Hello Folks, how you doing? My school failed to convert the wp and the non immigrant B visa into a "work visa". Now, I'm back on a tourist visa and they won't even pretend to feel any urgency. Let me think. No, they don't do anything, except - for the tenth time - request signed copies of all pages of my passport and copies of my degree. Something about the TCT (Teachers Council of Thailand). Again. While I am facing arrest and deportation. Tell me, are your shoes pinching like this, too? Is this "normal"? Would you remind them to sort this out pdq? Okay, all those big shot Thais turn to yours truly to write up a curriculum. Maybe they really cannot grasp that they need to issue the letter for yet another B visa etc? Just wondering. Signed - Unhappy up North.

Phil says - Hi Mel. I presume in your letter that 'wp' stands for work permit? In that case, It's not possible to convert a work permit into a 'work visa'? One is a work permit and the other thing is a visa. They serve different purposes. Actually - and I need to point this out again - there is no such thing as a 'work visa' in Thailand anyway. What you get is a one-year extension on your non-immigrant B visa. At no point should it ever be referred to as a 'work visa' because it isn't one. It's the work permit that enables you to work legally in the country and it's the visa that allows you to stay legally in the country - and they are two entirely seperate things! I'm all in favor of teachers using the ajarn postbox to let off steam - that's what the postbox is there for - but you need to get the terminology correct and you need to have some idea of how the system works.

Mel