietraveller. I've been following this thread since it's original posting, and, I must say, you have pretty much stated my own point of view

[jetzie]

well girlfriend went to yangon on saturday and handed in the visa on monday, got the ED visa with the letters issued by Mac Walen and today she's back in thailand with a 1yr ED visa

thanks Mac

[wasabi]

I am not against Walen and also appreciate MacWalen's participation and direct responses. I can understand marketing the visa as it is a selling point, but the most important selling point is the quality of the education not getting a visa which isn't unique to Walen. In my opinion the jury is still out on the quality of the classes there, might be good, might not be I don't know? If I hear about some students taking the Pratom 6 exam and passing it after attending Walen classes I will be impressed and hold the school in high regard.

[MacWalen]

well girlfriend went to yangon on saturday and handed in the visa on monday, got the ED visa with the letters issued by Mac Walen and today she's back in thailand with a 1yr ED visa

thanks Mac

Glad to hear it, just to let you know, she could also go to Malaysia as Ed visa applications are accepted from Burmise. The only thing i am not sure about is the visa to Malaysia for Burmise nationals. It seems that it is not convinient for some to go back to Burma so it worth checking.

for the critics of our method, you are welcome to come for a free demonstraiton of our method, you will get a better idea.

Walen School

[chulakid]

About the 1-year visa from Chula for language study, as other people have said you generally need to go down to immigration and pay 1900 for another 90 extension. I was told by the Thai consulate in my home country in May I had a 1 year visa, but when I went down for what I thought was supposed to be 90 day check at the end of September, it turned out I needed a new letter from my university and an extension. (To be fair, I had gone down to immigration before, shown them the visa/stamps, and asked if it was 1 year. The guy looked at it casually and said "yeah". thanks ) It takes 2-3 weeks to get that half-page letter from the Dean, so I wound up overstaying by a week. But, it did cause the department to realize I'm still an active university student back in the USA. They tried writing me a different style letter (weren't 100% it would work) and my stay was extended though June of next year, when my 1 year program ends. Apparently none of my other classmates are elligible for this, as they only study the non-degree Chula course.

Also, this lets me wear the uniform now, sans the Chula pin

If there's some interest I can write up another thread about my experiences in the program thus far. I'm not quite halfway through it (have the exam for Intermediate 1 tomorrow!) but can offer some perspective to those considering it. The short of it is, it's a good program, but not tailored for everyone's needs/uses.

[MacWalen]

Is the Walen school responsible for the changing visa rules in Thailand? Sure they offer a 1 year ED Visa.

What do you get? A 3 month visa which you can extend 3 times. I think that's 1 year. The walen school never confirmed to take over all Visa fees. The only thing is that you shouldn't pat 29.500 bht at once, but in 4 parts.

I didn't start the school right now, but they(WALEN SCHOOL) have shown how to take care their clients. I went to Savannakhet to apply for the ED Visa. They denied because I only got a copy of the letter MOE. The Ministry of Education confirmed that they are not able to handle the original. So Mac Walen and his team fighted with the Consulate in Savannakhet and the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok.

Unfortunately these institutes don't work together. After a 3 hours fight the only solution was an advice side of the immigration to go to the Embassy and avoid Savannakhet.

And you complain an additional amount of 5.700 bht = 634 bht/month

A thanks to Mac Walen and his team.

Hi, there is an update on the case of Khun JUSTARRIVED, he got his ED visa!!! Congratulations. The Savannakhet consulate is still making things more difficult than other consualtes but trip to Vientiane was all that was needed to obtain the ED visa. We never had a refusal from any other consualte.

By the way, although the Savannakhet situation was not really our fault we felt that in order to make the previous experience of Khun JUSTARRIVED less unpleaseant we would pay for his ED visa! Customer satisfaction is our priority.

Walen School, Mac