Teaching under the radar (illegally) in Thailand

Today we're going to take a look at teaching under the radar in Thailand. There are a few reasons why individuals should do this which are explained below.

At this point I'd just like to point out that this article is not a how to guide for teaching illegally in Thailand or anywhere else for that matter, that's not the aim!

All this piece is doing is pointing out what actually goes on in Thailand, rightly or wrongly depending upon your point of view.

Why should someone wake up one day and think, hey I want to teach illegally in Thailand? A number of factors could come into play here, for example...

1.No degree, which in most cases is required to obtain a work permit.

2.Not wanting to pay tax, which is a bit silly because these days doing visa runs and getting a new visa from surrounding countries isn't as cheap or as easy as it once was.

3.The person only intends to stay a very short time in Thailand and doesn't see the point.

4. The school that the teacher works for, can't get a permit for some reason. Eg, doesn't know the procedure, is on bad terms with the labor office, or just plain laziness on behalf of the company, or is to cheap to spend the money on the permit.

So if you have no permit how do you stay in the country? The answer is that you do visa runs. Now years ago it was all a pretty straight forward affair. You entered the country on a two month tourist visa. After that you went to a visa agent, and paid them some money upfront, around 1,700 baht and they'd send off your passport to Malaysia. Seven or so days later, you'd get a call from the agent telling you that your passport had arrived back, and you'd go and collect it!

Well times and visa regulations have moved on since then. Tightening of regs has made this a slightly more costly and time consuming affair. Which has made most expats think twice about working on temporary visas. Put simply it's more trouble in most cases than it's worth!

If you should be in the above category, and need to do border hops or jaunts into Laos for a ne visa, then I recommend jack golf. This company specializes in border runs and will usually be able to advise you on visas and options in regards to where to go and what visa to get.

So when you go to the border now, you'll be issued with a short stay tourist visa about 15 days. In another 15 days before it runs out you'll have to do a run to the border yet again!

What a royal pain in the ass! and at 2,000 baht a trip on the visa bus not a cheap pain too! Plus on top of that you can only get about two of these stamps back to back at the border, then the next visa you'll have to get is at the embassy in one of the surrounding countries.

One thing I would advise people to do is this, get a non b visa at the embassy in your own country if you're able to! These visas come in two flavours, single entry = up to 3 months and multiple entry up to 12 months!

The regulations have been changed with these too. At one time all you had to do was get some company documentation from the school that was employing you and that was it you'd be issued with a multiple entry b visa which would be valid for a year. Unfortunately now with all the rules being tightened, you have to provide proof of your teaching credentials when you apply for this visa.

So what happens if you can't get the one year b visa? Well, and it's a long time since I've done visa runs but it should go roughly along these lines...

1.Enter country on two month tourist visa, this can be extended at immigration in Bangkok for an extra month for a small fee. That will get you 3 months in the country.

2.After three months do two back to back border runs with jacks golf, that will get you another month = 4 months.

3.Do border run to Laos with jack golf, and get another two month tourist visa and extend it at immigration = 3 months.

4. Go and do another two border hops again or go to Laos and get another two month tourist visa up to you!

5.Start the cycle again.

If you're really desperate to stay in the country, you could try applying for a one year non o visa, which in most cases is issued for marriage. Many expats simply refer to it as a marriage visa. Of course if you intend to apply for this type of visa then you'll need to get married duh! You'll also need to show that you have a certain amount of money in your bank account, a few hundred thousand baht or so last time I looked. If you get the non o it should be issued for a year, though you can get single entry ones for 3 months.

What happens if you get caught?

I'll tell you this... in all my time living and teaching in Thailand, I've never known anyone to get caught teaching illegally! I've heard the occasional rumour and heard reports of a few language schools being raided in Bangkok. A few teachers were hauled in and made to sweat it out in a police cell. Then they were given a talk, fined and told to get themselves the necessary paperwork and that was that!

I must point out that the above cases, I read about on internet forums, so my view on this matter is as follows, Yes, I do believe that these cases were true! Why do I believe this? At the time when they happened, there was a big fuss going on about some American guy who confessed to a murder in the u.s you might remember it.

The person in question was a teacher in Bangkok, and he'd been teaching on false credentials. So this embarrassed the Thais, which then sent them into a very predictable knee jerk reaction in which they started to raid language schools in certain areas of the capital. The raids continued on for a few weeks and then eventually fizzled out.These were worrying times for teachers who weren't on the books!

So the question is should I or shouldn't i? As Suzie wong would say... up to you!