Ola + Ed Visa Extension

[aneliane]

Hello All,

Having just made an ED visa with OLA, I am having difficulties getting basic info from them. It's been 3 days with 5 or 6 emails and still no answers ...

Can someone help me please ? If you have these info I would be grateful if you could answer me.

- What are the documents needed by immigration for extension after 3 months ? I heard some crazy stuffs like you have to give pictures of your house ???

- Where is their BKK school located ? Apparently it is not in their office which is in Phahonyothin, but in Payathai somewhere ...

- And also when (date+ time would be great) are the thai lessons (if any) happening ?

Cheers !

[lopburi3]

6) Not to post comments that could be reasonably construed as defamation or libel.

Defamation is the issuance of a false statement about another person, which causes that person to suffer harm. Libel involves the making of defamatory statements in a printed or fixed medium, such as a magazine or newspaper.

One post and response have been removed per forum rule above.

[ignis]

Having just made an ED visa with OLA

If you just got the ED Visa with the paperwork from OLA, then on that paperwork it gave all the details, + address + fixed and Mobile phone numbers on all the paperwork

If you phone you will get your answer, appears floods are playing a big role..

[wayned]

There's a existing 4 page thread about OLA that you might be interested in:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/474617-ola-cheap-thai-language-course-with-ed-visa/

[aneliane]

Having just made an ED visa with OLA

If you just got the ED Visa with the paperwork from OLA, then on that paperwork it gave all the details, + address + fixed and Mobile phone numbers on all the paperwork

If you phone you will get your answer, appears floods are playing a big role..

I have been calling Phongsin for 3 days, to no avail, he's in Samui, and in meeting from 9am to 6pm everyday and did not answer either at 8pm last night.

I tried also his new assistant in BKK, some South African (?) guy called Wouter, he keeps saying he will answer but nothing so far.

At last I got a text msg last night (after several of mine) with the address of the lessons which apparently won't happen before end of flood. So I have some kind of answer for that after 3 days.

Today (4th day) should be THE day I get my answer regarding documents needed for extension ... I am sick of calling them, but Phongsin did write in his text message that he will have my answer about documents today .... fingers crossed !

[aneliane]

There's a existing 4 page thread about OLA that you might be interested in:

http://www.thaivisa....e-with-ed-visa/

Yeah I read ALL OLA's threads here there are a few ...

If you read carefully, no one has posted any experience of having done an extension with OLA school, although many Thaivisa members asked about it ....

[wayned]

If you just arrived on an ED visa with paperwork supplied from OLA, I would think that you would be more worried about finding the school where you could attend the required classes not worried about getting the paperwork necessary to procees your first 90 day extension. What have you been doing, waiting aroung for 80 days so that you could attend a few classes and get the paperwork for your 90 day extension?

[aneliane]

If you just arrived on an ED visa with paperwork supplied from OLA, I would think that you would be more worried about finding the school where you could attend the required classes not worried about getting the paperwork necessary to procees your first 90 day extension. What have you been doing, waiting aroung for 80 days so that you could attend a few classes and get the paperwork for your 90 day extension?

It took 5 weeks to process my MOE documents, I was quoted 3.

Every time I called they say my letter will come "tomorrow", after 4 weeks, I decided to just go there, to their office.

For some reason they were very reluctant to give their address ( as in office address), but they finally agreed for me to come and pick up the documents as I had no time left.

The day before I departed to Laos I had to wad though 70 cm of dark flood water, up to my thighs in Phayonyothin at 8pm at night, and wait outside some closed shopping mall, stranded for 30 minutes to get my papers and use army trucks to get back to safety.

This week, It took 3 days to get the school (as in place of lessons) address.

To this day I still have no date of actual lesson start, (after asking for 4 days).

I'm not taking any chance with my extension. And I don't think the immigration officer will give me slack if I don't come with the right documents.

[wayned]

I'm sorry and apologise if you really want to go to school and learn Thai.

There are many individuals that want to remain in Thailand , but have exhausted all of their visa and visa extension options other than the Non-ED visa. So they apply, pay, get the visa and never or hardly ever attend any classes(if there even are any), and unfortunately there are many "schools" that will accomodate them for the money. I once worked for one that was also a teacher placement agency. I worked as a Math Teacher in an up-country governement school. Their office and classroom was a two room office on the second floor down an alley off Kosan Road. I'm not going to "libel or slander" any particular school, but there are bad ones and there are good ones. The good ones usually don't offer special half price deals to get students, their teachers obviously don't work for half price.

I've only had dealings with one school since I came to Thailand 13 years ago and they were, and continue to be reputable. Unfortunately it was not the one that you have already paid money to. I'm not going to advertise their services on this forum but if you PM me I'll give you the details.

The flood is a problem, I've had water waist deep in my house for over 4 weeks, but it is not an excuse for not returning calls especially from Samui. It's raining there, but they are not flooded.

All you can do is keep trying to call them,but if really want to learn and you see that they won't provide what you want, bite the bullet and change schools.

Again I apologise, I know what it's like to not get acceptable answers or for that matter any answers, after all, I have lived in Thailand for 13 years!

[aneliane]

I'm sorry and apologise if you really want to go to school and learn Thai.

There are many individuals that want to remain in Thailand , but have exhausted all of their visa and visa extension options other than the Non-ED visa. So they apply, pay, get the visa and never or hardly ever attend any classes(if there even are any), and unfortunately there are many "schools" that will accomodate them for the money. I once worked for one that was also a teacher placement agency. I worked as a Math Teacher in an up-country governement school. Their office and classroom was a two room office on the second floor down an alley off Kosan Road. I'm not going to "libel or slander" any particular school, but there are bad ones and there are good ones. The good ones usually don't offer special half price deals to get students, their teachers obviously don't work for half price.

I've only had dealings with one school since I came to Thailand 13 years ago and they were, and continue to be reputable. Unfortunately it was not the one that you have already paid money to. I'm not going to advertise their services on this forum but if you PM me I'll give you the details.

The flood is a problem, I've had water waist deep in my house for over 4 weeks, but it is not an excuse for not returning calls especially from Samui. It's raining there, but they are not flooded.

All you can do is keep trying to call them,but if really want to learn and you see that they won't provide what you want, bite the bullet and change schools.

Again I apologise, I know what it's like to not get acceptable answers or for that matter any answers, after all, I have lived in Thailand for 13 years!

No apologies needed, nothing is Black and white.

I came to Ola because I need to stay in Thailand, don't have 35 000 thb to spend on a proper school AND want to learn Thai, if possible.

If they do provide some type of classes I will go by any means, if they don't, so be it, but I just need to know.

As you said it is very frustrating not to be able to get basic info.

For lessons, I don't think i will get more answer than "wait til the end of flood" right now, but for visa extension, it should be possible to get info as to what you need to provide immigration

So if anyone has info about which documents you need to extend your ED visa at immigration, with OLA or any school, please feel free to share.

I know I am taking things well in advance but with these types of organization, I have to ...

[lopburi3]

To protect all one name and shame post has had to be removed. Remember the laws of Thailand are not the same as many other countries.

6) Not to post comments that could be reasonably construed as defamation or libel.Defamation is the issuance of a false statement about another person, which causes that person to suffer harm. Libel involves the making of defamatory statements in a printed or fixed medium, such as a magazine or newspaper.

[MacWalen]

jonboy, I am sorry to hear it. I thought they will provide good quality service for much less than Walen but seems that is not the case. Also hope you will not have problems with your visa extension.

Walen is not the cheapest school but I can say that we do our best to provide quality service to our students and I am very unhappy when I see some schools give bad name to the teaching industry. If you needed help just let me know.

Walen School - the name you can trust.