Help on moving to thailand please

[skit]

Hi everyone I have just joined this site and was hoping someone could give me some info on how me and my new wife could emigrate to Thailand. We have been to Thailand 4 times now; the longest was for 1 month. We also got married in Chaing Mai in February, so Thailand is already a special place for us.
We were wondering how we would go about getting visas etc. I'm a plumber, and my wife is a secondary school teacher, and we were also wondering about how we would fare with regards to getting permanent employment etc. I'm aware that my job will probably be more difficult to transfer to Thailand, but I'd really like to do some voluntary work - as long as we could live on only one wage! We would both love to move to Thailand as soon as possible, but we need to know that we would be able to survive there. We would really appreciate any advice any one has for us.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Thanks for reading this,



Scott and Emma Flory

[synthia]

Welcome to the forum! It would help to know what country you are from, though!

Thailand has a large number of international schools, so your wife's employment prospects are considerably higher than yours. I'm not sure how good salaries are, but they are definitely better than being an ESL teacher. That might be the best prospect for you, if you got a TEFL certificate. I don't know whether you will get employment rights if your wife has them. You couldn't get them as an ESL teacher without a degree or several years of experience. A lot of people work illegally, but that is becoming harder.

[SOMETIMESITHINK]

Scott/Emma

Hi there

As Cynthia pointed out, your wife should have no problem in getting a job as a teacher., depending on her qualifications etc and school, or University she applies to, the salary will be relative. Salaries range from 30000 to 60000 baht a month as a rough guide, these figures are based on people who I have met and teach in Bangkok. The guy making 60000 baht has been teaching in Thailand for 11 years and the 30000 baht guy for 1 year. The type of visa you get is dependent on your situation. Your wife should she have a job here will have no problems in staying here on the long term. Will you survive once here? The only way you will know this answer, is to take the step in the direction you want to go. Nothing ventured, nothing gained is a common phase people quote. Should you be this way in the future, and I can be off asistance, then send an email. I live in Bangkok, saying that I will be out of country from the 17 April for approximately 3 to 4 months, and am unable to access email where I will be. Anyaway good luck and welcome.

Martin

[skit]

Hi again,

Thanks for your responses; they kind of told me what I thought would happen with regards to my wife's employment. She teaches English Literature and Language from Key Stage 3 to GCSE and A Levels. She has also been teaching for almost 4 years - again I'm not sure if that matters, but I think that employers abroad look for a particular number of years experience before employing someone(?).
To answer your question, we're both British, and aged 30 and 26 respectively (I'm not sure if this matters with Thailand, but I know it does with Australia so I though I'd mention it). We will be in Thailand for a month from around the 24th of July this summer, so it'd be good if you could perhaps suggest agencies (embassies?) that we should meet while we're actually in the country?

We really appreciate your advice with this as we've got no idea how to go through the process of emigrating yet and any help is gratefully received!

Thanks again,

Scott and Emma

Originally Posted by SOMETIMESITHINK

Scott/Emma

Hi there

As Cynthia pointed out, your wife should have no problem in getting a job as a teacher., depending on her qualifications etc and school, or University she applies to, the salary will be relative. Salaries range from 30000 to 60000 baht a month as a rough guide, these figures are based on people who I have met and teach in Bangkok. The guy making 60000 baht has been teaching in Thailand for 11 years and the 30000 baht guy for 1 year. The type of visa you get is dependent on your situation. Your wife should she have a job here will have no problems in staying here on the long term. Will you survive once here? The only way you will know this answer, is to take the step in the direction you want to go. Nothing ventured, nothing gained is a common phase people quote. Should you be this way in the future, and I can be off asistance, then send an email. I live in Bangkok, saying that I will be out of country from the 17 April for approximately 3 to 4 months, and am unable to access email where I will be. Anyaway good luck and welcome.

Martin

[KhwaamLap]

Hi Skit,

Moving to Thailand is not like 'emigrating' to Oz. For starters, it is quite difficult to get residency (takes a number of years, tax records, is subject to a per country cap of 100 people - although this is not really aproblem with westerners as so few get to the 'counting' stage) and it does not gve work rights either (although work permits are easier to obtain with it as Thailand recogniswes that a resident would need to work). There are a number of sites dedicated to teaching in Thaailand and list jobs (try Ajarn.com - living and teaching in Bangkok or Ajarn Forum - Living and Teaching In Thailand as well as http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Teaching in Thailand Forum.

Legally your wife needs a degree and a teacher's degree/cert etc (and TEFL is she wishes to teach English as a foreign language - not a legal requirement, but a must for better paid jobs). She will probably be able to get a job offer and apply for an No-Immigrant 'O' (B) VISA and the school should sort out the work permit (don't work without one unless you want to risk deportation).

There is almost no chance you being allowed to work as a plumber though (as this is a job a Thai can do - according to the protected job list) as you would not be able to get a work permit. You could get a job as a trainer perchaps, or maybe if you have expertise in some specialist area (or can land a government job). You could have your own plumbing firm, but you couldn't work for it (mad eh?).

I would suggest you really scrutinise sites like ThaiVisa.Com (especially the forum) and Hull Consulate as they have good info on Visas - oh, and use them rather then the London Embassy (trust me on this!!!!)

You will find it hard to live as a farang (western) couple in Thailand on a single teacher's salary however - especially in Bangkok. If you have savings, be carefull not to spend it all - you may need to cut and run at some point.

There are legal minumums of pay based on country of origin, but teaching jobs are allowed to pay less than this - University lecturers and subject teachers (especially in International Schools) get good wages (comparatively) - state schools in the sticks will barely cover the cost of living (and a frugal living at that) - your rent may easily eat up 3/4 of your wage and all that fun you had on your trips will only exist in your memories.

One suggestion though - your wife may be able to take a year sabatical from her post in the UK and you could both try it for a year. This will open your eyes better than anyone here could. You need to consider what you can do (legally) here too - rental income from you UK home could help lots too.

[Pauly45]

After living here for a while you will discover that some myths about this lovely country are not really true. Some people get really frustrated when they discover it is not all sunshine and happiness over here. Anyway good luck to you!

[skit]

Originally Posted by Pauly45

After living here for a while you will discover that some myths about this lovely country are not really true. Some people get really frustrated when they discover it is not all sunshine and happiness over here. Anyway good luck to you!

Hi all many thanks for all your info.We are still looking into comming to thailand and staying for 6 months as we have only been there for 1 month at a time. I think this would give us more of an insite to what living in thailand is all about.The only problem we have is our house over here in the uk we still need to pay our bills and being away for 6 months would be quite a bit of money to lose while wer'e away. Anyway hopefully we can get around this somehow. thanks again to all.

Scott and Emma

[oddball]

Originally Posted by skit

Hi all many thanks for all your info.We are still looking into comming to thailand and staying for 6 months as we have only been there for 1 month at a time. I think this would give us more of an insite to what living in thailand is all about.The only problem we have is our house over here in the uk we still need to pay our bills and being away for 6 months would be quite a bit of money to lose while wer'e away. Anyway hopefully we can get around this somehow. thanks again to all.

Scott and Emma

May i make a suggestion , if and when you come to Thailand for 6 months , only allow yourself the budget of a school teacher and experience what it can actually be like on that salary , you may find many things you find and enjoy in your present life style , are greatly curtailed . This should be the best guide you can get for a 'Real' feel of life in Thailand as it actually is and not percieved . Colin

[skit]

Hi Colin, many thanks for your reply. And a very good one to, i think will will take this on board. I certainly would not have done this as,i would of had probley a bit of extra spending money for them 6 months or so. So many thanks for your advice Scott And Emma.

[kingwilly]

Sorry I gotta intrude a little here.

If your wife is a trained teacher then she can work in international schools - most wages are between 100,000 baht -200,000 baht. not the 30,000 baht as mentioned for TEFL teachers.