By this evening, I couldn't stand the suspense any longer. I phoned my 'person at the top' and got straight through. Although giving me a completely different explanation to what I have been told or read, said he thought that my visa docs had been sent and that I had been contacted by CMULI. No!!!!
He called me straight back saying that he had spoken to the over worked girls at the office and asked them to fax the Thai Consulate in Brisbane, ASAP, and that I would be forwarded a copy.
He also offered me a discount and a bit of a deal on our accommodation. A very nice bloke and fellow Aussie...but, I have worked with salesmen before. I do empathise with his situation... somewhere between a rock and a hard place, but I have five weeks to secure an ED visa or make alternate plans and have to be selfish at this stage.
Speaking of alternate plans, I had emailed the Walen school an enquiry asking:
I understand that I have to organize my ED visa from outside of Thailand and would be prepared to do so. But, If I arrive on a 30 day tourist (exempt) visa from Australia, the Thai Consulate states I must have an outbound flight booked. If I were (really) planning on staying for one year, how would I explain no outbound flight?
Also, the banner on your site says 'free ED visa', does Walen pay for my visa?
This was there response...two days later:
Normally, if you have non-immigrant visa such as ED, you will be able to travel abroad with a one-way ticket. If you are afraid that the immigration officer will reject that, I would recommend you to buy a promotion return-ticket (short-period ticket) to save your cost.
If you enroll for a 180-lesson Thai Group Course with our school, we will provide the authorized paperwork (official letters) for you @ free of charge. For any other government fees, you would need to pay by yourself.
No disrespect to the Walen school (I may end up there) but I wish ALL language schools would stop this false advertising...none of them pay for your ED Visa.If you enroll for a 180-lesson Thai Group Course with our school, we will provide the authorized paperwork (official letters) for you @ free of charge. For any other government fees, you would need to pay by yourself.
At about 2.00 am (I couldn't sleep!) I emailed the girl at the CMULI office, requesting confirmation of the above.
15th September
It's 5.30 pm here and still not a peep. I have just sent a polite (จ่ายเย็นเย็น ) text to the person at the top. Within a few seconds I recieved a reply asking for my date of birth...promising?
Now two hours later, I'm publishing this post...oh, and learning how to say Far Eastern University in Thai, because the Language Institute is definitely moving there, from the CMU campus.
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| The view from the highest point in Thailand |
A new website shows the LI as still at Mahidol Road. In the aboutus page the heading is FEU but the text is still CMU!!
ReplyDeleteThe LI has never been listed as at Mahidol Rd on any of the sites I've been visiting, this year?
ReplyDeleteThe new/revamped website I have been referring to throughout my posts is http://www.studythaicmu.com/contact-us.html which still shows the CMU (23Huay Kaew Road)campus address. Far Eastern Uni is on Mahidol road and I have been advised that the LI has been moving their offices/classes there, this week.
Are you viewing the www.li.chiangmai.ac.th website? Im not game to go there as Google has an 'unsafe' notification next to the link.
The site I'm looking at is www.tefl-feu.com.
ReplyDeleteI tried to put the address in the last comment but it appears to have been edited out for some reason. This site is new to me - I have been searching a fair bit lately as I want to do a tefl course myself and was looking at CMU.
Hi Chiang2000, thanks I found the site and published a new post. My husband booked his TEFL Course via Teach Abroad Thailand, to be held at CMULI also. His course too has been relocated to FEU...we both start in November.
ReplyDeleteSo far his paperwork seems to be in order, but we have not submited it to the Thai Consulate in Brisbane, we're waiting for his Police Check.
Not sure why the URL address didn't show, perhaps this text box doesn't like links?
I had never seen the new website either, I think it's about 1 or 2 days old!