I was told that police check is now required for a work permit. I thought this was at school's discretion before. Can someone please clarify?

I have seen no reports of a police clearance being needed to apply for the work permit.

There have been reports of Vientiane asking for one to get a non-b visa.

Thanks. Maybe that's what confused me

Yes, Vientiane asks for a police clearance to issue a Non-B visa for teachers. At the moment all you will need is a Thai police clearance but I guess that in the future they will start asking for a police clearance from your home country. This is related to the fact that several child molesters have found their way to Thailand and Myanmar to work as teachers. The British embassy basically even urged Thailand and Myanmar to get better to ask for it earlier this year.

Hello,

I submitted a police clearance (a Thai one) as well to the local office of

Ministry of Education for an approval letter that I needed to apply for a

Non-B for teaching.

Edited August 23, 201510 yr by Too

Hello,

I submitted a police clearance (a Thai one) as well to the local office of

Ministry of Education for an approval letter that I needed to apply for a

Non-B for teaching.

That is a new one for me, but there are many new things this year!

I'm teaching in my 3rd college under OVEC and there are no local offices, only OVEC in Bangkok. I have never needed any approval letter as the colleges are considered to be basically the local office of OVEC and are much more autonomous compared to primary and secondary schools. This year the embassy asked for a approval letter from OVEC for my visa. To get a letter like that isn't that easy and it takes time as it has to be signed by the Secretary General of OVEC so it's not like when you show up at the local office for primary or secondary school and you can have it in 30 minutes if they are in a good mode, for me it took 3 weeks from the day the college requested the letter from OVEC in Bangkok until I received it in the college!