Topic: Trolling for teachers to deport?

[oldphart]

I've had some strange phone calls recently from allgedly employers who have seen my (now deactivated) resume on a Thai job site.  It's made me a bit paranoid and I've wondered if Thai Immigration visits these boards, trolling for teachers w/out work permits so that they can deport illegal workers.  For all I know, they might have a quota.

Does anybody know what it takes to be deported for working illegally?  A few months w/out the non-im and a couple of more w/out the WP seems to be SOP.  But does immigration see it that way?

[blackmail]

If gambling weren't illegal in LOS; I would say "you bet your arse."

[hero]

I never heard of a teacher get deported for visa reasons alone.  Never.  Doesn't mean it never happened though.

On the contrary, I know some teachers who have been teaching here for five years or more on 30-day transit visas!

[Uncle Che]

Back a few years ago, I went to Penang got my visa, I came back, the school got my work permit and began applying for the teacher's license, unfortunately the MOE had closed up shop for 6 weeks so when it came time for me to renew my visa, they wouldn't budge. Yes the MOE was closed, but I still needed a teacher's license, no extension for even a week. The advice of immigration: Just go to the border every 30 days until you get a chance to go to Penang again. Me: Isn't that illegal? Immi: Yes, maybe, but don't worry about it. I crossed every 30 days for 9 months.

[blackmail]

How about schools threatening to deport teachers?

[Due Diligence]

Well as long as you have a Visa B and the school has applied for the TL and WP then you should have no problems with extensions of your visa. That is unless the Thai who processes your visa is diliked by the imm police.

[hero]

How about schools threatening to deport teachers?

Are any schools really that powerful?

[Uncle Che]

Lots of schools have threatened to deport teachers. It is a common tactic to get what they want. I was threatened with blacklisting by a former employer if I ever talked about them negatively on the internet. Whether or not a school can follow through or not is another story. I haven't heard of any school actually facilitating a deportation of a teacher, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has happened.

I do know that an AUA branch, several years ago, was caught employing teachers without proper visas. Immigration told them that someone from the school had to be deported and they chose a teacher and that teacher was deported but was able to get a visa and re-enter Thailand. I guess it was more like a forced visa run.   

[Due Diligence]

I think its due to the schools connections with gov officials. If the boss is friendly and oftern gives brown paper bags as gifts. Then I'm sure it would be possible to get blacklisted if a school doesn't like you, even if you have been legal and above board. 

Same thing is known to happen in Tax departments and Labour office. 

But I know alot of schools use this to scare newbee teachers into conforming.

Up to you what you want to do if you are threatened in this way.

[NamTok]

    A year ago Sarasas Ektra school wrote a letter to Immigration to say I should not be given a new Non-ImB visa and should be deported.
      My new employer told Immigration to blow off the letter, ie, ignore it. Immigation did ignore the letter and I got another Non-ImB visa and WP.
     However, Che, I'd say that the letter was more than a threat. It was an actual attempt to set in motion the intended process of deporting me. The problem for Sarasas and Ektra was that there just wasn't any legal or legitimate basis to the letter. The letter was nothing more than harranging and denounciation; anger.
     So, I'd say oldphart I don't think Imm is looking, or trolling, for farang teachers to deport. At least not normally; not usually. Eight years in Thailand and I've never heard of it (which, as hero rightly likes to point out relative to statements of this nature, doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't happened, somewhere, sometime). If Imm were much interested in deporting farang teachers, they certainly had an opportunity in the instance of  the Sarasas letter but gave the letter a pass when a sponsor spoke up in my behalf.
    I'm expecting Sarasas Ektra to try something again this year too. This time from its position in the TeflWatch Hall of Shame. (Don't forget to vote in the present two stars Hall of Shame poll!)

[hero]

I have often heard that Sarasa schools carry a lot of clout with government agencies, although I have always been sceptical and never really heard any real evidence to back it up.  Your tale seems to suggest perhaps they don't carry the clout they think they do.

Having said that non-Imm B visas aren't actually issued by immigration in any case, they are issued outside the country.

Surely even Thai bureaucrats have enough common-sense to recognise ill-placed bitterness of a former employer ... then again

[NamTok]

   hero, my non-im-b was issued by the Royal Thai Embassy in the Republic of Korea (S. Korea) and in Thailand each year since a new paragraph has been stamped validating another one-year stay. It's that time of the year again for me next month.....

[Mods-Rockers]

   hero, my non-im-b was issued by the Royal Thai Embassy in the Republic of Korea (S. Korea) and in Thailand each year since a new paragraph has been stamped validating another one-year stay. It's that time of the year again for me next month.....

If your last non im was issued due to your sary job and you left that a few months ago as I recall, and they returned your WP and gave you the reciept you would then have had to report to immigration to have your visa nullified. you get a 7 day stay to get out of the country. I believe that the overstay penalty in cases like this is 2000 THB/day up to 20K, maybe you should take a wedge with you. and they will not renew a non im unless you have a WP.

[Speaksoftly]

I doubt most members of the Thai government have either the skills or the time or the motive to trawl through internet boards looking for teachers to deport behind their adopted handles, in the English language.  On the other hand, there might be a lot of disgruntled English-speaking (and even English-teaching) grasses with motivation to do so- whether anyone in the Thai government would bother listening to them I don't know.

[Due Diligence]

I doubt most members of the Thai government have either the skills or the time or the motive to trawl through internet boards looking for teachers to deport behind their adopted handles, in the English language.  On the other hand, there might be a lot of disgruntled English-speaking (and even English-teaching) grasses with motivation to do so- whether anyone in the Thai government would bother listening to them I don't know.

I think your right. mmm lets choose 1.spending hours looking at resumes on ajarn and calling up possible illegals or 2. sitting on my arse and eat somtum. I think We know which one the Thai official will choose.

And even if a grass does try to stir up something I doubt the official even understands what hes saying.