Hi all.
went to pattaya/jomtien immigration today with all my paperwork to extend my ed visa (callen & walen) for the next 3 months.
all ok on desk number 5 then she pass's my paperwork to a desk behind her and moves me. the lady starts talking to me in thai, then tells me they are now testing applicants from there 2nd renewal onwards , ie after 6 months on a ed visa.
she stated my thai was not up to scratch and that if i did not pass on the next renewal i would have my application refused next time.
she made it very clear they were now cracking down on ed visa applicants, not surprising really i guess with all the signs appearing claiming 1-10 year ed visa's freely available.

so beware.
maybee an idea to turn up with a very sore throat and a lost voice and try sign language if you do not attend your thai lessons !

About time

Serious applicants only need apply.

Understandable really...

I need to check your report, no Walen student has had any problems so far, also if you come to Walen school and study at least 4 lessons a week you will pass with flying colors, I would never worry about Walen students. I cannot speak for other schools but Walen is a genuine Thai school offering high quality Thai courses.

Requirement of knowing some Thai is just reasonable, nobody is asking you to be able to read book in Thai after a few months but if you do not know anything at all then you certainly abuse the system.

Regarding our advertising, it is true that we can assist with ED visas for 10 years.

ED visas are a legitimate way of staying in Thailand, the fact that students are required to demonstrate some ability in Thai is reasonable. Once again, so far we never had a case of a student who was not given an extension of stay.

Please send me a private message and I will check your case personally.

Walen School - Genuine Thai School
www.thaiwalen.com

This post has been edited by macwalen: 2009-12-17 14:04:21

Not all Ed Visas are based on a Thai Language course.

but probably as many as 90% are

But all are based on a requirement of a minimum attendance. Up to now this does not seem seem to have been forced by the intitutions or immigration which I feel has had impact on the serious students.
I was afraid that what I consider aabuse of the visa would lead to a crackdown which would affect all students.

I agree completely .. the only way is to make sure you get the visa is to go to the lessons & really learn the Thai.
they are cracking down on those who use the system to get the Ed visa and DO NOT go to there lessons and learn.
that is the purpose of the test .
the info i am posting is so those who think that the Ed visa path is a pay your fee and just get the visa .
you do NOW need to start learning and going to the lessons as it seems from my experience you can now be tested at immigration to see if you do go .

Then of course the attendance record should be checked. But the language "test" they do..what are they basing that one? Are they drawing up various levels of testing depending on how many months/years a person has had a ed visa for? Some people understand Thai but have trouble conversing, some people can converse well depending on the topic/subject matter and vocab they have learnt. There are so many variables it seems a ridiculous concept. If they want to check up on those on an Ed visa, seems fair enough to me, but the idea of a test and those who judge you if its not regulated in some way seems a bit stupid. Each school has different methods, vocabulary etc. Who draws up the "test" and how is it marked/measured?

How about someone whom is already almost fluent in Thai .... or would his Thai be to good after only 6 months

W

Well the test shouldn't be drawn up by the school. The one you and I attend in my class has two students attending at month 10 out of about 11 of which several only came one or two days a week for 2hrs for the first couple of months and still got visa extensions. I wouldn't trust any schools reporting either.

This post has been edited by harrry: 2009-12-17 13:54:23

here's a bit of Thai to get them started:

som nam na

We will find out, in any case if you attend your course you will not have any problems at all, especially if you can open your Walen book that is all in Thai and can read it to them. It is a proof in itself that you are attending your lessons as very few foreigners can read Thai. You can also ask them to test you on what is in your book, that would be a reasonable requirement.

Walen has a very good manager in Pattaya, her name is Oh, she will take good care of all cases so don't worry. Please contact her if you have any problems.

Walen School - Full support
www.thaiwalen.com

This post has been edited by macwalen: 2009-12-17 14:02:47

Im a bit confused harry. "You and I"? I dont attend a Thai Language course. Maybe you have me confused with someone else.

I do agree that the Ed visa shouldnt be misused, but i think this unregulated test thing is crazy. If they want to introduce testing then it should be done correctly and schools and students should be made aware(and various test levels drawn up.) Not some random testing out of the blue based on what they think Thai language learners should know.

If they want the Ed visa to not be misused, they could also consider a different visa for those who wish to be here for a longer term and who have the funds (and can prove it) to support themselves.

You had to know this was coming.

Anyway you can always claim that you agree your thai is not so good and that is why you are going to school, some people learn very very slow.

apparently not yet

1 digit IQ level....

You can claim anything you like. They are still going to do what they are going to do. I smell the early stages of a crackdown on this category of extensions. Sorry to hear it.

I think what EEK is saying is that you can get an Ed visa for study of other things besides Thai, for example Farang kids attending school in Thailand.
They should not have to be required to pass a Thai language test, nor the parent that is piggybacking the Ed visa.

A friend of mine has an ED-visa for studying martial arts. I wonder if immigration will ask him to demonstrate his abilities as well.

This exam is a piece of cake if you do what you are supposed to do and that is to learn Thai. If you do not know anything at all then you may have a problem at some point but they warn you first so you still have time to catch up. It is a positive development as it reinforces the fact that ED visas are a legitimate way to stay in Thailand!

I agree that the testing would need to be planned, designed, and administered carefully. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, and learning Thai as a 2nd (or 3rd, etc) language is much more difficult for some than others. Personally, I attended a Thai class twice a week for 6 months - not for an ED visa, just for "fun." I worked hard, participated in class, and did my homework. After the 6 months, I still had much weaker Thai than some friends who just "picked it up" through daily living. Learning additional languages is just not one of my strengths. As others have said, attendance seems to be a more fair way to check the legitimacy of an ED visa. One guy could walk into immigration and be able to converse semi-fluently in Thai because he spends all his time with bar girls and various Thai girlfriends instead of going to class. Is he more deserving of an ED visa than someone who actually goes to class and puts in the classtime? No, not in my opinion. Of course, I'm not saying it's a bad idea to monitor all these ED visas, I just don't think an on-the-spot, informal conversational test is the best monitoring system.

I don't think they're cracking down on foreign students studying in Thai Universities (e.g: Assumption, Asian U, etc) or International schools - as I believe most of them are legit!!!!!

some people's iq is not higher than their shoe size

luckily european size is different and bigger than us (size 9 US = size 42-43 european)

lol


ps: americans and brits have it so much more easy to learn a new language

as they only speak english in general


in my case, Thai is/would be my 5th language ...

as where english is my 3rd...


any consideration ???

This post has been edited by thaibkk: 2009-12-17 14:16:41