Educastion Visa Checking?

[Nouf]

Not sure if this is a one off incident or going to be something regular, i am currently on a ED and changed to that about 3 months, previous i was on a Non "O", like most trying to find a loop hole to stay in the country as i don't qualify for much else, ie not married etc

The other option is to go back to my host country and get a new Non "O" but i went the ED route, i have actually been full time for nearly 5 months, and atm my Thai can get around and do stuff i need to do type stuff with my current speaking Thai etc"

Anyhow today i went to Immigration Division 1, Government Complex,Chaengwattana Road Bangkok. for my extension with my letter from my school, and as soon as i went to see an officer, i felt was going to picked put, now granted i went with shorts a t-shirts, so maybe it was my dress code, i have a loads of Visas 3 months runs as well before, so clearly the officer could see i had a passport full of stamps, and i got the impression she thought i was on the ED visa for staying in the country and not actually going to class, before that i was only doing the standard visa run, but actually decided to learn the language

So i actually sort of grilled with about 7-8 mins of questions, from where i come from etc, how old i was, which anyone should be able to answer,

After about 3 mins or so, she starts going off in a different direction, about the school and stuff, asking stuff about the teachers and the various bits of Thai writing and what i felt about the language,

Here is me thinking no questions get an extension and off i go!!!!, wrong on that count, all the time she is speaking at full rate normal speed, which is not exactly comfortable when you are thinking "crap i am being grilled" about 3 -4 mins and thinking how long is this going to go on for

Maybe it was my lucky day and she wanted a bit of fun to see if i really did go to school and studied for nearly 5 months, her eyes lit up as soon as she saw the letter from my school, it was like "Lets see if he is an ED scammer or not"

Anyhow, it may be a one off, or they are starting to check, so any of your guys that are going the ED route but not going to school, be warned they may just not granted you the extension

I did ask her at the end what would happen if i don't go to school, she just smiled,

I never did get an answer

Oh, they was a Korean lady and Japanese lady, who both spoke Thai, as well and i suspect were asked the same sort of Qs FWIW i was on the N counters 47-50, they were others waiting, i spoke with a guy who was doing a course somewhere but nothing to do with Thai, and the course was only in English

I got my stamp, but in 3 months i suspect i get asked questions again, the questions overall were not that hard, just that i was not exactly expecting it, so it was a decent "on the spot test"

[lopburi3]

One flame removed.

[purushanti]

And all the questions were in Thai? Any percentage in English? If you answered so many inquiries in Thai, I am impressed. Thanks for the report.

[Tod Daniels]

Sorry in advance this is a long post (my penchant for overly long posts is all too well known )

It didn't seem you were 'checked' with anything more than your basic "run-'o-the-mill" Thai chit-chat or small-talk about you, your school, etc.

There were reports (last summer I believe) of foreigners attending some schools being scrutinized more closely than others due to the extremely high number of students from those schools showing up for extensions.

Being the nosy type, I went out and spent 3-4 hours sitting at Changwattana in the area where they give extensions of stay based on education to check for myself. I saw no evidence of it; watched many, many students get their extensions. I never witnessed any real testing or saw anyone being denied an extension during my time out there.

Given the LARGE number of poorly dressed foreigners who show up at Changwattana every day; I doubt you were singled out just by wearing the “standard foreign dress-code” of; cargo shorts, a Singh Beer singlet and 80 baht sandals .. (That is meant as tongue in cheek. NO disrespect is intended.)

Attending a private Thai language school for 5 months (even if you only go the required minimum of 4 hours a week) is in excess of 80 hours in class study time. Factor in outside the classroom interaction / practice and you should have enough skills to interact on a conversational level.

DO remember if ANY Thai speaks too fast, it's totally okay for you to ask them to speak slower. (In Thai it is; กรุณาพูดช้า ๆ หน่อย ฟังไม่ทัน) or "Please speak a little slower, I can't keep up". Not a single Thai; from the lowliest street vendor to the highest person in a governmental capacity would EVER look down on you for using this phrase. I’ve used it thousands of times with all walks of Thais.

Perhaps next time "dress-4-success" a little; especially given that Thais seem to spruce up when they interact with ANY governmental agency. I'm not saying show up in a suit and tie, but be semi-presentable. ALSO take your textbook(s) from your school too. I was out at Changwattana myself last Friday. I saw MANY foreigners who were getting extensions to their ED visa with their text books in hand.

Good luck. Keep studying. ..

Again, sorry this was oh-so long. … Hope you found it of marginal interest. .

[Maestro]

Removed an off-topic post.

[Falcon]

Hi,

I was out there today for my extension and it was actually quite comical. I am pretty much known there in the non-ed area with the immigration officers there and regularly chat with them when I have to go out there to do my extensions, reason I got to know them pretty well was simply because of my Son. I started taking him down with me when he was off school, simply because there was no one else to look after him should I have not wanted to take him, and, being mixed Thai and now just 6 years old he gets all the women saying how cute he is and stuff. Even the male immigration officer who is usualy on the end counter plays ben10 with him.

Anyway, today we went there pretty late, around 1:30pm and luckily there were only 2 people in front of me waiting to give in their passports. My number was called and it was actually an officeer that I hadnt seen before that I went to and gave my papers and passport, etc. 2 seconds to look through the papers and then "1,900 baht please" and thats it. The officers always speak to me in thai regardless of who it is, they always have. after that my Son wanted water to drink so we went downstairs to the food court. We were down there about 10 minutes and went back up and went to sit down when I saw the lady who took my papers point at me and speak to the male and another femail officer and said that "he is the one"! I wondered exactly what was going on but immediately the male officer said, "oh him! we dont need to speak to him, he speaks Thai anyway" he looked at me and said "hold on, wont be long" and smiled a big smile.

I then asked them what that was all about and if they had started testing people again, he said that they were testing, at random, same as last year but only the basics as anyone really should be able to speak should they be going to the classes and practicing.

Good luck and have fun,