Callan/walen Ed Visa

[MacWalen]

We had an interesting case today. A Burmese woman received her ED visa in Yangon but her 4 year old daughter was refused a non-O visa to accompany her mother.

Walen School has called the embassy today to ask for the reason. The reason for declining was the concern for the child! The mother did not have a proof of enrolling her child at a kindergarten as well as did not have sufficient funds to show that she was able to pay for a nanny whilst studying.

So what is the lesson? In cases where brining over a child is involved it is a good idea to ask for the requirements in advance to avoid complications. Our school has a lot of expereince with difficult cases and in most cases we are able to help with visas, also we will be able to help with this case but it will take us a little longer to provide additional help.

Walen School of Thai, www.thaiwalen.com

Edited January 30, 2009 by macwalen

[TheWalkingMan]

Mac,

You should post 1 or 2 pages of your book, along with a few teaching points to let people know more about your system. Anyway, good luck and I hope that you are prosperous. But I also think that the lessons should be 5 days a week at 4 hours each day for full time students. Gotta keep them on their toes.

TheWalkingMan

[Mario2008]

Interesting case indeed Mac,

Thanks for posting. Please keep us informed of the results.

[Maestro]

We have some hot news! We were able to obtain FULL YEAR extensions for two of our Swedish students at our Pattaya school. They have already been studying for 3 months so total is 1 year 3 months. I have not seen this since July 2007 so there is some good report among all the complaining about fast changing rules…

I don’t know if it is too early to ask but I wonder if the one-year extension of stay for the study of Thai at a private school has become routine at the Pattaya immigration office.

--

Maestro

[Maestro]

Another question, while we are on this subject.

In this post in another topic topic farangtingtong reported in May 2008 that he and some fellow students learning Thai at a private school in Pattaya got a change from tourist visa to non-ED at the Pattaya immigration office. As I have not seen any other reports since then about this change of visa to non-ED at any immigration office I wonder if anybody else was able to get it recently, either in Pattaya or anywhere else in Thailand.

--

Maestro

[yunshen]

i was at wallen twice,1st time to know more abt the teaching method,yesterday i went again,and wanted to ask if there is new classes(all are first time learning thai),if there is i can sign up,however,a guy with spec was rude.i told him i wanted to know more abt thai lessons,can i have the leaflet,however he ask,i want the learn english or learn thai,i told him:"i am speaking to u in english,do i have to learn english?" guess what,the answer came"how would i know,u might be asking for someone else" and not in a funny way,mind you.but RUDE.

If u are the boss,try to recall,i am the chinese guy who came with a thai girl who had studied in Australia for 5 yrs.i even brought my passport and 6 photos as told by the lady when i went there the 1st time.if u are the boss reading this,sorry,u lost a customer,and yr service sucks!

is it because i am Chinese?or what?or my english is not as good as yours thats why u asked if i want the learn english leaflet?

MTL is different from you guys,although they are newer,the service is much better then yours.

try to find a customer service course when u are free,to the guy in spec....

[MacWalen]

kl,;. AQZ

i was at wallen twice,1st time to know more abt the teaching method,yesterday i went again,and wanted to ask if there is new classes(all are first time learning thai),if there is i can sign up,however,a guy with spec was rude.i told him i wanted to know more abt thai lessons,can i have the leaflet,however he ask,i want the learn english or learn thai,i told him:"i am speaking to u in english,do i have to learn english?" guess what,the answer came"how would i know,u might be asking for someone else" and not in a funny way,mind you.but RUDE.

If u are the boss,try to recall,i am the chinese guy who came with a thai girl who had studied in Australia for 5 yrs.i even brought my passport and 6 photos as told by the lady when i went there the 1st time.if u are the boss reading this,sorry,u lost a customer,and yr service sucks!

is it because i am Chinese?or what?or my english is not as good as yours thats why u asked if i want the learn english leaflet?

MTL is different from you guys,although they are newer,the service is much better then yours.

try to find a customer service course when u are free,to the guy in spec....

Let's start with emphatically stating that nobody was rude to you at our school, neither me nor anybody else.

I have no idea what made you think so and I am very sorry that you felt like that. I am a nice guy ( at least I consider myself to be) and I asked you if you wanted to learn Thai or English, in a normal way not in a rude way as you imply. We have students studying both languages and we can obtain ED visas for students whether they are taking an English course or a Thai course.

Just the fact that someone is asking a question in English does not mean that that person is not interested in improving English ( for non-native ). There are many levels of English and many people would like to learn more and get even better. Would that be a correct assumption?

I have answered your questions politely. You decided against studying at our school and it is your right.

We are the largest Thai language school in Thailand and perhaps even in the world, usually market verifies if a particular service is good or not. Majority of our students are happy with our service. I am personally involved in the running of the school and I am very particular about the quality of teaching. I also consider the Walen method to be the most effective in teaching Thai. The method is designed to reduce time spent on learning Thai to a minimum with a maximum effect.

Anyway, good luck and wish you success in your learning Thai (this is a genuine comment)

Walen

Edited February 2, 2009 by macwalen

[MacWalen]

We have some hot news! We were able to obtain FULL YEAR extensions for two of our Swedish students at our Pattaya school. They have already been studying for 3 months so total is 1 year 3 months. I have not seen this since July 2007 so there is some good report among all the complaining about fast changing rules…

I don't know if it is too early to ask but I wonder if the one-year extension of stay for the study of Thai at a private school has become routine at the Pattaya immigration office.

--

Maestro

Maestro, we had a few other students making extensions and only 90 days were given. So the immigration did not make it easier as I was hoping. If anything changes I will let the readers know. For now we have to accept 90 days extensions.

Walen

Edited February 2, 2009 by macwalen

[MacWalen]

Another question, while we are on this subject.

In this post in another topic topic farangtingtong reported in May 2008 that he and some fellow students learning Thai at a private school in Pattaya got a change from tourist visa to non-ED at the Pattaya immigration office. As I have not seen any other reports since then about this change of visa to non-ED at any immigration office I wonder if anybody else was able to get it recently, either in Pattaya or anywhere else in Thailand.

--

Maestro

Maestro, we cannot verify if farangtingtong had obtained an ED visa by changing from another category , it could be just an advertisement. I am not aware of any verified cases where students were able to change their visas to ED visas in Thailand based on paperwork from a private language school.

If farangtingtong says he was able to do it then he could perhaps scan and post his ED visa for all of us to see. In Thailand sometimes such things are possible, like the Swedish studens who got one year extensions in Pattaya. In any case even if it were possible with one or few cases for the majority of cases it is not possible at this time.

Walen

[Lite Beer]

Of Topic Post Deleted.

Walen have replied to the post in question so we can now put that issue to bed.

[Maestro]

Macwalen, thank you for your answers. Helps us all keep uptodate on visas and extensions for study.

--

Maestro

[kriswillems]

We are the largest Thai language school in Thailand and perhaps even in the world, usually market verifies if a particular service is good or not. Majority of our students are happy with our service. I am personally involved in the running of the school and I am very particular about the quality of teaching. I also consider the Walen method to be the most effective in teaching Thai. The method is designed to reduce time spent on learning Thai to a minimum with a maximum effect.

The fact that you're a sponsor of this forum seems to give you the right to make advertisement on this forum. I went to your biggest branch in BKK. It has 3 small classrooms (at the time I went), while there are many schools in that have more than 10 similar classrooms (that are full before and afternoon). So, I wonder why you call yourself the largest school?

The market share in the current situation might not only be driven by the quality of education but also by the possibility to obtain a student visa and by advertisement about this.

I can't judge about the quality of the education. At the time I went to look at your school your program was focussed on beginners. And I guess than it hasn't evolved behind that level because one of your students told me that nobody from your school joined the "proficiency test" (or P.6 test) organised by the the Thai ministry of education. Some other schools have more than 20 people joining the test.

Has this situation changed? Why don't people join the test? Do you also offer advanced courses now?

Edited February 3, 2009 by kriswillems

[MacWalen]

Hi Kris, I am afraid that you are mistaken or did not quite remember what you saw. On the 3rd floor we have 5 classrooms not 3 as you say in your post, also on the 24th floor we have 12 classrooms which gives us 17 full size classrooms, we do not have any tiny classrooms for private lessons like many other schools have.

We are busy mornings, afternoons and evenings. We call ourselves the largest school because we have the greatest number of students learning Thai at our school. But as you mentioned size then combined with Pattaya we have 27 full size classrooms (12 chairs or more).

Now you have a point, I agree that the size of school is not only a result of the quality of education but also the fact that we provide students with ED visas. Even if that was true the size is still counted in student numbers, is it not? A lot of people want to kill two birds with one stone and learning Thai and having a long term ED visa is a very good option. Advertising is important, Thaivisa.com would not be able to run the website without the support of sponsors. So again, nothing wrong with advertising, if you have a great product but you do not advertise will you be able to sell it?

Reading what you have written about our school, that it is only for beginners, it looks like there are only two levels, you are either a beginner or you are ready to take P6 exam. Anything between those levels? We teach 3 books now and cover about 2,500 words. If you are so convinced that it is only for beginners I would really like to see if you were asked questions form Walen book 3 would you be able to answer them without reading answers from the book. It is considered quite difficult, but again, you do not think much about our students. Like a 'bunch of beginners'. Let's dwell on this point a little longer, it is actually the hardest thing to teach people languages at the beginner level. It is easier later when they already have a good grasp of the language.

I never said that there were not other schools that taught very well and that they had students at higher levels than our school. It is however going change, in the future our school will not only have 20 people taking the P.6 exam but 100.

Last note, respectfully, you have always been very critical of our school for whatever reason. I understand that we cannot please everyone. Hope that answered your questions, also please check the info before posting, you will lose credibility otherwise.

Walen School, www.thaiwalen.com

Edited February 7, 2009 by macwalen

[jdinasia]

Nothing wrong with advertising even if you don't have a great product .... I'd still stick with Chula if I were looking for anything approaching fluency in Thai

[kriswillems]

Well, advertisement for other schools is not allowed on this forum. I see that the moderators make an exception for people that put banners on the Thaivisa website. I understand this, but it's a danger for the neutrality of the forum. I hope people are allowed to ask questions to know more details.

On 2007-10-08 12:56:59 you wrote that you had 12 classrooms of 3.5 by 3.5 meters. Apparently there are even more now. Nice to know.

There's nothing wrong with educating people at a beginners level, except that people seems to be lacking the opportunity to go until P.6 or higher level in your school.

The P.6 test is not being organized anymore so it will be a bit hard to get 100 people joining the test. This test has been replaced by a more general level or proficiency test. This year about 250 people joined the test mainly coming from different schools around bangkok, except Walen school. The organization will be happy to know that they can expect 350 people in the future.

Could you post a few pages of your third book on the forum? Your study method seems like "back magic" to me.

I have nothing against your school and I even considered studying with you twice. And I am still considering it if you would offer (classroom)courses at a higher level in Pattaya (or anywhere else in Chonburi). You would the only school in Pattaya doing that. Probably being the biggest Thai language school in the whole world, I put all my hope on you.

Goodluck and thanks for your answers.

Edited February 7, 2009 by kriswillems

[Lite Beer]

Well, advertisement for other schools is not allowed on this forum. I see that the moderators make an exception for people that put banners on the Thaivisa website. I understand this, but it's a danger for the neutrality of the forum. I hope people are allowed to ask questions to know more details.

Just for the record. Sponsers are entitled to promote their product on the forum they sponser.

[bangkok blue]

Mr, Walen

Hope you are well, your advertisment keeps saying chiangmai school coming soon, just spoke to a girl in your office who didn't have a clue as to when you will open and when I asked her is it likely to be soon she said "Maybe next year!"

That doesn't sound soon to me.... Care to shed any light as to a possible opening date???

[MacWalen]

Mr, Walen

Hope you are well, your advertisment keeps saying chiangmai school coming soon, just spoke to a girl in your office who didn't have a clue as to when you will open and when I asked her is it likely to be soon she said "Maybe next year!"

That doesn't sound soon to me.... Care to shed any light as to a possible opening date???

I'm actually in Chiang Mai right now. We will be opening our school here hopefully in May this year, give a take a month. We are getting emails from Chaing Mai just about every day asking us the same question, we are definitely coming.

Walen School, www.thaiwalen.com

[bangkok blue]

Good news.... Should you wish to meet for a beer or dinner then let me know... There are some good offices available on soi 17 Nimanhemin road above the new Ohishi restaurant....

May is good for me as will be looking to enroll around then or June... Any promotional rates for your opening per chance?

[bangkok blue]

Mr Walen,

A few questions regarding your course and visas....

1. Bored of going to Laos for my visas, is it possible to obtain the ED visa in Phonon Phen now that the consulate manager has changed there and seems to be a bit more friendly. Surely as I would have the docs from your school it doesn't matter where I go.

2. Once I have obtained my ED Visa I know I have to report to immigration every 90days to extend the visa. What if I want to go on holiday? Do I go to immigration in order to get a re-entry permit?

3. If my 90day report is also due while I am travelling on my holiday is it possible to go to immigartion before I leave to obtain the extension so my visa does not run out while I am out of Thailand and also obtain the re-entry permit at the same time?

4. This leads to my next question; I intend to enroll on your course in June. I may well do some travelling between March - May and this will lead to me missing some lessons. Does this mean that I have lost these lessons for good? Or can I just pick up from where I left off.

E.g I go on my travells after lesson 64 and miss for example 20 lessons do I carry on from lesson 64 from when I left or have I lost out on the 20 lessons I missed while I am away?

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks

Edited February 12, 2009 by bangkok blue

[MacWalen]

Mr Walen,

A few questions regarding your course and visas....

1. Bored of going to Laos for my visas, is it possible to obtain the ED visa in Phonon Phen now that the consulate manager has changed there and seems to be a bit more friendly. Surely as I would have the docs from your school it doesn't matter where I go.

2. Once I have obtained my ED Visa I know I have to report to immigration every 90days to extend the visa. What if I want to go on holiday? Do I go to immigration in order to get a re-entry permit?

3. If my 90day report is also due while I am travelling on my holiday is it possible to go to immigartion before I leave to obtain the extension so my visa does not run out while I am out of Thailand and also obtain the re-entry permit at the same time?

4. This leads to my next question; I intend to enroll on your course in June. I may well do some travelling between March - May and this will lead to me missing some lessons. Does this mean that I have lost these lessons for good? Or can I just pick up from where I left off.

E.g I go on my travells after lesson 64 and miss for example 20 lessons do I carry on from lesson 64 from when I left or have I lost out on the 20 lessons I missed while I am away?

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks

Bangkok blue, here are the answers.

1. With the documents form our school it does not matter what consulate you will go to. We have many students who received ED visas from Phenom Pen. Actually we have 100% success rate with obtaining ED visas for our students.

2. You will need to obtain a re-entry permit if the visa is single entry. No need if it is multiple entry however if you plan to go to Cambodia for the ED visa I don't think you will be able to obtain a multiple entry. A single re-entry permit is 1,000 Baht.

3. This is a common question. If you plan to travel and your 90 days will be finished while you are outside of the country you will need to extend you visa before you go. This is not a problem, immigration will extend it by 90 days from the expiration date of your present extension. So if you have, say, 20 days left on your visa and you will be traveling for a month then you will extend your visa for 90 days so total of 110 days. You will need to return within that period or otherwise you will lose the status of a student. You can get re-entry permit the same day.

4. Once you start your course you will lose lessons you miss. This is standard for group lessons, if you took private lessons (more expensive) you would have full flexibility.

Walen School

[MacWalen]

Clarification to point number 4. If you finish a book, for example book 1, you can take a break before you start book 2. There is no specific length of time, we however recommend breaks not longer than one month.

Walen

[MacWalen]

Good news.... Should you wish to meet for a beer or dinner then let me know... There are some good offices available on soi 17 Nimanhemin road above the new Ohishi restaurant....

May is good for me as will be looking to enroll around then or June... Any promotional rates for your opening per chance?

I had a look at quite a few places but the problem I found was not enough parking space. We expect a lot of students In Chaing Mai as we are getting emails asking about a school there just about every day, we would like something where parking is not too difficult. I found something on 1001 road, fantastic place but a little out of town. Any thoughts?

Walen

[TCA]

2. You will need to obtain a re-entry permit if the visa is single entry. No need if it is multiple entry however if you plan to go to Cambodia for the ED visa I don't think you will be able to obtain a multiple entry. A single re-entry permit is 1,000 Baht.

3. This is a common question. If you plan to travel and your 90 days will be finished while you are outside of the country you will need to extend you visa before you go. This is not a problem, immigration will extend it by 90 days from the expiration date of your present extension. So if you have, say, 20 days left on your visa and you will be traveling for a month then you will extend your visa for 90 days so total of 110 days. You will need to return within that period or otherwise you will lose the status of a student. You can get re-entry permit the same day.

Walen School

I'm a bit confused with the notion of single entry non O education visas and re-entry permits - can someone please put me right.

1) If someone was embarking on 1 year's study in Thailand, with no plans to leave the country in that time, is it correct they can do so on a single entry Non O if they report to Immigration every 90 days and pay for an extension (1,900 baht)? i.e. no need for any re-entry permits at 1,000 baht? If so, is it the case that you could do this on day 364/5 of your 1 year visa and gain an extra 90 days, thus increasing your stay to 15 months or are you precluded from doing this by the 1 year course length?

2) If you do choose to leave the country having entered on a single entry visa, as long as you extend for 90 days before you leave, you will be permitted to re-enter on payment of the 1,000 baht with no problems? If so, again can you technically make your last entry on the last day of your 1 year visa and extend for a further 90 days?

Thanks.

[ubonjoe]

I'm a bit confused with the notion of single entry non O education visas and re-entry permits - can someone please put me right.

1) If someone was embarking on 1 year's study in Thailand, with no plans to leave the country in that time, is it correct they can do so on a single entry Non O if they report to Immigration every 90 days and pay for an extension (1,900 baht)? i.e. no need for any re-entry permits at 1,000 baht? If so, is it the case that you could do this on day 364/5 of your 1 year visa and gain an extra 90 days, thus increasing your stay to 15 months or are you precluded from doing this by the 1 year course length?

2) If you do choose to leave the country having entered on a single entry visa, as long as you extend for 90 days before you leave, you will be permitted to re-enter on payment of the 1,000 baht with no problems? If so, again can you technically make your last entry on the last day of your 1 year visa and extend for a furthe 90 days?

Thanks.

First it is not a O visa it is non immigrant ED visa.

You could enter with a single entry visa. Then with all the paperwork from the school during the last 30 days of that visa entry you would go to immigration and get a 90 day extension (1900 baht) and then every 90 days after that to get another extension. You would only need the re-entry permit if you wanted to leave and re-enter during any of those 90 day extensions.

If you were to get a multiple entry visa you would not need to get the exensions and re-entry permit. But you would have to leave and re-enter the country evey 90 days days. A multiple entry visa would alow you to leave and return as many times as you want for one year. If you were to leave and re-enter the country the day before the visa expired you could get another 90 days. So in reality a one year visa would give you a total of 15 months without getting a new visa. Being enrolled in the school would not matter for the full time of the visa (including the extra 90 days) it is only required to get the visa. You could then apply for an extension during the last 30 days of the last entry.

Note: To get an ED visa will require paperwork from a school. As stated you will not get a multiple entry visa from any of the nearby consulates. You could get one in your home country in most cases but that will depend upon which embassy or conuslate you apply at.

In my opinion the best option is to get a single entry and then get the extensions. It is much better than having to make border runs every 90 days and is less expensive also.

[TCA]

Thanks Joe. I've mixed up my terms a bit there and did mean a Non Immigrant ED visa as you rightly corrected. I'd be getting the visa from home (the Thai Consulate in Hull,UK), so would presumably be OK for either single or multiple entry.

So just to confirm: with a multiple entry Non Immigrant ED visa you have to leave the country every 90 days - no choice in that? That being the case, the single entry Non Immigrant ED visa does sound a better bet.

So is there any sort of expiry with a single entry Non Immigrant ED visa? I understand you have to use it within 3 months of issue and will get 90 days on entry, but can you just keep extending it ad infinitim? I'm guessing it's valid for a year like its multiple entry counterpart?

[ubonjoe]

No way around leaving every 90 days with a multiple entry.

Once you enter the country what happens with your visa does not matter it only gives you permission to enter the country. After you are in the country it is your permit to stay that counts. You can keep extending a permit to stay for infinity as long as you can meet the requirements to get an extension.

[TCA]

Thanks again Joe. From reading another post though, it would appear though that one would require a new single entry ED visa after 1 year before you can continue with the extensions. Is this assuming a break in studies and an inability to produce continuing paperwork? Please see post #7 of the topic below:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Stay-Longest...mi-t219297.html

Edited February 25, 2009 by TCA

[ubonjoe]

I think thats confusion between a visa and extensions.

There is nothing in the rules that says that.

[TCA]

I think thats confusion between a visa and extensions. There is nothing in the rules that says that.

Stumbled across this language school below when searching and it talks about a "one year non-immigrant ED visa", but also says "Stay in Thailand one year (or more) with a ED Visa", which might imply this is just a minimum based on the fact that the course required to get the visa is a minimum of one year (or 180 hours) anyway.

http://huahinmedia.com/huahintlc.php

Hang on, just seen below from the same company, which states a new visa is required after 1 year (turquoise section near foot of page). Confusing stuff:

http://www.thailanguagecentre.org/visa.htm