Education Visa For Scuba Diving

[jstumbo]

There is some good advice and some rubbish amongst these posts, the fact is he will need to get a non-imigrant type B multi entry visa from outside Thailand

A non-imm B visa is for Business or Work. Since he would not be conducting business or working, seems like this would be the wrong kind of visa.

[blocat]

There is some good advice and some rubbish amongst these posts, the fact is he will need to get a non-imigrant type B multi entry visa from outside Thailand

A non-imm B visa is for Business or Work. Since he would not be conducting business or working, seems like this would be the wrong kind of visa.

Well you know how Thais are always changing the rules, fact is, it's not classed as work whilst training, or wasn't when I did it.

However, I'm (am now) reliably informed that all Pattaya Diving schools can now organise, Ed visas with little hassle

I knew someone would correct me

Thanks

Edited April 30, 2008 by blocat

[RAZZELL]

I was talking about Razzel..

You probably never heard of course directors and platinum course directors have you..

And we have quite a lot of them in Thailand.

And about the equipment.. Then i suppose Apeks, Mares, Uwatec, Beuchat, Suunto etc, etc ... all manufacture bad equipment.

Btw diving isn't dangerous.. That is something from the past

Of course I've heard of them...And yes all excellent manufacturers...But not dangerous?

After a quick google...17 fatalities in 2005 in the uk.

http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/news/article...AN=2569&v=1

If you're a dive instructor...god help your students!

RAZZ

Edited May 1, 2008 by RAZZELL

[jstumbo]

It also depends on how well the equipment is maintained. It can be a good manufacturer, but if it is not maintained it can be crap and dangerous.

Diving is a dangerous sport. Is it a sport where you are flipping a coin when you dive? No. But it can be dangerous and you need to have your wits about you and take the needed precautions.

I used to dive all the time, and I had a partner that ran out of air at 90feet. I got him up safely and it was the last time I dove with him, because I cannot dive with a person that would do that. Had another guy that had his weight belt fall off at 60 ft. Luckily he caught it and came to me holding it in his hand for help to put it back on. I have been out with numerous classes where I am cleaning fishing line off of students. I have had my mask and reg knocked off countless times by students.

We had a class out on a deep dive for their advanced certification. There was a pier near where we were diving from a boat. Someone on the pier was not happy that we were diving there so they made up a line with a bunch of hooks and weights and were throwing it in the area where we were diving, trying to snag someone.

The only problem I had was I dropped over the side of the boat, dropped down to 80 feet and was standing on the bottom with my partner. My HP hose to my gauges broke right behind my head. Felt like someone hit me with a board. I fell to my knees a little stunned and did not know what had happened. I looked up and thought maybe the backup motor on the back of the boat fell off and hit me. Then I saw the stream of bubbles and got my partners octopus and we went back to the surface. Tossed my BC and reg setup up to the boat and a friend tossed another one over board for me to use and down we went again.

[js1]

I am quite sure your son can do PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water and Rescue Diver while he is there on his tourist visa.

By then he will probably have enough contacts to know how these things work ;-)

I imagine you can also do Dive Master and Instructor in Thailand?

I came from Seattle, which is cold water diving. We always use drysuits because it is just too cold and miserable if you do it with a wetsuit. I worked out of a dive shop and we had a new instructor come to work at the shop. He had done all his certification in Hawaii. He did not last long. He had no skills with drysuits and was used to diving in water with hundreds of feet of visibility. Around Seattle, you are lucky to get 30 feet visibility. Nice diving though. Great to dive with Octopus the size of cars.

Too be honest...I think the dive tuition in Thailand is nowhere near as good as what I've experienced in the UK.

Plus, as the above poster said, the conditions in Thailand give you a false sense of security. When it's pitch black and freezing, you have to know your stuff

Diving is a dangerous pastime. If it was my son, I would want him to have the best tuition and equipment possible. Something that's unlikely to happen in LOS

RAZZ

There are some excellent dive schools in Thailand and excellent instructors. It's unfair to suggest that operators in Thailand are lacking in skills and use substandard equipment. Ridiculous actually.

In answer to the original post. Yes it is poss to get an Ed visa. All you need is a letter on headed paper with a company stamp, from the dive school you will be studying with. This is fact. They do not need to be registered with the MoE either. You will need to apply outside of Thailand, obviously, preferably in your home country.

If you're going to work after qualifying as an instructor, why not just set up or buy a company now, ready for when you'll need a work permit.

Rgds

[britmaveric]

I am from Aquanauts and several days ago I wrote a long and detailed post explaining that, in fact, any instructor training center in Thailand can now get ED visas even though they are not registered with the Education Ministry.

Whatever gods or powers that be around here deemed my post unworthy and deleted it without any notice to me. Nice welcome to the board. I can't be bothered to write it all out again, but I will be updating the page on my own site later with the real facts if anyone's interested.

I'd heard alot of negative stuff about this board and the way it's run and (overrun) by mods and habitual posters. Shame what I'd heard was proven right on my first post.

No worries mate, I'm sure it was a misunderstanding in regard to your post. Any rate - I welcome your input. Send my regards to Bob/Gary/Roger. (top lads)

[js1]

There are some excellent dive schools in Thailand and excellent instructors. It's unfair to suggest that operators in Thailand are lacking in skills and use substandard equipment. Ridiculous actually.

In answer to the original post. Yes it is poss to get an Ed visa. All you need is a letter on headed paper with a company stamp, from the dive school you will be studying with. This is fact. They do not need to be registered with the MoE either. You will need to apply outside of Thailand, obviously, preferably in your home country.

If you're going to work after qualifying as an instructor, why not just set up or buy a company now, ready for when you'll need a work permit.

Rgds