Must Cancel Non-b And Come Back On Tourist Visa

[twknott]

I have applied for a new teaching job and was told that my Non_B which is good until October is not transferable from a government school to a private school. I must now go to Lao cancel my Non-B and return on a Tourist Visa to be processed for a new Non-B at the new school. Has anyone else experienced this before. I do not want to lose my ability to get a Non-B until another 6 months. I was told you can only get one Non-B a year when I got this one. Non-B to Tourist Visa back to Non-B for a new job.

[sensei]

Your former school should surrender your work permit to the local work permit office. That would cancel your work permit and your Non-B visa. The school will get a document (just a small piece of paper) in return and you have to have that.

After this, you are allowed SEVEN days to have your new work permit processed. You have to present the document that your old school got in return for your work permit to your new school.

There's no need for you to go out of the country but sometimes, that might be the easiest way to get back in with a fresh tourist visa.

[PeaceBlondie]

You can also ask for your question to be transferred to our Visa forum, and the experts there can advise you.

I never heard there was a rule regarding government versus private schools. Nor a rule about how many non-immigrant B visas can be issued in a certain period of time. I thought you could get a new B visa, etc., but then I do not know the details. There is also the issue of whether your present visa has been extended. If not, I believe it continues.

[TerryLH]

"After this, you are allowed SEVEN days to have your new work permit processed. You have to present the document that your old school got in return for your work permit to your new school.

There's no need for you to go out of the country but sometimes, that might be the easiest way to get back in with a fresh tourist visa."

I believe this is a little misleading. Once your work permit that is turned in you generally have 7 days to leave the country OR get your paperwork for a new WP taken care of. I think immigration still needs to be involved in this, somehow.

Most people are not able to get the new paperwork processed within the 7 days, so must leave the country.

It is only in rare instances where everything is done quickly to prevent that.

If it is a B visa that has never been extended at an immigration office in Thailand, I don't think you have to leave. Your visa would still be good until the date of expiration.

Like others above, I've never heard there is a difference between the gov't schools and private schools for visas.

The only reason I can think of is, you wouldn't meet the requirements for a B visa at a private school, but because you were applying to work in a govt school they lowered the standards and issued a visa. Just a guess.

[twknott]

thanks to all for the imput. I do have experience with a visa not being expired. A year ago, I was told that I didn't have to change my visa because it was good for another 6 months. I began work at my new job and the work permit office said no problem I had a visa. When I went to renew 5 months later, I was in big trouble. The old visa had the name of my old school. The work permit and contracts had my new school from May on them. I was lucky because the immigration officer knew me and told me to leave go to Lao cancel my visa and start over or pay a huge fine and get deported for 6 months. Naturally, I split to Lao. Now my paper work is o.k. but I am resigning and going to the new school as I have been here a year and ready to go. This is when the new school told me to cancel and come back as a tourist. Seems the law they are using came into effect in January. They also said that it was impossible to get the paper work done in 7 days so I guess thats why I need to go start over.

[JakeBKK]

"After this, you are allowed SEVEN days to have your new work permit processed. You have to present the document that your old school got in return for your work permit to your new school.

There's no need for you to go out of the country but sometimes, that might be the easiest way to get back in with a fresh tourist visa."

I believe this is a little misleading. Once your work permit that is turned in you generally have 7 days to leave the country OR get your paperwork for a new WP taken care of. I think immigration still needs to be involved in this, somehow.

Most people are not able to get the new paperwork processed within the 7 days, so must leave the country.

It is only in rare instances where everything is done quickly to prevent that.

If it is a B visa that has never been extended at an immigration office in Thailand, I don't think you have to leave. Your visa would still be good until the date of expiration.

Like others above, I've never heard there is a difference between the gov't schools and private schools for visas.

The only reason I can think of is, you wouldn't meet the requirements for a B visa at a private school, but because you were applying to work in a govt school they lowered the standards and issued a visa. Just a guess.

As peace blondie said little bit off-topic here.... but look at the fine print ..... if you file your papers within seven days you still get the receipt (applying/alteration on a work permit) on which get you an 30 day B extension at the immigration.

Never done that in person, but i believe the rule applies here too.

(let me know if i'm wrong)

PS: why ist there such a huge gap between the law (publicised in English) and the possibilities you find within the thai language?

Greetings

JakeBKK