CMU Fails To Provide Visa Support Documents

[RKO10]

Hey, just want to say that I've asked Immigration about this with another friend, and they say that everyone should go to Immigration individually to see what the situation is. Because many people have different visas, they don't want to give a blanket statement.

[kawtot]

I suppose you can't deny a sponsor the right to advertise.

Last night my CMU class met especially for the last time. We talked about many things including Thai Visa posts. It was interesting for us to discover that we had all been following this thread and we all thought that Walen's posts were a bit rich; one quote "like a vulture to a carcass". I offer this as feedback about the TV posts, not as criticism of the product because I have no idea about Walen school.

I just looked up Pro Language, who charge about the same price but include course materials. Maybe the private schools are all in that price/product bracket?

The gist of my post is that this sponsor's recent posts might be doing the business, or at least his reputation, as much harm as good. Not much point in getting angry with him.

[MacWalen]

Khun Kawtot,

Just a quick remark. It is not just the price, also look at the ownership of the school. If you want to attend a school owned by a Thai person that can work perfectly well and there are great many great Thai schools owned by Thais, they however may not relate to you as much as another farang.

Not the most important, but still our teachers are generally younger and prettier than at other schools . I find that this is a very good combination when it comes to quick language acquisition. Don't be fooled by their youth, they know what they are doing. Of course we run open house so everybody can come and sit on a free lesson or even the whole day. Talking to other students also helps as you can get real opinions. Also we teach directly in Thai, no Romanization of Thai at all. Easier than people think.

Walen School of Thai - incredible value!

www.thaiwalen.com

Ps. All those who got upset by my posts, please forgive, no offense meant.

Edited September 30, 2010 by macwalen

[richard10365]

I sympathize with all of the serious students who are affected by this situation. My wishes are that all of you are able to resolve this in some manner that is acceptable to you. We can't change the past and are forced to deal with the present situation. Hopefully this situation will never again happen in Chiang Mai.

Even though this happened, I still think Chiang Mai has many excellent schools and this situation should not reflect on the other schools in this city.

International education opportunities in Chiang Mai are improving. While in the short run this does look bad, long run implications might suggest a positive change and that serious students who want to study in Thailand are actually in class and receiving the truly international education of a higher quality which they signed up for.

[kawtot]

Khun Kawtot,

Just a quick remark. It is not just the price, also look at the ownership of the school. If you want to attend a school owned by a Thai person that can work perfectly well and there are great many great Thai schools owned by a Thais, they however may not relate to you as much as another farang.

Not the most important, but still our teachers are generally younger and prettier than at other schools . I find that this is a very good combination when it comes to quick language acquisition. Don't be fooled by their youth, they know what they are doing. Of course we run open house so everybody can some and sit on a free lesson or even the whole day. Talking to other students also helps as you can get real opinions. Also we teach directly in Thai, no Romanization of Thai at all. Easier than people think.

Walen School of Thai - incredible value!

www.thaiwalen.com

Ps. All those who got upset by my posts, please forgive, no offense meant.

LOL ! In the original draft of my post I had a remark along the lines: Bet Walen's response will be the standard "product differentiation" spin. I took it out just in case you weren't an open book. But you are. No problem. I have no grudge toward you. Business is business.

[ha55ha]

Macwalen, before you started posting in this thread I was almost certainly going to enroll on a 1 year course at Walen School. Now I am going to go study at Pro Language instead. Nice advertising!

[ha55ha]

Mario I went into the immigration today and specifically told them my course is finishing tomorrow because it has been cancelled and they told me (at least 5 times, as I made them repeat it to make sure) that I am OK to stay in Thailand until the natural end of my visa, which is in March 2011. I asked them if I will incur any overstay fines whatsover from the 1st October and they said no. So does this mean from tomorrow I am staying illegally in the country like you keep saying?

Do you have a visa or an extension of stay until March 2011? A visa would remain valid but require exit every 90 days. An extension of stay becomes invalid when the reason for issue ends. But as has been mentioned most immigration offices have/would allow some leeway.

Thanks for the information. How do I know if I am on a visa or an extension of stay? I recently went back home for a couple of weeks and have just returned, on entry they stamped my visa with an exit date of the 15th March 2011. This is the date my Education visa is set to expire. is this a visa or an extension? Thanks again

Edited September 30, 2010 by ha55ha

[MacWalen]

Macwalen, before you started posting in this thread I was almost certainly going to enroll on a 1 year course at Walen School. Now I am going to go study at Pro Language instead. Nice advertising!

Go ahead, I have nothing against that school. Good school, you prefer that school so go there, but it would be stupid if you went there for personal reasons rather comparison reasons. If you think they will provide better service and teach you better than of course do it.

Walen School of Thai - compare and chose what is best for you

www.thaiwalen.com

[ausdave]

I was involved in the Cultural Exchange Program. Unfortunately, I had to be hospitalized for emergency surgery in August, and got a 90 medical extension for my visa instead of the ED extension.

I purchased expat insurance here in CM just incase I had a medical problem. They refused to pay the 266000 baht hospital bill, which I am now fighting. In the interim, I have found out that the Socialized medical insurance in my home country would pay the entire bill if I can supply a letter from CMU or the Cultural Exchange Program confirming that I was volunteering in Thailand.

I contacted Matt, and he said the he could not write a letter for me because he is not employed there, and he is forbidden to sign anything that involved the cultural exchange or CMU. He suggested that I contact the new head of the department and the President of CMU, which I promptly did, explaining the need for a letter for insurance coverage.

They refused to help me.

Any suggestions of where to go to next in this saga that could be solved with a simple two sentence statement on CMU or CMLI letterhead would be appreciated. We are talking of about $9000 which could be paid by Universal health care and would not have to come out of my own pocket even though I tried to protect myself with purchasing local health insurance which seems to be a waste of money.

I am really sorry to hear of your troubles. It's beyond belief that CMU would not help you with a simple statement of fact on paper, but I don't doubt your story.

I hope someone here can suggest something useful...

[lopburi3]

There should be a stamp in your passport extension of stay and a date. If you are travelling you would have had to obtain a re-entry permit to return using an extension of stay. What is the permitted to stay until date in your passport? Not the visa expiration date but the stamp immigration placed into your passport on arrival.

If you are using a visa each entry would get permitted to stay 90 days later.

Look at original ED visa and see that that says (single or multi entry) and the expiration date (use before).

[ausdave]

Khun Kawtot,

Just a quick remark. It is not just the price, also look at the ownership of the school. If you want to attend a school owned by a Thai person that can work perfectly well and there are great many great Thai schools owned by Thais, they however may not relate to you as much as another farang.

Not the most important, but still our teachers are generally younger and prettier than at other schools . I find that this is a very good combination when it comes to quick language acquisition. Don't be fooled by their youth, they know what they are doing. Of course we run open house so everybody can come and sit on a free lesson or even the whole day. Talking to other students also helps as you can get real opinions. Also we teach directly in Thai, no Romanization of Thai at all. Easier than people think.

Walen School of Thai - incredible value!

www.thaiwalen.com

Ps. All those who got upset by my posts, please forgive, no offense meant.

Off topic. Rings of racism, sexism and discriminatory employement practices.

[harveyBKK]

i think young hot teachers would be a huge incentive to go to class and learn the language. lets be honest.

[thaiguy55]

Walen, it would be pretty stupid of you to keep posting here. You have done nothing but drive potential customers away from your school.

[MacWalen]

Khun Kawtot,

Just a quick remark. It is not just the price, also look at the ownership of the school. If you want to attend a school owned by a Thai person that can work perfectly well and there are great many great Thai schools owned by Thais, they however may not relate to you as much as another farang.

Not the most important, but still our teachers are generally younger and prettier than at other schools . I find that this is a very good combination when it comes to quick language acquisition. Don't be fooled by their youth, they know what they are doing. Of course we run open house so everybody can come and sit on a free lesson or even the whole day. Talking to other students also helps as you can get real opinions. Also we teach directly in Thai, no Romanization of Thai at all. Easier than people think.

Walen School of Thai - incredible value!

www.thaiwalen.com

Ps. All those who got upset by my posts, please forgive, no offense meant.

Off topic. Rings of racism, sexism and discriminatory employement practices.

I have no right to employ whom I believe will provide the best service and customer satisfaction? And where racism came from? Teachers are all Thai, are they not? I wonder where you get these ideas from.

[MacWalen]

i think young hot teachers would be a huge incentive to go to class and learn the language. lets be honest.

At least one honest opinion

[harrry]

Mac is a scot and never knows when it is best to shut up....As an aussie we share the same traits but hopefully control ourselves.

[MacWalen]

Walen, it would be pretty stupid of you to keep posting here. You have done nothing but drive potential customers away from your school.

That's your opinion, perhaps I have also encouraged the same number. I have been posting on the forum for a few years now and the numbers of students are not going down, how come? Get to know us first and you will have a better view of things. We are not a number one Thai school by chance.

I am replying to posts related to Walen now, I hope I am allowed to do that.

[MacWalen]

Mac is a scot and never knows when it is best to shut up....As an aussie we share the same traits but hopefully control ourselves.

You might be surprised harry but I am also an Aussie not a Scot

[wynzlo]

At CMULI (before their current debacle, of course) we were able to get an ED visa for 30,000 THB (one year) tuition with 4 hours of classroom instructions per week. That aspect seems perfectly legal as far as Thai immigration is concerned. Why is Payap insisting on at least 15 hours per week of instructions and a tuition of (my rough estimate) at least 70,000 THB per year before providing ED visas for foreigners learning Thai? Based on the info on their website, even Walen is able to provide ED visas on class time and tuition similar to what CMULI used to offer. Why can't Payap?

70,000 at Payap? That's a lot! Walen is charging 24,960 Baht, cheaper that CMU and Payap. Those who still do not like Walen, please visit and talk to our staff, see the school, take a free class, talk to our existing students and after you will be able to make a more informed decision.

Walen School - not the cheapest but the best value

www.thaiwalen.com

I really hate to turn this thread into a language school battle, but feel the need to correct this. I just started at Payap and it has far exceeded my expectations.

From what I can tell...

150 hours at Walen (180 classes) inc. visa support = 24,960 Baht (http://www.thaiwalen.com/prices.php)

180 hours at Payap (3 terms) inc. visa support = 27,700 Baht (http://ic.payap.ac.th/certificate/thai/about.php)

As thaiboy999 pointed out, Payap offers intensive courses, so those 180 hours are only within 3-4 months. To get a visa extension for 1 year I imagine you have to continue beyond 3 terms, which gets expensive.

I also feel the need to mention the reason I personally will not consider Walen is because of posts like this and all the other advertising. It may indeed be a better program, but I can't get over my distrust for an institution that needs to advertise so heavily.

[ha55ha]

There should be a stamp in your passport extension of stay and a date. If you are travelling you would have had to obtain a re-entry permit to return using an extension of stay. What is the permitted to stay until date in your passport? Not the visa expiration date but the stamp immigration placed into your passport on arrival.

If you are using a visa each entry would get permitted to stay 90 days later.

Look at original ED visa and see that that says (single or multi entry) and the expiration date (use before).

The stamp immigration placed in my passport on the 21st September when I returned from my home country says 'Admitted until 15 March 2011.' Which is the same date my Education visa runs out. I can not find any stamp in my passport that has the words 'Extention of stay'

So yeh, I'm quite confused

[MacWalen]

At CMULI (before their current debacle, of course) we were able to get an ED visa for 30,000 THB (one year) tuition with 4 hours of classroom instructions per week. That aspect seems perfectly legal as far as Thai immigration is concerned. Why is Payap insisting on at least 15 hours per week of instructions and a tuition of (my rough estimate) at least 70,000 THB per year before providing ED visas for foreigners learning Thai? Based on the info on their website, even Walen is able to provide ED visas on class time and tuition similar to what CMULI used to offer. Why can't Payap?

70,000 at Payap? That's a lot! Walen is charging 24,960 Baht, cheaper that CMU and Payap. Those who still do not like Walen, please visit and talk to our staff, see the school, take a free class, talk to our existing students and after you will be able to make a more informed decision.

Walen School - not the cheapest but the best value

www.thaiwalen.com

I really hate to turn this thread into a language school battle, but feel the need to correct this. I just started at Payap and it has far exceeded my expectations.

From what I can tell...

150 hours at Walen (180 classes) inc. visa support = 24,960 Baht (http://www.thaiwalen.com/prices.php)

180 hours at Payap (3 terms) inc. visa support = 27,700 Baht (http://ic.payap.ac.t.../thai/about.php)

As thaiboy999 pointed out, Payap offers intensive courses, so those 180 hours are only within 3-4 months. To get a visa extension for 1 year I imagine you have to continue beyond 3 terms, which gets expensive.

I also feel the need to mention the reason I personally will not consider Walen is because of posts like this and all the other advertising. It may indeed be a better program, but I can't get over my distrust for an institution that needs to advertise so heavily.

What about Coke, do you drink it? It is bad? Or what about huge BMW banner on Bayok Sky hotel? And the list goes on and on. Even Amway has a massive display on the way to the airport in Bangkok and Sony. I think distrusting institutions that advertise a lot is missing the point but of course please yourself.

[bluesnake]

This thread is meant to try to find a solution for the 300 students who got screwed by CMU.

So pls. have some respect and stop advertising and posting your ego in here.

Are you also gonna try to sell your caskets in a funeral ?

This pointless blah-blah-blah makes the thread already too long to read, when we need useful information to solve the crisis.

Seems there is always someone to spoil every single forum thread I read.

Human nature i guess...

Thanks.

[lopburi3]

A number of posts and at least on poster has been removed - keep on topic and no more flames or immediate suspension will be the result. This is an important topic of a number of posters and flames do not help anyone.

[Austeyr]

The Language Institute has just released a new letter stating it will continue running the Thai courses so people can keep their Visa's and continue their Thai studies. It does say how ever that it will not extend visa's that are expiring. Good news for people who like to study , no real help for those who need visa extensions.

[richard10365]

At CMULI (before their current debacle, of course) we were able to get an ED visa for 30,000 THB (one year) tuition with 4 hours of classroom instructions per week. That aspect seems perfectly legal as far as Thai immigration is concerned. Why is Payap insisting on at least 15 hours per week of instructions and a tuition of (my rough estimate) at least 70,000 THB per year before providing ED visas for foreigners learning Thai? Based on the info on their website, even Walen is able to provide ED visas on class time and tuition similar to what CMULI used to offer. Why can't Payap?

70,000 at Payap? That's a lot! Walen is charging 24,960 Baht, cheaper that CMU and Payap. Those who still do not like Walen, please visit and talk to our staff, see the school, take a free class, talk to our existing students and after you will be able to make a more informed decision.

Walen School - not the cheapest but the best value

www.thaiwalen.com

I really hate to turn this thread into a language school battle, but feel the need to correct this. I just started at Payap and it has far exceeded my expectations.

From what I can tell...

150 hours at Walen (180 classes) inc. visa support = 24,960 Baht (http://www.thaiwalen.com/prices.php)

180 hours at Payap (3 terms) inc. visa support = 27,700 Baht (http://ic.payap.ac.t.../thai/about.php)

As thaiboy999 pointed out, Payap offers intensive courses, so those 180 hours are only within 3-4 months. To get a visa extension for 1 year I imagine you have to continue beyond 3 terms, which gets expensive.

I also feel the need to mention the reason I personally will not consider Walen is because of posts like this and all the other advertising. It may indeed be a better program, but I can't get over my distrust for an institution that needs to advertise so heavily.

What about Coke, do you drink it? It is bad? Or what about huge BMW banner on Bayok Sky hotel? And the list goes on and on. Even Amway has a massive display on the way to the airport in Bangkok and Sony. I think distrusting institutions that advertise a lot is missing the point but of course please yourself.

I would hate to see everyone confused about the Payap and Walen price difference. I study International Business Management at Payap but I was not a very good accounting student so I hope I did this right. Please feel free to check my numbers. First off let me say initially that Walen does have the best price over Payap. I will try to explain just how much of a price difference it is by using the attached photo.

Walen&Payap Difference.bmp

Looking at the simple chart you can see tuition at Walen School of Thai is 290 baht cheaper than it is at Payap University per hour for the price you pay (24,960 baht) and the hours of instruction you get. In other words, you pay 1.93 baht more at Payap than you do at Walen for every hour of instruction.

Now a days, 290 baht is a lot of money and I can see why Walen is proud of this incredible savings Walen has over Payap.

Feel free to check my numbers because I could have made a mistake.

Edited September 30, 2010 by richard10365

[Loaded]

I would hate to see everyone confused about the Payap and Walen price difference. I study International Business Management at Payap but I was not a very good accounting student so I hope I did this right. Please feel free to check my numbers. First off let me say initially that Walen does have the best price over Payap. I will try to explain just how much of a price difference it is by using the attached photo.

Walen&Payap Difference.bmp

Looking at the simple chart you can see tuition at Walen School of Thai is 290 baht cheaper than it is at Payap University per hour for the price you pay (24,960 baht) and the hours of instruction you get. In other words, you pay 1.93 baht more at Payap than you do at Walen for every hour of instruction.

Now a days, 290 baht is a lot of money and I can see why Walen is proud of this incredible savings Walen has over Payap.

Feel free to check my numbers because I could have made a mistake.

At least Walen paid for his advertising. Now could you take your spamming somewhere else?

[richard10365]

I would hate to see everyone confused about the Payap and Walen price difference. I study International Business Management at Payap but I was not a very good accounting student so I hope I did this right. Please feel free to check my numbers. First off let me say initially that Walen does have the best price over Payap. I will try to explain just how much of a price difference it is by using the attached photo.

Walen&Payap Difference.bmp

Looking at the simple chart you can see tuition at Walen School of Thai is 290 baht cheaper than it is at Payap University per hour for the price you pay (24,960 baht) and the hours of instruction you get. In other words, you pay 1.93 baht more at Payap than you do at Walen for every hour of instruction.

Now a days, 290 baht is a lot of money and I can see why Walen is proud of this incredible savings Walen has over Payap.

Feel free to check my numbers because I could have made a mistake.

At least Walen paid for his advertising. Now could you take your spamming somewhere else?

:jap:

[harveyBKK]

Wait what? What letter about continuing courses? What does that have to with CEP? Anything?

[harveyBKK]

The Language Institute has just released a new letter stating it will continue running the Thai courses so people can keep their Visa's and continue their Thai studies. It does say how ever that it will not extend visa's that are expiring. Good news for people who like to study , no real help for those who need visa extensions.

i have a visa from CMU for the CEP program and I haven't seen or heard of this letter before. Mind reposting or offering some more details?

[electracm]

The Language Institute has just released a new letter stating it will continue running the Thai courses so people can keep their Visa's and continue their Thai studies. It does say how ever that it will not extend visa's that are expiring. Good news for people who like to study , no real help for those who need visa extensions.

That's good news for those who are on Thai language course, but it's no help at all for those who were in the Cutural Exchange Program, as projects must surely by now have been discontinued, leaving the recipients of the projects out on a limb as well as the participants.

Also, many of the projects conceived by the CEP volunteers were long-term,as were the benefits.

Maybe the powers that be at CMU quite simply don't want their own Thai disadavanted people helped in any way -- or just don't care. Oddly, given their supposed feelings about foreigners, that lack of concern by those that have for those that have not is a peculiarly Western concept.