Need some help for visa

[MJC]

EH,

I plan to come to thailand and spend a lot of time (3 to 10 months) in phuket. I need some advice on which type of visa to apply for.
I-m going to take diving courses perhaps to reach instructor level and possibly get a job there. I want to get a one way air ticket and am not sure wether I will be granted a visa or not.
Anyone for advice on how to get myself the best visa possible for my purpose.
I don-t mind starting with a simple tourist visa but Im worried that the fact I will only have a one way ticket might make it difficult to get any visa at all.

Thanks for help.
Mike.

[Coolhand]

from www.thaivisa.com

1. REQUIREMENT

This type of visa will be issued to applicants who wishing to enter Thailand for tourism purposes .



2. DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

- Passport or travel document with validity not less than 6 months

- Visa application form completely filled out

- One recent( 4 x 6 cm.) photograph of the applicant

- Air ticket paid in full

- Financial means (20,000 Baht per person and 40,000 Baht per family)

- Consular officers reserve the rights to request for additional documents as deemed necessary



3. VISA FEE

USD 25.00 per entry or equivalent (as per 2003-08-26)

(Visa fee may be changed without prior notice)



4. VALIDITY OF A VISA

The validity of a visa is three months.

[MJC]

Thanks for your reply,

but I think that the air ticket paid in full should be (for tourist visas at least) with a return.

Here-s another question if anyone can help me.
how difficult is it to get a work permit (if you need one?) to work for a diving company. Do employers generally pay for visa fees and help you get legal?

[r3aps]

Originally Posted by MJC

Thanks for your reply,

but I think that the air ticket paid in full should be (for tourist visas at least) with a return.

Here-s another question if anyone can help me.
how difficult is it to get a work permit (if you need one?) to work for a diving company. Do employers generally pay for visa fees and help you get legal?

you are better off as luke(coolhand) said reading the thai visa forums.they answer many of your questions.all i no is nicke works and has a bar there and has for a few years but he still has to do visa runs every month i believe,maybe 3 monthly not 100%
steve

[Coolhand]

Originally Posted by MJC

Here-s another question if anyone can help me.
how difficult is it to get a work permit (if you need one?) to work for a diving company. Do employers generally pay for visa fees and help you get legal?

I hate to disappoint you, but its nigh on impossible to get a thai company to get a work permit for you.
I have a friend who came with me to Thailand last year, had a mid-life crisis, due to falling for a bg and getting into scuba diving - 1st dive in April, advanced in may, divemaster by august, instructor by November.
BG ripped him off for 200k baht - that was a case of mai pen rai. But his big problem was earning a living as a dive instructor. To get a work permit he had to set up his own Thai company employing 4 or 5 asians and paying their tax (I don't think these guys exist he just pays tax to get a work permit).
Not many dive companies employ full time instructors, and when there are so many on the island why do they need to?
A lot of dive instructors follow the seasons around the world, turn up in phuket leave a phone no. with a dive school and wait for a phone call.
As an instructor I think you get about 30% of the dive schools money. My mate did an open water course for 1 student (3 days starting xmas day and earned about us$100) It certainly wasn't regular.
He now works in the middle east, earning enough money to go back to Thailand.
Iam not trying to ruin your dream, but just don't start out with too many expectations, don't burn your bridges completely and if yopu have a skill you can fall back on don't lose that either.
Even Nicke runs at least two jobs, and he's not the only one. Another dive instructor, I know, supports his life style, by distributing suitcases for a Bangkok factory. If hes lucky hes teacjhing diving during the day, in the evening he goes round all those tiny shops dropping of suitcases.

[eric-the-viking]

hate to disappoint you but all what cool luke has said is the painfull truth,most of the dive master`s and instructors are free lance,i kind of know an instructor who does free lance work there and he has told me yes at peak season the is a demand for dive instructors but not so much the dive masters.
Even then your there for the life style and you just make enough to get by,last time i spoke to him he had only made 10k bht and remember even though we think it is reasonably cheap to live out there we are still being paid western money not Thai money.
As for your visa you can obtain a double enty visa, but what ever you do dont call it a six month visa , for some reason ive been told they dont like it being called that and it can rub people up the wrong way.
regarding your dive instruction the is a company which advertise such programmes ,you can look them up at www.pjscuba.com
they do insist on payment in advance, i have looked into doing it myself,but i have a an ok job in the uk but with good benerfits,
if you go for it good luck to you and i respect you for following you r dream.

[MJC]

thanks guys for all this helpfull advice.
I guess it wont be easy, especially for a new instructor with almost no experience. there-s one guy I met on my last trip though who is employed as diving instructor and makes 30k bht a month. He told me there can be jobs even for newly trained divers. its all a question of being lucky, coming at the right time, and mostly never expect too much.
I think to freelance is one solution if you don-t get lucky enough but a guy I met whos running a dive center in phuket told me that most just do it between koh tao and phuket as its high season on koh tao from about april to june and from november to april on phuket.

and coolhand, thanks for warning me.
your friend reminds me of whats going on, same story for me. its a BG who drives me to get back there.
Ill try watching out, 200k would not be mai pen rai for me.

[farangman]

Be careful if you plan on working illegally in Thailand now. The reason why they make it harder to get the visas now is to get rid of all of these persons, and it seems like they're really trying hard to do so.

An alternative is to find a Thai you can really trust (Hard to find), and set up a company with him/her. Then you can get a visa and work permit through your own company and be legal. However, you must have an income of 50k a month to get the work permit.

GOod luck,
Trond,
http://www.affiliateguiding.com/

[Nicke]

Hi Steve,

Actually I have 1 year Non-Immigrant Business visa, multiple entries and a work permit. Since I don't bother to make one year extension I have to visit the border every 3 months, and I enjoy my visa runs, a small break from Patong. I have visa and work permit for 4 years now.

Originally Posted by r3aps

.all i no is nicke works and has a bar there and has for a few years but he still has to do visa runs every month i believe,maybe 3 monthly not 100%
steve

[farangman]

So you had 1-year visas for 4 years in a row now?
Then why don't you go ahead apply for a permanent residence?
To do that you must have had 1-year Non-immigrant B visas for 3 years in a row and be able to speak a minimum of Thai, which you should have learned in these 4 years They will test your Thai though.

Trond,
http://www.affiliateguiding.com/

[Nicke]

It would be nice to be granted residence permit but I am not qualified, you need to have minimum three 1-year extensions in a row, just having Non-B visas is not enough. If I had planned for this from beginning I should have use one year extensions instead.

[stevem]

Originally Posted by Nicke

It would be nice to be granted residence permit but I am not qualified, you need to have minimum three 1-year extensions in a row, just having Non-B visas is not enough. If I had planned for this from beginning I should have use one year extensions instead.

And why would you bother, at 95K if your married to a Thai, or 191K if your not. And to top it all off, you still a work permit.